Mr. President. recent newspaper reports have indicated that the Reagan administration is inclined to take the easy way out on the issue of illegal aliens. According to those reports. the Presidents advisers are recommending that the United States try to halt the flow of millions of illegal aliens into this country by relying on an employeremployee affidavit to prevent the employment of illegal aliens. While this approach would be a good initial step as we are phasing in a more secure verification system. it would not be practical or effective as the only means of discouraging the employment of illegal aliens. Yesterday the Washington Post ran an editorial which in essence agreed that we need some other means. The Post stated: Without relying on some fair. accurate and simple means of distinguishing legal migrants from the illegals. proper enforcement of immigration laws becomes hopeless. Therefore. the test of any administrations determination to confront the problem seriously beomes a willinness to devise some national identifier. the most commonly mentioned being a counterfeitresistant Social Security card. I cannot agree more with the editor of the Post. or should I say that the editor could not agree more with me. Approximately 4 months ago I introduced a major immigration bill. S. 776. which incorporated the use of a counterfeitresistant social security card for the purpose of preventing the employment of illegal aliens. I thank the Post for the endorsement of this concept and ask unanimous consent that the editorial be printed in the RECORD.
Keywords matched
immigration migrants illegal aliens