Speech #970012510

Four major areas for immediate action come to mind. The first is a return of congressional control to this issue. Our recent history has shown that when Congress abandons its constitutional prerogatives in this area. the Executive has been unable to withstand the immense shortterm pressures for more immigration. Thus we must establish the kind of longrange. forwardlooking policies which we. through extensive debate and discussion. can establish far more efficiently than a beleaguered Executive. A second area is the need for more immigration law enforcement. Virtually everyone recognizes that the INS is badly managed and poorly funded. Yet. in this time of economic crisis. we cannot just offer a blank check. What we should do Is insure that budget changes which are made for INS give priority to immigration law enforcement over providing more service benefits to aliens. The protection of our citizens is far more important than granting benefits to aliens. Of course. more resources are not enough to insure better immigration law enforcement. Equally important is the leadership and commitment of the Department of Justice and the INS to immigration enforcement. We cannot guarantee those qualities by an action of this branch of government. but we should make our wishes known to the new administration. I noticed with some interest that Attorney General Smith. appearing recently before the House Judiciary Committee. heard from virtually every member of the panel on the need to move forcefully and quickly to help INS and enforce the immigration laws. The third major area of consensus on immigration reform is for the establishment of an absolute ceiling on immigration. That ceiling must be consistent with our own national interest. with consideration of. but not controlled by. worldwide pressures to immigrate here. Our own needs should determine our immigration policies and admission numbers. There should be no loopholes in the ceiling. but there should be sufficient flexibility to respond to emergency situations. Only with this kind of strong. firm congressional action can the President stand up to other nations and reqllire thom to share the burdens of controlling refugee and immigrant flows. Last year the Senate voted to establish a limit for fiscal year 1980. Now is the time to establish a ceiling for future years. The fourth area of immigration reform is to institute a prohibition against the knowing employment of illegal aliens. Unemployment is predicted to remain over 7 percent this year. Surveys find the average salary of apprehended illegal aliens last year was far above the minimum wage in many instances. in Los Angeles for example. the average wage of illegal aliens was $5.25 an hour. Estimates of the number of illegal aliens in this country go above 10 million. And those Americans displaced by immigrants are those who cost the Treasury the most. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in 1979 that each unemployed person costs the Treasury $7.000 a year. The primary attraction for illegal immigration is economic: jobs. The most effective way to control illegal immigration is to restrict access to American jobs. Many experts believe that a prohibition against the employment of illegal aliens. with sufficient powers of enforcement is the best available means to substantially reduce illegal immigration. I believe my proposals reflect these four areas of national consensus. I am introducing two bills. one primarily technical. making minor remedial reforms in the immigration laws in an effort to ease the burden of enforcement. and the other. the Immigration and National Security Act of 1981. which contains most of the substantive propositions I have discussed. I would like to thank my able cosponsors. and also the many immigration reform experts who helped form these concepts into practical proposals. The distinguished Senator from Florida. Senator CHILES. played a particularly important role in developing the strengthened asylum provisions. There are three maior elements in the Immigration and National Security Act of 1981. Mr. President. It provides first for more enforcement of the immigration laws. second. for a flexible ceiling on all immigration. and third. for a gradual introduction of an enforceable prohibition against the knowing employment of illegal aliens in American jobs. These proposals do not constitute a new immigration structure for the United States. they merely allow us to more rationally and purposefully plan for overall immigration reform. The immigration laws passed by Congress must be enforced. and American jobs must be protected. We can no longer tolerate statements like that given by a White House official during the Cuban boatlift who said. "we found it counterproductive to enforce the laws." We can no longer tolerate the Attorney General. as Mr. Civiletti did last year. banning enforcement of the immigration laws. and then resticting suplies to the TvS so severely that the Border Patrol ran out of gas. The second large area covered by the INS Act is a ceiling on immigration. The ceiling set forth is flexible enough to allow rapid reqponses to emergencies. yet firm. without loopholes that allow hundreds of thousands of persons unrestricted entry. Still. under this legislation. the United States will continue to be the most generous country in the world for immigration. but we recognize the need for some kind of absolute ceiling. We are setting the number higher than in most of our history. Our ceiling is higher than the average admissions for the last 70 years. and is far higher than the average yearly admissions for the period 192070. The level is even higher than the present statutory level. And it is the same as the 350.000 initial figure offered by the Select Commission. but without the loopholes. I do not agree with the 65 percent of those polled by the Gallup poll last year who want all immigration stopped until unemployment falls below 5 percent. I think we can continue with a large number. I think that number should be 350.000 admissions a year.