Speech #970006466

The distinguished chairman of the Judiciary Committee was in the Chamber. I know that he has a particular interest in this subject. The chairman of the subcommittee of the Judiciary that handles immigration. the distinguished Senator from Wyoming . has a very deep interest in this matter and has served on the Presidents Special Commission on Immigration. That Commission is about to wind up its work and undoubtedly will have some recommendations to make. I say to my colleagues that I am going to continue to work on this problem until we have some sensible. enforceable policies relating to immigration and refugee policy for our country. The time has come. and this is the year to do it. and I believe we can get it done this year. I point out that the figures I gave and the costs apply only to the Cubans. It does not include the 14.000 Southeast Asian refugees who come to this country every month as part of a program. We are spending well over $2 billion a yearprobably now $3 billion a yearon refugees. Much of this expenditure as I have pointed out. comes to us without our planning itit is dumped upon usand $532 million or $734 million. even in this day and time and even in the budgets we are talking about. is a substantial sum of money. There will be long arguments on this floor in the next few months and in the Appropriations Committee over whether to cut certain budgets by that amount.