Speech #960255081

Raspberrys words. The cash which we have expended in carrying out our generosity is unprecedented in its amount. The taxpayers of this country have spent billions of dollars for refugee assistance and the cost keeps increasing instead of going down. In effect. we have created one of the greatest entitlement programs in the history of this country. An economically oppressed individual has only to present himself in this country and if he does not qualify for the many existing programs. there is an immediate rush to create new ones. The administration has not yet determined that the 114.000 Cuban immi.grants qualify as refugees under the Refugee Act reeently passed by Congress. However. this did not deter the administration from finding a way to create another huge assistance program. The creative means utilized was the disaster relief statute. Although it was congressional intent that this act apply to natural disasters only. such as floods. tornados and the like. a quick interpretation of the law made it applicable to an immigration problem. The result is that the administration will ask for about $400 million in supplemental disaster funds to care for the Cuban and Haitian immigrants for the next 4 months. However. this is not the end of the matter. The administration will be back next year for more money to resettle these people. Even if they are not declared to be refugees under existing law. we are faced with the fact that they are present in this country and probably will not be required to leave. This means that they will need the same type of assistance which has been provided to other refugees. Estimates made before the new wave of Cuban immigrants arrived revealed that the American taxpayers would spend over $1.7 billion on refugee assistance in fiscal year 1980 and this would increase to $2.1 billion in fiscal year 1981. At that time. the Senate Budget Committee believed that there would be 435.000 refugees receiving Federal assistance in 1981. Within the period of a few weeks. these unprecedented figures have been outdated. We now face the prospect of refugee assistance exceeding $2 billion in fiscal year 1980. Since this welfare assistance does not terminate quickly. we can expect to see the projected $2.1 billion figure substantially increase in fiscal year 1981. Unfortunately. this is not the only cost involved. The Congressional Budget Office has reported that each percentage point increase in unemployment costs the Federal Treasury $29 billion. This is because assistance programs increase and tax receipts decrease as unemployment moves up. The impact of uncontrolled immigration on this budget cost will be adverse. The Presidents Interagency Task Force on Immigration Policy concluded last year that during an economic downswing such as the one we are now in. immigration will exacerbate unemployment and lower wages. Further. the HEW Inspector General reported in January that refugees are competing for jobs in high unemployment areas. The net result is that immigrants either take jobs which will cost the Federal Treasury money. or they require welfare. The United States. for all its generosity. cannot accept all the people oppressive regimes want to be rid of. We must understand that the last country to send refugees in massive number will not be Vietnam. or Cambodia. or Haiti. or Cubathat the potential immigrants to the United States are beyond counting. But we are not limitless in our resources. or in our ability to accept refugees and immigrants. We must regain control of our immigrant. just as other countries have done. The American people are becoming increasingly more concerned about the failure of the Congress and the administration to deal effectively with uncontrolled immigration. All of the polls show that they support limitations and that they want them now. For example. the Associated PressNBC poll last week showed that 74 percent of the American people believe our refugee policies are badly confused and 86 percent want limits on immigration. A Roper poll just released this week shows that 22 percent believe we should accept no more Cuban immigrants and 61 percent believe we have already accepted too many. Mr. President. the people of this country want the Congress to act to regain control of immigration and my amendment will start us on the road in that direction. My amendment would simply place a ceiling on total immigration for fiscal year 1980 of 650.000. Although I personally believe that this is too high as a normal immigration limit. I chose this number because I believed it represented a fair compromise. It would. in effect. allow the United States to meet the immigration and refugee admission level that was anticipated before the recent Cuban influx and discourage any additional admissions. My amendment would accomplish a number of things. First. it would establish a comprehensive immigration level which is not now a part of our immigration policy. By doing this. we will be forced to come to grips with all the implications of immigration. instead of continuing to separate the various aspects of it as though they are not related. Whether you call an individual a vis immigrant. refugee. or an applicant foi asylum. he or she still represents an addition to this countrys populatior which will place various demands upor our economy and society. Discussing immigration in terms of a total figure puts the issue in greater perspective. It iE much easier to see that a limit of 650.00C immigrants is the same as adding a city the size of San Francisco to the United States every year. A city of this population generates many problems of its own in addition to the unique problems which are associated with immigration. Second. my amendment would establish a compassionate and reasonable limitation. It is more than double the statutory quota for refugees and regular immigrants. now standing at 320.000 per year. Those admitted beyond this quota do so through a series of loopholes or a Presidential decree to exceed the 50.000 per year quota for refugees. By way of comparison. Australia only admitted 456.000 immigrants during the years 1972 through 1976. Further. the cumulative resettlement efforts of the rest of the world for Indochinese refugees as of January 31. 1980. was 432.749. while we alone resettled 303.276. The first figure also includes 254.000 resettled by the Peoples Republic of China. I do not believe that anyone can reasonably argue that the United States has not done more than its fair share. Third. my amendment will not interfere with the work of the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy. Instead it will give congressional guidance to that Commission which is already seriously considering a total immigration proposal. This amendment would only apply for the rest of fiscal year 1980. the Commission is not scheduled to issue its final report until March of 1981. We also have seen from experience that Congress does not have to wait for the Commission before enacting major immigration legislation. The Refugee Reform Act of 1980 was passed during the time the Commission was in operation. On Tuesday of this week. the Senate Judiciary Committee ordered reported another major piece of immigration legislation. S. 1763. which will create additional loopholes in our immigration laws. It is expected that this bill as reported would increase immigration next year by about 70.000. In defense of the right of Congress to act on immigration matters. the distinguished chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Senator KENNEDY. stated on September 6. 1979: The existence of the Select Commission must not mean that Congress should stand idle on pressing immigration issues. it must not be an excuse for delaying consideration of urgent. remedial immigration reforms. The Judiciary Committees should not ignore legislative proposals in the immigration field. for which there Is a broad consensus on the need to act. pending the report of the Select Commission in 1981. Mr. President.