Speech #970273208

During the first 3 years after enactment. job applicants will have to present common identifiers. such as a drivers license and social security card. During those 3 years. the President and Congress. working together. will see what changes. if any. are necessary in this initial system. The bill streamlines. but at the same time makes more fair. the process for determining asylum applicationsthose people who arrive on our shores and claim they cannot return home because of a fear of persecution. The Judiciary Committee added a provision guaranteeing Judicial review for all asylum applicants whose requests are turned down at the administrative level. This is a valuable amendment. The legislation provides for a limited and carefully circumscribed program for admitting temporary foreign workers to take Jobs that Americans do not want. mostly in seasonal agriculture. This is not a guestworker program. which raises the possibility of foreign workers taking jobs from Americans. This is a streamlined version of the H2 program. which has been on the books for 30 years. which provides for admission of foreign workers only to take specific Jobs and only when the employers have first been unsuccessful in recruiting Americans to do the Jobs. Finally. the bill provides a carefully controlled legalization program for those undocumented aliens who have lived in our country for a minimum of 3 years and who have demonstrated a willingness to work and contribute to our society. This is notI repeat. nota blanket amnesty. as some have charged. nor does it grant immediate citizenship to anyone. also as charged. This proposal. which has been endorsed by three successive administrations. including the Reagan administration. and by the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy. chaired by Father Theodore M. Hesburgh of Notre Dame. would require the INS to interview each applicant individually. Only those of good moral characterthose who are found acceptable after being tested against the 33 grounds in the laws for excluding prospective immigrantswould be allowed to adjust to legal status. None of those adjusting could immediately become U.S. citizens. Those who arrived before January 1. 1977. in other words. who have already been continuously living and working in our country for 6 years. could become permanent resident aliens. After 5 years. during which they could be deported for various acts. they could apply to be naturalized U.S. citizens. Those who arrived between January 1. 1977. and January 1. 1980. would become temporary residents under the bill. Only after 3 years of good conduct. and only after another screening against the exclusions. could they become permanent resident aliens. Five years thereafter they could become naturalized citizens. The bill bars newly legalized aliens from most forms of welfare. except emergency medical care and aid for the aged. blind. or disabled. for the first 3 years. in the case of pre1977 arrivals. and for the first 6 years. in the case of the more recent arrivals. It also provides. subject to appropriations made in advance. reimbursements to State and local governments for welfare costs and educational costs associated with legalization.