Speech #970223893

Mr. President. before coming to this body last year. I was a Member of the other body for 6 years. and as a Member of that body I was never on any of the committees that dealt with the immigration issue. As an outsider looking in. I always was asking. as my constituents in my State were asking me. "Why cant this iegal immigration problem be solved? Why cant we protect our borders? Why can we not regulate the flow of people in and out of our country?" I have to say that. as a Member of the other body. not being involved with the committees dealing with this legislation. I was one of those who asked those questions. expecting immediate answers. and wondering why there was not an immediate solution. Then. having come to this body and having been appointed to the Judiciary Committee and the Immigration Subcommittee. and for a year and a half now dealing with this issue. with the experience and the Indepth view I have had as a member of this subcommittee. I can say that I have those questions answered now. not only for myself but also for my constituentsthat this is probably one of the most complicated issues I have ever been involved with in my 24 years of public service8 years in Congress and 16 years in the State legislative bodies. It is an issue that cuts across all economic and philosophical bounds and brings together an odd assortment of people of philosophical backgrounds in favor of this legislation. and brings together a diverse group in opposition to this legislation. Approximately 30 years have passed since the last major reform of the U.S. immigration policy. The time has arrived to undergo this painful process again. Theodore H. White recently described in his book "America In Search of Itself." the situation America finds itself in resulting from our current set of chaotic complicated immigration laws. I quote from the book: One starts with the obvious: That the United States has lost one of the cardinal attributes of sovereigntyit no longer controls its own borders. Its Immigration laws are flouted by aliens and citizens alike. as no system of laws has been flouted since prohibition. And the impending transformation of our Nation. its culture. and its ethnic herItage could become one of the central debates of the politics of the 1980s. I think one can see from that. this debate has already begun. and let us hope that S. 2222 is just the first step in the reformation process. Though most Americans currently residing in the United States owe their presence here to the open door immigration policies of the past. perpetuation of the myth that this country is one without limits can only prove harmful in the long run. Technology is 1 of the major reasons why todays immigration phenomenon is entirely different from the immigration waves of the past. As Mr. White continued to explain: ... The earlier immigrants from Europe spent weeks trekking to ports. and then more weeks in the steerage of tramp steamers. to reach the promised land. A modern immigrant can be here in three or four hours from any airport from the Caribbean. in fifteen hours from Asia.... It once took years of work and savings for an honest man to buy passage for his family to join him. Now. after six months. a diligent immigrant can afford air passage for all the rest of his family. The result has been a stampede. almost an invasion. America currently accepts over twice as many legal immigrants as the rest of the world combined. This does not include the estimated 3 million to 6 million aliens illegally in the country. Control of our borders is essential in order to protect U.S. citizens from a continued high unemployment rate and to foster a reliance on our laws and respect for our laws by those outside our country who wish to reside here. Elected officials who loudly claim that illegal immigration is not a problem for this country are not only deluding themselves but doing a disservice to the Americans they represent. The illegal population estimate to which I just referred was first enunciated in the report of the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy. It is a generally held view that approximately 500.000 people have continued to enter this country each year since that estimate was made. bringing the figures closer to between 6 million and 10 million. I fail to understand how anyone can perceive an everincreasing population of this size to have little if any impact upon American life. The current unemployment rate of 9.8 percent and the impact illegal immigration has on that rate cannot be ignored. This impact is demonstrated by INSs Operation Jobs. conducted in nine major cities. which freed up over 54.000 jobs. INS conducted a random survey soon after the operation was completed which indicated that 73 percent of those vacancies created were filled later by legal workers. Though some newspaper accounts stated that 30 to 80 percent of those aliens apprehended returned to the same job. it is unequivocally clear that Americans are being displaced by illegal workers. As Senator SIMPSON indicated in his Tuesday editorial to the New York Times. if only 2 percent of the illegal alien population held jobs that unemployed Americans would take. this would result in a saving of $490 to $840 million in unemployment benefits and public assistance. If 1 million Americans are being displaced. it is estimated that $7 to $9 billion would be realized in aid savings. Not only that. but those 30 to 80 percent who allegedly returned to their jobs would be unable to do so if this legislation is passed. If the illegal flow was substantially curtailed. not only would the effects on current unemployment rates be immediate. but also the future American employment atmosphere would be greatly enhanced. Sylvia Ann Hewlett in her article on coping with illegal immigration accurately describes the situation we will be facing in the not too distant future if the economic conditions in predominately sending countries persist. I quote a passage from her article: The pressures that will make for an accelerating inflow (in the absence of tighter controls) are fairly obvious and stem from the inability of many Third World countries to absorb their rapidly expanding populations into productive. decently paid occupations. The worlds population was about four billion in 1975 and will reach approximately 6.4 billion by the year 2000.