Speech #970275701

Mr. McCoLLUM. which was printed in the RECORD. these remarks would be in support thereof. Many arguments have been made in favor of providing a liberal amnestyor legalizationprogram for undocumented aliens. I will not attempt to reiterate these arguments and refute them. The plain fact is that the U.S. Governmentand the American peoplesimply cannot afford such an amnestyespecially at this time. We have always been known as a humanitarian nation. We have had. and continue to have. one of the most liberal immigration policies known in the world. But the costs of amnesty are so tremendous that it is difficult to estimate. The Department of Health and Human Services recently provided. in my view. some conservative estimatesbased on an estimated 3 to 6 million undocumented aliens residing in this country (many believe this figure to be as high as 12 million). Taking a middle figure of 4 million. HHS figured that 45 percent of these would be eligible for amnesty under this legislation. this is approximately 2% million people. Of this figure. 15 percent would be eligible for temporary resident status. and eligible for permanent status in 3 years. Additionally HHS estimated that only 60 percent of the 2 million plus eligible undocumented aliens would participate in the program. Assuming that the public assistance rate for these individuals would initially be lower than that of the American population as a whole. but that this rate will eventually rise to meet that rate of the present American populationthat rate is around 9 percentHHS further estimated that the Federal public assistance costs alone could be as high as $6.67 billion over the next 5 years. But we have an alternative. as described by the gentlemans amendment. Approximately 10 percent of the undocumented aliens believed to be in the country have been here for 10 years or longer. These individuals arefor the most partwell integrated into their communities. have children who are U.S. citizens. and are entitled to be recognized as productive and desirable additions to our population. These individuals can be provided for under the gentlemans amendment.