Speech #970226756

But I believe it makes far better sense than the current. chaotic situation. I intend to vote for the bill and I hope a majority of the Senate will do so as well. One essential underlying premise of the Immigration Reform and Control Act is its reaffirmation of Americas willingness to share her opportunities and resources with newcomers from around the globe. We are. it is a historians commonplace. "A Nation of Immigrants." Nonetheless. there have been periods in our national past when the national attitude toward immigrants turned. temporarily. to one of ugly exclusionism. Frankly. pressures to do the same today are very much in evidence. This bill. however. does not succumb to those pressures. Under its terms. the United States will welcome more legal immigrants425.000 annuallyto its shores than the rest of the world combined. In addition. we will continue to provide new hope for political refugees fleeing repression in their former homelands. The bill wisely recognizes that "immigrant" and "refugee" are two very different concepts. To have forced a competition between those escaping repression and those hoping to unite with their families would have been a tragic error. That is why I opposed the amendment offered by the Senator from Kentucky . I am pleased that the Senate rejected it. One of the hallmarks of immigration policy in the past has been the priority we have accorded reuniting families in making individual visa determinations. This legislation maintains that tradition although not to the degree that I believe it should. I voted for the amendments introduced by the Senator from Massachusetts to strengthen that feature of the bill. by reestablishing the socalled fifth preference for unmarried brothers and cisters of U.S. citizens. and for freeing immediate family members from the numerical ceilings in the legislation. I regret that these proposed modifications were not accepted. Obviously the most difficult section of S. 2222 was that dealing with control of illegal immigration. I am concerned by charges that the approach envisioned by the legislationmaking employers who hire illegal aliens subject to monetary penaltiesmay be burdensome for business operators and may mean discrimination against citizens or legal aliens whose appearance or accent seems foreign to prospective employers. I think it is crucial that Congress attend closely to the actual carrying out of the law in this respect. Close and careful oversight is essential in this regard. Nonetheless. it is my strong feeling that we simply had no alternative but to pass these provisions in the bill. Illegal immigration is simply too extensive and too serious a problem to ignore. Anywhere from 3 to 6 million illegal aliens already live within our borders. Each year. according to some experts. more immigrants enter the United States by flouting or evading the law than by acting according to its requirements. No matter how you look at it. that is unfair. It is unfair to American workers who must compete for jobs in an economy scarred by unemployment inching toward 10 percent.