When I first came to Congress 4 years ago and when I started looking at this particular bill in this Congress. I was against employer sanctions for virtually all of the reasons suggested by those who have risen to speak either against this section of the bill or in support of the additional amendment. But it became clear to me that if we do want to get a handle on illegal immigration to this country caused on the one hand by the push factor from foreign countries whose economic circumstances are very stark in comparison to ours. and yet whose geography is so close to ours that their people can get here rather easily. we would have to do something about the pull factor. which is the possibility of employment. And we felt that there is no way to get that handle on the problem. no matter how many Border Patrol officers you have in the interior of the United States unless we directly attack the question with respect to employers who will be hiring people illegally. In some cases. unfortunately. employers will be hiring them illegally so they can take advantage of these individuals. So we came to the realization we had to have some sort of employer sanction.
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illegal immigration Border Patrol