Speech #960320911

Mr. President. this month the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights issued a report on immigration issues: "The Tarnished Golden Door: Civil Rights Issues in Immigration." I have found it valuable and useful in my study of immigration. and I commend it to my colleagues. There is only one issue on which the five Commissioners were not unanimous: employer sanctions laws. The Commission divided. in a 3to2 vote. and recommended against enacting employer sanctions laws by this slipht maiority. I would recommend that the thoughtful dissents of Vice Chairman Stephen Horn and Commissioner Frankie M. Freeman on this vitally necessary part of immigration law be read. Commissioner Freeman. in a strong dissent that calls recommendations against employer sanctions laws "unfortunate in that they are fashioned or false premises and totally ignore certain fundamental facts." writes: In following this approach the majorit3 would ignore the fact that employers whc knowingly hire undocumented aliens do sc not out of compassion for the oppressed. but out of simple greed. The majority would ignore the fact that their exploitation is made possible because the fear of detection and deportation prohibits undocumented aliens from protesting unsafe working conditions or wages below the minimum required by Federal law. Perhaps the most distressing aspect of the majoritys opinion is it ignores the reality that undocumented aliens tend to be concentrated in the lowest paying jobs and displace American racial and ethnic minorities who traditionally have been employed in those fields. Hispanic and black Americans .... While the plight of the oppressed throughout the world is central to the principles of any supporter of civil and human rights. it does not follow at all that the plight of the poor and oppressed of our own country should be ignored by the one agency that has traditionally championed their cause. [Page 147] Vice Chairman Horn. in calling both for employer sanctions and a secure social security card for employment purposes. writes: This Nation should be particularly concerned with the distressing working conditions in the lowskill. lowwage industries in which illegal aliens are employed and with the resultant denial of job experiences for our own citizens. It is a serious problem when entry level job experiences are denied to innercity youth because these jobs are increasingly occupied by illegal aliens subject to the exploitation and fear created by unscrupulous employers and sometimes connived in by labor unions. Some have argued that Americans will not fill lowstatus. lowwage jobs and therefore illegal aliens are necessary if the work Is to be done. That is simply untrue. Such "we need them and they are happy here" arguments were last heard to justify plantation slavery before the Civil War. [Pages 144145] The conditions described by Commissioner Freeman and Vice Chairman Horn are those that my Fair Hiring Amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Efficiency Act of 1980 are designed to remedy. Unfortunately. all press coverage of this report has focused on this one issue. The many sections of the report for which there was unanimous approval have not been given as much attention. Many recommendations of the report speak. in essence. to extension of all the legal rights and privileges of American citizens to all legal and illegal aliens in the United States. As Vice Chairman Horn comments: At times I have felt that some of our proposals. if enacted. should be best described as "the Immigration Attorneys Relief Act of 1980." [Page 146] But. aside from extending all legal privileges of Americans to all foreign nationals. there are many valuable recommendations made by the Commission. Some of them are controversial. and some of them are simple commonsense. I would like to present here a few of the highlights of the Commissions report. without necessarily endorsing all of the recommendations made. to give some indication of the breadth of the contribution made by the Commission on Civil Rights to the debate over immigration policy: [Page 18] Recommendation 2.1: Congress should amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to eliminate the percountry numerical limitations and the colonial quotas and provide for admission within the annual worldwide ceiling of 270.000 on a firstcome. firstserved basis in accord with the existing six preference categories. [Page 44] Recommendation 3.6: a. Congress should create a Border Management Agency within the Department of Treasury and then transfer the INS enforcement function to that agency. Such legislation would enable INS to concentrate all its resources on Its service activities and thereby provide the public with improved service. b. INS should also totally separate its service functions from its remaining enforcement activities. preferably by establishing more satellite offices. [Page 591 The Commission concludes. on balance. that it should be recognized that the presence of undocumented workers in the labor market does have an adverse impact on the opportunities for employment of a number of citizens and legal residents. The Federal Government. in the judgment of this Commission. should do everything possible to reduce significantly the number of undocumented workers in our domestic labor market. particularly in those areas where they have an adverse impact on the employment opportunities of citizens and legal residents. [Page 59] This Commission believes that our nation has the capacity of initiating a program of steppedup law enforcement in the immigration area and at the same time conducting it in such a manner as to protect the civil rights of all persons who may be the targets of such a program. [Page 731 Finding 5.2: The number of undocumented workers can be reduced by more effective immigration law enforcement. through the hiring of additional personnel and through the use of more modern law enforcement technology. such as computerized arrivaldeparture records. The Commission believes that such an improved law enforcement effort can be accomplished without the dilution of individual civil rights. Recommendation 5.2: The Congress should appropriate additional funds to the Department of Justice in order that the Immigration and Naturalization Service can more effectively enforce the Immigration laws by expanding its work force and having available more modern law enforcement technology. Mr. President. the Civil Rights Commission is rightly concerned about possible discrimination under employer sanctions laws.