Speech #970224422

I have been listening with interest to the debate. I heard the statement of the distinguished Senator from Missouri. I heard him say we should not pit these two proud groups of people against each other. the refugees and those people who are seeking to come in as immigrants. Who represents the proud people in my State? Who keeps them from being pitted against each other when they are deluged with people who have been coming in because we have not had an immigration policy in this country? Some have said refugees do not belong in this bill. I thought half of this bill covered illegal aliens. and trying to deal with them. We looked at what to do about amnesty for some who were already here. we are trying to do something about work certification. we are trying to do something about speeding up the determination of whether a person is entitled to political asylum or not. I thought the other half of the bill dealt with legal immigration. Now. if refugees do not intend to become immigrants. if they do not intend to become citizens in this country. then they do not belong in this bill. But if refugees are going to become citizens. if they are going to become permanent residents. where else should they be but in this bill? We are talking about an annual cap on immigration. For the first time. we are talking about trying to put an annual ceiling in place. If the number in that ceiling is wrong because we have refugees in it. then we should increase the number. But we are also talking about doing something to protect the proud people who live in this country. the proud people who have jobs and families. Those are people who have come as refugees. or come as immigrants. as we all have. but who have worked their way through that system and maybe had to wait for years to be here. Perhaps. for those people. we ought to be considering refugees and immigrants together. We are going to just fool ourselves. We are going to say we will put a cap on but we are not really doing anything about refugees within that cap. What happens if there is an uprising in Poland and we decide we are going to allow some Poles to come into this country? I would be for that if they are fleeing communism.