Speech #970042786

He has said that anyone who is under color of law will be entitled to legal services. Anyone under color of law was determined by this body in 1977 in the debate over the Food Stamp Act to be too vague and too ambiguous to be in the law. There had been that terminology used in the Food Stamp Act previous to that and there had been a number of court decisions rendering that virtually useless in determining illegal aliens. It is my opinion that under this particular provision. if my substitute is amended by the effort of the gentleman from New York. there will be many illegal aliens besides those who I am concerned about in Florida who will be allowed to have legal services and there will be many ways in the court system to get around and to skirt the problem. In 1977 in the Food Stamp Actthe law I traced and tracked when I drafted my substitutevisitors were excluded. foreign students were excluded from food stamps. many other people who were called nonimmigrant aliens were excluded from the right to receive benefits in this country because they were not citizens. There was a very logical pattern for that as there is in this case when we talk about any service. legal services. food stamps. whatever it may be.