Speech #970224000

President. I want to commend the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. in particular the distinguished chairman. Senator SImPsoN. for their work in bringing to the Senate floor the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1982. S. 2222. No one can deny that consideration of immigration law reform is long overdue. In the last 5 years. total legal permanent admissions to the United States increased from a little over 450.000 in 1976 to 800.000 in 1980. In addition. the population of illegal immigrants residing in the United States at any one time has been estimated at between 3.5 and 6 million. Some experts have estimated a net growth of 500.000 new illegal immigrants per year since then. Apprehensions of illegal aliens. one measure of the flow of illegal immigrants. grew from 162.000 in 1967 to more than 1 million in 1977. Perhaps the most important part of S. 2222 is title I which addresses the problem of illegal immigration. Its key provision makes it unlawful for an employer to knowingly hire an illegal alien. a measure I have long supported. All independent. comprehensive studies of the problem of illegal immigration. including those by the previous two administrations. the present administration and the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy. have concluded that adequate enforcement of our immigration laws cannot be achieved by direct enforcement alone. It is. therefore. essential to reduce the incentives to persons who enter this country illegally. S. 2222 takes the very necessary step of prohibiting the knowing employment of undocumented aliens. The bill also provides for increased border patrol and other enforcement activities. Legal immigration control is also addressed by S. 2222. The bill puts an overall limit on legal immigration and reforms existing preference categories for both family reunification and independent immigrants. I have reservations about the proposed changes in the family reunification preferences. I intend to support amendments to reinstate the fifth preference category for unmarried brothers and sisters of adult citizens. and to retain second preference status for adult unmarried sons and daughters of permanent residents. I do. however. believe we should have an overall limit on legal immigration. Obviously. there is no way this country can accommodate all persons who wish to immigrate here. The everincreasing numbers of persons who wish to immigrate demand that we establish some limit. This bill takes a reasonable approach by not specifically limiting the number of immediate relatives that may be admitted under the first preference but does put a limit on total legal immigration with the exception of refugees who are admitted under a separate admissions system authorized by the Refugee Act of 1980. Last. the bill provides for legalization of undocumented aliens already in this country within certain limitations. I support this part of the bill as the only solution to a serious problem. Legalization has three major goals: First. not to expend the efforts of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in locating and deporting those aliens who have settled in this country. second. to allow currently economically dependent employers to continue lawfully employing this pool of labor. and third. to eliminate this subclass of people who have little or no rights or protection under our laws. I am. however. concerned about the projected costs of the legalization program to not only the Federal Government. but State and local government as well. I have several other concerns about the bill and possible amendments to it. I do not support the amendment that will be offered to place refugees under the same numerical ceiling with other legal immigrant categories and intend to speak at more length when it is offered. I am also concerned about the elimination of judicial review of asylum class actions and the potential for discrimination against minority groups and will give close and careful review to amendments offered to address these concerns. On balance.