Speech #960288296

However. there axe other reasons which are just as compelling. A rapidly expanding population will place substantial strains on the economy and society of the United States. A substantial number of demographers believe that the United States has one of the fastest growing populations of any industrial country if illegal immigration is included. The House Select Committee on Population reported that legal and illegal immigration account for 25 percent to 50 percent of our annual population growth. This uncontrolled rapid population growth may have dire consequences for the United States because of the demand it places upon scarce natural resources.. energy. governmental services. housing and food. Further. it will substantially contribute to our urban congestion and pollution. In essence. it can mean a declining standard of living for all of us in the years to come. There is little hope that immigration pressure on the United States will decline in the near future. Presently. there are 4.5 billion people in the world and this number is growing at the rate of at least 192.000 per day or 70 million a year. These numbers will produce about 900 million new people for the world labor force over the next 20 years. Mexico. which is responsible for about 30 percent of our illegal immigration. will see its population double by the year 2000. Already droughts and crop failures in Mexico are driving many Mexicans to cross the border. With an unemployment and underemployment rate which already extends well into the doubledigit range. the United States is certain to experience increased immigration pressures. There are several questions we must face in this regard. Is the United States going to continue to allow foreign countries to export their excess populations and unemployed to this country? How high must our own unemployment rate go before we take decisive steps to enforce our immigration laws effiectively as other countries do? As elected officials. who are we more concerned aboutan unemployed worker from Mexico. or one from New York? There is increasing evidence that there are thorns hidden among the roses for the countries exporting surplus labor. A study released by the Worldwatch Institute indicates that many exporting countries are experiencing shortages of skilled laborers which interferes with some of the most dynamic sectors in their economies. The loss of manual workers and lowlevel whitecollar workers is resulting in a "brawn" drain in addition to the traditional brain drain of welleducated immigrants from developing countries to the United States. In the long run I believe that we are probably encouraging the continued high flow of illegal immigrants by draining off some of the brightest and most ambitious workers in underdeveloped comtries. A shortage of skilled workers will hamper the economic development of less developed countries which would provide more jobs for their growing populations. There is another myth about illegal immigration which does not stand up to the facts. Some would have us believe that illegal immigrants are not a drain on our economy because illegal immigrants do not use governmental services for fear of being detected and deported. The facts do not support this idea. David North found in a recent study that: "In the first quarter of calendar year 1979. the Department of Public Social Services (of Los Angeles County) . . . reported that it identified and denied benefits to 3.453 illegal alien applicants. an average of more than 1.000 a month. Since such cases cost about $175.000 a month. and generally last about 19 months. the savings generated by this Los Angeles County process. in a year. total about $46.000.000. If the programs are as tightly run in the other counties of California as the one In Los Angeles County . . . something on the order of $100.000.000 a year is now being saved. The 3.453 illegal immigrants represented 21 percent of the aliens applying for welfare services during that period of time. A study by Maurice D. Van Arsdol. Jr. found that 37.3 percent of the sampled illegal immigrants had not only used public hospitals. but still owed hospital bills at the time of the survey. This figure is supported by a March 1979 HEW report which was unable to refute allegations by nine hospitals located in five States that losses totaling about $62 million in 1976 were attributed to illegal immigrants. Another myth is that illegal immigrants pay more than their share of U.S. taxes through withholding by the employer. Tax records do not sustain this belief. In 1974. the Internal Revenue Service conducted a test program which indicated a high frequency of tax noncompliance among apprehended illegal immigrants. A report by an IRS study team in 1978 found that illegal immigrants are not only nonfilers. but that many work completely "offthebooks." Offthebooks means that earnings are concealed by exclusion from tax records. contributing to the persistently increasing "underground economy" of untaxed. unrecorded funds. The IRS report projects that the income of illegal immigrants who are nontax filers amounts to between $5 and $6.5 billion annually. Evidence of this loss of revenue is further found in instructions in the IRS manual on how employers and illegal aliens avoid Federal tax obligations. The manual points out: Many aliens also claim excessive exemptions. since they are aware that by doing so they will receive larger takehome amounts. Determining taxable income Is sometimes difficult since many employers pay in cash and do not withhold. The employers do not enter the alien on payroll records and. as a result. wage information is sketchy or nonexistent. It is obvious from this that there are many ways to avoid paying taxes and that illegal immigrants who flout our immigration laws are just as willing to flout our tax laws. Presently there is no reason why the Congress cannot move ahead with this bill to curb the employment of illegal immigrants. Although the Select Commission on Immigration and Refuge Policy will not complete its final report until next year. this is not viewed as a reason for Congress to delay acting on important immigration legislation. Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall. a Commission member. stated on December 2. 1979 thatWe do not need to wait for the Commission . . . to penalize employers who hire illegal immigrants. to improve enforcement. Tls approval of legislative action on immigration issues was strongly voiced by the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Kennedy. when he stated on the floor of the Senate 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 already a broad consensus on the need to act. pending the report of the Select Comission in 1981. With unemployment expected to rise to 9 percent in 1980. no one can seriously claim that the influx of millions of illegal immigrant workers is not a "pressing immigration issue." Nor can anyone allege that there is not "a broad consensus on the need to act." A Gallup poll in 1977 favored legislation providing fair hiring procedures by 6 to 1. During that same year. a Roper poll found that 91 percent of the people agreed that the United States should make an "allout effort to stop illegal entry." The Library of Congress has found that there are now 11 States which have statutes that. in effect. are fair hiring procedures. These States are: California.