Mr. Speaker. GAO recently released a report requested by Senator ALAN SImPsoN. on the effectiveness of laws in 19 countries prohibiting employers from hiring illegal aliens. GAO found that although each country had laws penalizing employers of illegal aliens. such laws were not an effective deterrent to the hiring of illegal workers for primarily two reasons: First. employers either were able to evade responsibility for illegal employment or. once apprehended. were penalized too little to deter such acts. Second. the laws generally were not being effectively enforced because of strict legal constraints on investigations. noncommunication between Government agencies. lack of enforcement resolve. and lack of personnel. I urge my colleagues to read the GAO report. There is a possibility that H.R. 6514. the Immigration and Control Act of 1982. may come before us in the lameduck session. Please. dont let our concern to do something about immigration overcome our obligation to pass responsible and effective immigration laws. We all agree that immigration reform is needed. However. I believe that it is not enough to change our immigration policywe must improve it. H.R. 6514 does not improve immigration policy. H.R. 6514 is a highly controversial bill. It barely survived a motion to recommit it to the House Subcommittee on Immigration. Refugees. and International Law. The bill. broader in scope than any immigration reform proposal that has been before Congress in this decade. has only been before Congress for 6 months. It needs further debate. H.R. 6514 makes for a good starting point. but a bad end product.
Keywords matched
Refugees Immigration immigration illegal aliens