Speech #970141287

Mr. President. the United States has been traditionally and remains the most generous Nation in the world in permitting immigration and in assisting and resettling refugees. This is as it should be. I fully support both the image and reality of a compassionate United States providing a home and new opportunity to those who seek to escape harsh and repressive political regimes. At the same time. we must consider the rights of our citizens already here. We must look at the illegal alien problem in the clear light of day. We must examine what has become of those large numbers of people legally permitted to immigrate to the United States. Last year alone 800.000 legal immigrants were admitted. Why do we continue to make a large number of exceptions to the legal immigration ceiling and why continue to condone an illegal alien population in the United States estimated by some at 10 million or more when the economic plight of our own poor and unemployed are frequent headlines? I have looked to the media for exampies of the real impact of our past and present policies. The Los Angeles Times in January 1982 reported "Beverly Hills Slavery Ring Is Uncovered." Thirty illegal aliens from Indonesia who authorities say were sold into slavery to people In Beverly Hills and Los Angeles have been taken into custody by Federal agents. The story goes on to say these illegal aliens were "sold as domestic workers for $1.500 to $3.000 each." A Washington Post headline in January stated "Four Maryland Employees Arrested as Illegal Aliens." This story puts a crimp in the myth that illegal aliens only take menial jobs no American wants. It leads off: Two Prince Georges County social workers. a Maryland prison guard. and a former guard have been arrested by Immigration and Naturalization Service agents and charged with being illegal aliens. The guards. who are from Nigeria. worked at the Maryland House of Corrections in Jessup. and the social workers. who are from Sierra Leone. were employed by the State Department of Social Services. Some believe our illegal alien problems are confined to a few large cities which represent pointsofentry for aliens. Let us look at a feature column by Mary Ann Esquivel from the Milwaukee Journal in January. entitled "Bad Times Plague Illegal Aliens." Ms. Esquivel sensitively describes the adverse living conditions common among undocumented workers in Milwaukee. Both employers and landlords take advantage of these people. A December 29 article in the Los Angeles Times was titled "Two Aliens Win Battle to Get Welfare." It goes on to explain: Two illegal aliensone a paraplegic and one agedTuesday won a Los Angeles Superior Court order granting them access to State welfare payments. From the Phoenix Gazette of December 9 comes the following headline. "Thirteen Suspected Aliens Arrested At Plant." Incredible as it seems. this plant is a nuclear reactor generating electricity. I quote. "Law enforcement officers searched the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station early today and arrested 13 suspected illegal aliens." The story states in a later paragraph. "Immigration officials said they believe the relatively February :.4. 1982 high wage scale. which begins at about $10.50 per hour. has attracted a large population of illegal workers." A December 12 article by Palmer Stacy in Human Events was titled "Uncontrolled Immigration: Silent Threat to America." It summarized many national problems intensified by recent overly permissive government policies. and cited a case "in a foundry in Elgin. Ill.. (where) the INS arrested 69 illegal aliens who earned between $4.50 and $13 an hour. Within hours. hundreds of local residents had applied for these Jobs. all of which were filled within 3 days." From the December 18 New York Times comes the headline "Moon Church Follower Agrees to Leave United States." This story from Akron. Ohio is neatly summarized in its first sentence: A 20yearold Australian woman. who came to the United States for a vacation but spent the last 14 months in the Rev. Sun Myung Moons Unification Church. agreed today to leave the country voluntarily rather than face deportation as an illegal alien. The Atlanta Journal ran an article on November 1 which estimated 2.000 "Moonies" are illegal aliens. The imposition of martial law in Poland last December has created a new wave of legitimate refugees. Our American immigration system is clogged and backlogged. Thousands of Poles who may qualify as legitimate refugees have found an ingenious but illegal solution as described in the December 23 Milwaukee Journal story. "Taking U.S. Vacations. Poles Work Here To Aid Families." It states: Polish visitors holding tourist visas have been working up to 70 hours a week In fac. tories in Brooklyn. Long Island. Chicago. and Buffalo. often at minimum wage. even though American law says foreign visitors cannot take jobs. Are these isolated instances of economic disruption and human suffering for illegal aliens who are both victim and catalyst? I think not. In the Winter 1982 issue of Harvard Political Review. Kirk Jenkins states: Most authorities believe two to three (illegal) immigrants successfully enter the United States for every one apprehended. Soaring rates of immigration in the last few years have engendered an additional set of problems. Newsweeks feature article for February 1 described those Haitian illegal aliens hopefully waiting for Government rulings which may grant them asylum in this country. The first two paragraphs vividly give a flavor of their life in the land of promise: Maxine PetitPrere is not alone. There are 2.177 Haitians currently in detention in the United States. at seventeen locations from subarctic New York State to sunny Puerto Rico. Many have been held for as long as 6 months. their only contact with the outside world an occasional phone call or letter. or an infrequent visit from a harried lawyer. The facilities holding them are usually extremely overcrowded. often underequipped. sometimes the Haitians say. they resemble nothing so much as concentration camps. The process of legally sorting out their claims. never designed for such an influx of Illegal aliens. has stretched beyond anyones expectationsand almost beyond its victims endurance. Immigration has placed a strain on social services and health facilities. A January 4 Washington Post article. "Third World Immigrants and TB: Spread of Lung Disease Traced to Asians and Latins". lists some astonishing figures: According to the Los Angeles County Health Department. the tuberculosis rate for blacks here fell 27.8 percent and for whites 44.1 percent from 1970 to 1980. In that same period. the tuberculosis rate for Hispanics Increased 66.3 percent and 219.3 percent for Asians from countries bordering the Pacific. The article adds: Health workers say cuts in health budgets and stiff registration rules have discouraged immigrants from seeking treatment for the disease. greatly increasing their chances of exposing other people. There are other stories of health problems among immigrant groups. On December 5. a New York Times headline read. "A Mysterious Illness Has Killed 38 Refugees From Southeast Asia". It explained: An unexplained affliction is killing Laotian refugees in the United States at an extremely high rate. striking its victims quickly and without warning while they sleep. the National Centers for Disease Control reported today. Then on December 27. a UPI story carried in the Arizona Republic began: FORT CHAFSE. Anx.-About half of the Cuban refugees who will be transferred soon from Arkansas to Montana need to be placed in mental institutions where they can be given longterm care. officials say. In recent months. press reports about crimes linked to immigrants have become Increasingly frequent. Some of these crimes may be attributed to cultural differences among the immigrant population. One example may be found in the following article from the New York Times of Decem. ber 20. "Poaching by Asian Refugees Frustrates Utah Authorities". SALT LAKS CZTY. Dec. 19.-Utah officials say Indochinese refugees are poaching everything from porcupines to woodpeckers. and exasperated game wardens are stumped on how to convince them they are doing wrong. James Ware. lawenforcement chief of the States Division of Wildlife Resources. said that the wardens had tried to help Vietnamese. Cambodian and Laotian refugees understand hunting and fishing laws but that language had been a barrier. The problem persists. Mr. Ware said. even though wardens have had fishing proclamations simplified and translated into the refugees native tongues. Sign language. interpreters and slide shows have also been inef. fective. he said. "These people have historically relied on wildlife for sustenance. primarily fishing." Mr. Ware said. -They rely on methods and techniques from their native countries to gather food. methods illegal In Utah." "Its just a cultural thing." he continued. "They are used to living off the land." About 6.500 Indochinese refugees were relocated in Utah. and many took up hunting and fishing. said Paul Woodbury. chief of law enforcement in northern Utah. where most of the problems have occurred. There has been an undeniable increase in violent crime as well. One small item under "Addenda" in the February 12 Washington Post stated "Police in Los Angeles have identified a LebaneseArmenian immigrant as a second suspect in the assassination of the Turkish consul general." Many recent headlines have dealt with violent crime resulting from immigration during the socalled "Freedom Flotilla" from Cuba in 1980. Under the headline "Castros Thugs Find a Home." the Arlington (Va.) Journal describes a murder and two armed robberies in northern Virginia attributed to Cuban refugees. On December 8. a Washington Post story was titled "Americas New Bandidos: Flotilla Toughs." This story stated: There Is bitterness in the Bronx and in New York City regarding the flotilla these days. In the last year. according to pliice. there have been an estimated 1.000 arrests in New York City of Cubans who came to this country in the Mariel.