Speech #960338161

I congratulate the gentleman for reconsidering the endorsement of this section of the bill which includes his amendment. I. too. agree with some of the other gentlemen in saying that the census has been taken. There is nothing that was present on that form that would indicate who was an alien. who was an illegal alien. who was a legal alien. and who the people actually are. So I think it would be unfair at this particular time to go forward in that effort. I do. though. however. reserve the right to ask for a separate vote. which I did in the Committee on Rules yesterday. on this particular section because I think at this point in time we cannot just delete it. This section is a committee amendment and will have to be voted on. At the proper time I will offer that kind of amendment. First let me state unequivocably that I do not believe illegal aliens should be included in census figures for purposes of reapportionment or any other reason. other than solely for statistical data. However. in an effort to resolve the problem of illegal aliens in census figures this amendment will cause much more harm than good. This is not the first time this amendment has been offered and I am sure my colleagues have heard most of the arguments on both sides of the issue. but If the House will bear with me I would like to restate several key points. First. The passage of this amendment will not result in the deletion of any illegal aliens from census figures but in fact will exclude legal aliens. There are literally thousands upon thousands of legal aliens that have emigrated to the United States and have registered legally. In most cases only a short period away from citizenship. Under this amendment the Census Bureau could easily check their data and delete these names. Some of these people. since filling out census forms. are now citizens. In regard to illegal aliens that have been counted. there is nothing included on the census form which requires you to state whether you are an illegal or legal alien. Even if there had been. who would identify themselves as an illegal alien? Under this amendment illegal aliens that did fill out census forms. and I feel sure that is not too many. could be counted as citizens of the United States. The point here is that there is no logical way of identifying illegal aliens in this country using the census mechanism. Second. The Constitution requires an enumeration of the entire population every 10 years.