Speech #960288296

By continuing to permit the existence of a large pool of relatively cheap and docile labor that takes jobs from the neediest Americans. we are also permitting a few greedy individuals to exploit them. If we truly believe in the rights of all workers. we will enact a system which protects the rights of domestic and foreign workers in this country. By continuing to permit the use of illegal immigrant labor. we are encouraging illegal immigration. and creating a larger problem for the future. By delay. we assure that the problems created by illegal immigrant labor will be even more unmanageable in years tu come. and solutions ever more difficult to find for a problem that could become completely intractable. If we doubt the impact of the estimated millions of illegal workers today displacing American workers. can we doubt the impact of twice that many in 5 or 10 years? The problem grows because illegal immigrants and their employers see that there is no penalty for the harm they do to American workers. The method I have chosen to assure fair hiring practices is one that is already being utilized successfully by the U.S. Department of Labor. The Farm Labor Contractor Registration Act prohibits farm labor contractors from knowingly "recruiting. employing or utilizing" illegal aliens. My amendment would simply make this prohibition applicable to all employers. However. in order to prevent possible disruption in some industries. it would only apply to individuals who are hired after the effective date of this act. This will permit us adequate time to make decisions on very controversial issues. such as amnesty. while discouraging the flow of new illegal aliens. Further. this amendment would not include any of the registration requirements now in FLCRA. The attractiveness of this proposal is that we know that it works. It has been in Federal law since 1974. During that time. a handful of Labor Department officials have found thousands of illegal aliens and have discouraged the hiring of countless others by assessing civil money penalties amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. This same success can be carried out on a broader scale with the commitment of the appropriate resources. I urge my colleagues to give speedy and careful consideration to this fair hiring amendment.