Speech #970073340

Employers could then verify the authenticity of such cards just as merchants now do in the course of credit card sales transactions. It has been estimated that such a card system would cost about $300 million-$3 per card for each of our countrys 100 million workers. That is a significant investment. but in light of the billions of dollars that illegal immigration costs our country. and in light of the untold social. economic. and political strains that the growing flood of illegal immigration imposes on our society. this would be a very wise investment indeed. There are those who have reservations concerning the civil liberties implications of such a system. but why would a forgeryresistant card pose any greater threat to civil liberties than the easily counterfeited social security card we already require our workers to hold? Other Western democracies such as France and West Germany. already have such systems in place with no adverse effects on the rights and liberties of the card holders. Moreover. it would not be necessary to establish an identification system for all of our citizens and legal aliens. We need only identify workersnot the elderly. not the infirm. not the very young. not women who do not work outside the homejust workers. Only with such a reliable worker identification program in place can we hope to control the influx of millions of illegal aliens whom we have been unable to assimilate or absorb into the mainstream of American life. The alternative is a continued strain of huge proportions on our job market. on social services. and on the scarce resources which we have a moral obligation to employ for the benefit of our own poor and disadvantaged citizens. This Nation is indeed a nation of immigrants. Over the centuries. new waves of immigrants have sustained and enriched our national life. A reasonable. measured. and carefully controlled program of legal immigration continues to be in the best interests of our country and in the best traditions of our society. but the current flood of illegal immigration is simply intolerable. The Presidents new immigration policy contains elements which are a major improvement over existing policy. Chief among these is its emphasis on hardening our borders and making them real. Unfortunately. that borderhardening effort is doomed to failure unless we accompany it with an employer sanction program tough enough and effective enough to shut off the job magnet and thus to lessen the attractiveness of illegal immigra-