Speech #960293668

Mr. Chairman. I. rise to oppose the amendment. offered by my colleague from Pennsylvania which as he states has the express intention of excluding illegal aliens from the official census report filed with this House which is in turn used by the States in determining reapportionment. I express my opposition notwithstanding my own long struggle to have legislation enacted which would have slowed the relentless influx of illegals into this Nation. Throughout the past 8 years. various proposals have been introduced aimed at strengthening our border patrol capacities and making it a crime to hire illegal aliens. Unfortunately. none of this legislation has passed. Consequently. we are faced with the realities of an illegal alien population estimated to be anywhere between 8 and 10 millilon persons. It is essential for the census to take them into acount for two reasons. The first is to help hardpressed States and localities receive necessary amounts of Federal aid to help them recoup the losses they incurred in providing services to illegals. Second. illegal aliens must be factored into the report which determines the makeup of congressional districtsfor without themcertain districts would suffer artificially severe population decreases thus shifting the entire complexion of this body. The point has been raised and rather effectively I might add that there have been ample opportunities over the past few years to address this concernyet no move was made. Now we find ourselves threatened with an amendment which if adopted could almost negate the entire census effort.