Speech #970274866

State and Federal. will provide an important measure of protectior. in many cases of discrimination based orn national origin. Congressional oversight. moreover. will help assure the statute is properly enforced. Enhanced enforcement of labor standards laws will not stop large numbers of illegal aliens from entering the United States. This is true for the following reasons: First. only 9.6 percent of interior apprehensions by INS in fiscal year 1982 involved aliens paid less than the minimum wage. Even when fiscal year 1982 border patrol apprehensions are added. only 11 percent of employed illegal aliens were receiving less than the minimum wage. This data clearly indicates that employers are hiring illegal aliens because of their availability and perhaps also their reluctance to press for higher wages. Although the wages of many illegal aliens may be depressed. the critical point is that their wages are within legal limits. For this reason. enhanced enforcement of wage laws will not solve the problem although it may help to a limited extent. Second. enforcement of labor standards laws does not reply on a massive Federal presence but on the willingness of workers to file grievances. Illegal aliens generally are unwilling to file the complaint which trigger enforcement efforts. The Congress is not likely to appropriate the large sums of money that would be required to have a massive Federal presence. Such a presence. in any event. would be inconsistent with the kind of country most of us want. 0- 2410 I ask my colleagues. because I will not take any more of their time tonight. to give these insertions in the Record the same attention that I have given to the expressions of concern that have been very meaningful to me this evening.