Speech #970226754

Africans. Italians. and Irish among others followed. beginning a stream that has never yet stopped. These immigrant groups have made. and continue to make. New York a cultural and financial center. So. too. with America as a whole. Surely. we must never back down from our commitment to legal immigration. Our goal should be immigration reform. not immigration curtailment. After an extensive study. the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy identified two elements that are essential to immigration reform. The Commission found that. given their extraordinary numbers. it would be impossible to find and prosecute those illegal aliens who are already here. As a result. the Commission proposed to legalize these aliens. Since the promise of a job is the primary motivation for most illegal immigration. the Commission also proposed to deter future illegal immigration by making it a crime to hire an undocumented alien. Today I will vote for S. 2222 because it goes a long way toward Implementing these two proposals and contains several other provisions that I support as well. The bill maintains the crucial distinction between refugees and immigrants. Moreover. I support the provision calling for the creation of a State block grant program to help reimburse State and local governments for the costs associated with legalization. Matters dealing with immigration and naturalization are a Federal responsibility under the Constitution. and States and locales should not be required to pay for what is clearly a Federal responsibility. Unfortunately. the bill also contains several provisions that. I believe. are contrary to the goal of immigration reform. By failing to legalize those aliens who have continuously resided here since January 1. 1980. we have acted to maintain a large number of personsperhaps numbering as high as 1 millionwho will continue to reside in this country. but who shall still be illegal aliens. I trust that it is clear that the chances that these persons will be identified and deported are slim. And the existence of such a large subclass of persons will make the employer sanctions provisions even harder to enforce. I am disturbed as well by the provisions of S. 2222 that deny newly legalized persons the benefit of various Federal programs. including but not limited to medicaid under title XIX of the Social Security Act.