Speech #970273174

Mr. Chairman. the United States faces a serious crisis in immigration law enforcement. We have an illegal alien population numbering in the millionswith hundreds of thousands of new arrivals each year in direct contravention of American law. Large numbers of people wait abroad for many years to be reunited with relatives in the United Statesat the same time that undocumented people short cut the process and find ways of entering immediately. Our loss of control over our borders requires decisive action by the Congress now. U.S. immigration laws have received intensive scrutiny during the last 4 years. The Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policywhich included four Cabinet members from the previous administration. four Members from each House of Congress. and four public membersheld exhaustive hearings all over the United States. heard testimony from 698 witnesses. and consulted with many experts and interest groups. I had the opportunity. together with several other colleagues on the Judiciary Committees of the House and Senate. to participate actively in the Commissions deliberations. In 1981. this administration prepared the Omnibus Immigration Control Acta bill designed primarily to address the problem of aliens entering the United States illegally. Early this year. I servedtogether with the gentleman from Kentucky and the gentleman from New York -as an original sponsor of H.R. 5872. legislation that built upon the work of the Select Commission. This was followed by thorough study by the administration and by months of public hearings by the Immigration Subcommittees of the House and Senate. Senator ALAN SimPSoN. of Wyoming. chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Policy. introduced an identical bill in the SenateS. 2222 which passed the Senate in August. The House Committee on the Judiciary has given this legislation most careful scrutiny. In May 1982 a clean billH.R. 6514was introduced reflecting action taken by the Subcommittee on Immigration. Refugees. and International Law at its markup. The full House Judiciary Committee favorably reported an amended version of this legislation after exhaustive consideration of policy arguments on virtually every provision. H.R. 7357 conforms to the bill as reported by the Judiciary Committeeexcept for the addition last week of language designed to comply with the Budget Act.