Speech #970274806

Mr. Chairman. I have listened to tonights debate and I know that many of the Members are genuinely sincere about their concerns. and I want to express again what I expressed last night. my deep concern about the victimization of the socalled undocumented worker. I would like to also point out that over 34 years ago when I first came to the Congress I was aware of the inequities in our immigration laws. The then McCarranWalters Act. discriminated against people because of their place of birth. I point with some pride to the efforts that I made in finally helping those who championed the cause of justice and equity and fairness in our immigration laws by bringing about the elimination of the national origins quota system. However. notwithstanding the fact that we improved the system back then in 1985. we found. nonetheless. that there were certain areas of our immigration laws which really were not working. I proposed a longtime back that because of the closeness of the country of Mexico. because it is allied with us and has been allied with us for a great period of time that we provide special immigration benefits for these countries. I attempted to increase the quotas from Canada and Mexico because of our special relationship with those countries. This did not come to pass. Because many of these people could not come here legally. they come illegally across our borders to find job opportunities. so they could provide for themselves and their families. These are the socalled undocumented workers who continue to be exploited by unscrupulous employers who take advantage of their illegal status. The numbers grew and grew. As chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration. back in the 92d Congress. I conducted a series of hearings across the country and around the border. As a result of these many. many hearings with many. many witnesses. I recognized the difficult plight of the undocumented alien We found then that according to the best estimates. guesstimates if you will. that there may have been some 1 or 2 million socalled illegals in the country at that time. working under conditions that certainly I would find intolerable. They were forced to live in a shadow society. not coming out into the open because they were afraid that their employers would turn them over to INS if they were to complain about their working conditions. It was because of this that I involved myself in this problem.