Speech #960270673

The fact of the matter is that the gentleman from New York has offered a very important amendment. It is important to the country economically. and it is also important to the question of human rights. As Chair of the Subcommittee on Immigration. Refugees and International Law. I can tell my colleagues that we held 3 days of oversight hearings on the operation of the Immigration Service and border patrol. on the question of the entry of illegal aliens. and on the question of violence on the border. and we found two things. First. that you cannot completely solve the problem of entry of illegal aliens solely by increasing the number of border patrol personnel. but you can substantially limit the number of people coming. and. second and equally important. that the underfunding of the border patrol has led directly to an increased level of violence. violations of civil and human rights. and brutality on the border. We heard testimony about instances in which there were injuries and deaths. Do we really need to have a repetition of such incidents? We had testimony from the U.S. attonney from San Diego. who spoke eloquently before the subcommittee about the problem of violence on the border. He noted that just having twoperson patrols instead of oneperson patrols could dramatically and drastically limit the level of violence on the border. Although these twoperson patrols have finally been set up. it has resulted in reducing the overall number of border patrol men and women on the border. There is really no question that we do not have enough people patrolling the border right now. that OMB has improperly refused to fill the positions that Congress authorized and for which it appropriated funds. and that an increase such as the gentleman from New York has proposed would make an important difference in terms of effective. decent and humane enforcement of the law on the border. I also strongly support the 91 position increase in the immigration inspection force contemplated by the amendment. According to the airline industry. since 1975 we have experienced an increase of 110 percent in international arrivals at our airports while in the same period the number of inspection personnel has only increased by less than 40 percent. In 1979 over 27 million people came into the United States through our airports. and all indications are that foreign air travel will continue to increase. Favorable currency exchange rates for the dollar. deregulations of the airlines. and the comparatively lower prices in the United States have prompted foreigners to come to our shores in greater and greater numbers. The economic advantage to our country in promoting tourist travel is obvious. and it certainly will not help to have needed visitors waiting in lines and even on aircraft for hours awaiting immigration inspections. The additional 91 positions called for in this amendment will help relieve congested airports in New York. Los Angeles.