Speech #970012510

Today. I come to offer some solutions. Today I am offering specific proposals. not as a complete reform of our immigration system. but as a sorely needed way of insuring that our immigration problems do not continue to grow worse as we move forward on this problem. The United States faces rapid acceleration of its immigration problems in the future. I hope to stop. or at least slow that momentum. Having conferred with many experts in this field. including the distinguished Senator from Wyoming. the chairman of the newly reinstituted Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Policy. I feel that we now have an opportunity to move on this issue. We must seize this chance for action and do something about immigration this year. I have reviewed the report of the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy. The report is incomplete. It avoids some areas of intense controversy. and in other areas. does not reflect the feelings of the majority of American people. It is based far too much on what aliens want and not enough on what Americans need. However. the report does have some useful conclusions. The Commission recognized that the United States cannot become a "land of unlimited immigration." Father Theodore Hesburgh. the Chairman of the Commission. echoed my assessment of the situation in declaring that illegal immigration is "out of control." And the Commission recommended some useful actions. It said that the Immigration and Naturalization Service should be administratively improved. and that it should be given adequate resources to do its job. It recommended that the immigration laws be enforced. reversing the nonenforcement pattern of the last few years. It recommended that knowing employment of illegal aliens be prohibited. and that some system of more secure worker identification be instituted to assist employers. And it recommended against a massive new guest worker program. recognizing that minor improvements in present programs would be sufficient for virtually all areas. Overall. however. the Commissions recommendations were not helpful. The Commission recommended increasing the legal quotas for immigration by twothirds and further increasing the loopholes for entry outside the quotas. If these recommendations had been followed in 1980. our legal immigration would have been almost 1 million. Surveys indicate overwhelming public sentiment against such huge immigration levels. A 1980 Gallup poll found more than 80 percent of those polled wanted legal immigration brought below 400.000. The Commission -also recommended that millions of illegal aliens now in the United States be given amnesty and permanent resident status. There was no assessment of the impact of adding millions of eligible people to the food stamp. social security. and welfare rolls. or of their impact on the unemployment rate. The only saving feature of this recommendation is that the Commission recommended that the amnesty be delayed until increased enforcement measures were instituted. The Commission was silent on some of the toughest issues we face. What should the United States do if huge numbers of foreign citizens. including hundreds of criminals. again appear on our shores? What kind of identification or authorization system is practical to use to enforce prohibitions against employing illegal aliens? How can Congress regain its historical control over immigration and reverse the recent trend of transferring power to the Executive? We are still left with many unanswered questions that must be addressed immediately. In a few years the problem will be worse than it is today. We no longer decide which or how many immigrants we shall take. our immigration decisions are made in Havana. Hanoi. Tehran. and in a hundred other foreign cities. Other nations force us to take criminals. terrorists. and people we will have to support for the rest of their lives. No other country in the world would tolerate such insults. yet we seem powerless to do anything about them. One of the reasons we got into this mess is a dramatic. but unnoticed shift in our immigraton policy 16 years ago. The 1965 amendments to the immigratilon laws are often justly cited as having removed racism from our immigration policy. But they had a more pernicious effect as well. They shifted our immigration system from one in which we chose who and how many to admit to the United States. to a system in which anyone who arrives here can stay. unless we can find some explicit reason to exclude or deport them. We have made immigration to the United States a new "right" allegedly held by anyone in the world. Skyrocketing immigration since that time has been the logical and predictable result. Our own citizens know that this policy is wrong. and they are calling for action. For years national opinion polls have been reflecting how united the American people are on this issue. We all know how hard it is to get a consensus on any comprehensive policy. Yet. in both 1977 and 1980 the Roper poll found 91 percent of the American people wanted "an allout effort to stop illegal immigration." Eighty percent wanted legal immigration reduced below 400.000 a year. Last year Gallup found that 72 percent supported a prohibition against the knowing employment of illegal aliens. We cannot ignore this unified sentiment any longer. Yet there are those who believe that admitting unlimited numbers of persons to this country is a humanitarian goal. There are those who worry about discrimination or renewed racism in immigration decisions. There are those who say that we are a Nation of immigrants and we must continue to take all of those who want to come here because we did so at the turn of this century. There are those who see immigrants. legal and illegal. as a source of cheap and uncomplaining labor. There are even some who claim that illegal immigrants are the salvation of the social security system. ignoring the fact that there is no bar to illegal aliens receiving social security benefits once they reach the age of eligibility or become disabled. But none of these excuses justify continued inaction on this issue. We are not going to solve our problems by delay. We cannot take everyone in the world who either wants to come here or who is dissatisfied with conditions in another country. No matter how successful a reindustrialization of America may be. and I hope it will be successful. we just do not have enough resources to support the worlds excess population in our 50 States. Conditions have changed since the turn of the century. when we allowed free immigration. Resources are more scarce. labor is more expensive. and our country has many more people than in 1910. Yet in 1980 we took in more immigrants. both legal and illegal. than in any year in our history. We cannot let the policies of the 1900s guide our immigration decisions any more than we can let the transportation policy of that day guide our space program. And to those claiming unlimited immigration is a humanitarian necessity for this country. let me point out that it is far better that we make our policy decisions now. in whatever calm reflection we can manage. Otherwise. we face the specter of a massive backlash. as many of our people turn against all immigrants. We have seen growing resentment over the privileges and assistance given to refugees and new immigrants. In Texas. Colorado. and Florida that resentment has turned to violence. If we avoid thoughtful action now. that resentment may grow to the point where cries to cut off all immigration become overwhelming. But by acting now. we can move ahead to formulate immigration policy rationally and with an eye toward keeping this the most generous country in the world for immigration. And we are the most generous country in the world. we take more immigrants than all other nations combined. I know of no one legitimately involved in immigration reform who wants to cut off immigration entirely. and my proposals do not suggest -that. but we must set some limits on our generosity. It is where we set those limits. how they are enforced. and how they are to be structured that are the important decisions which have to be made. So let us.