Speech #980000820

By all indications we must again be the leaders and again send a bill to the House. However. if we are required to be the leader on this issue. I believe that we must send a strong signal to our colleagues in the House which says that an effective immigration control bill must be passed during this Congress. The effects of uncontrolled immigration on our country are dramatic and damaging. Take the effect of uncontrolled immigration on employment. both unemployment and conditions of work. In the last year we have had new evidence of displacement of American workers by illegal immigrants. Malcolm Lovell. Under Secretary of Labor. reports that 40 million Americans compete directly with illegal aliens for jobs. Some uninformed people will tell you that Americans would not take the jobs that illegals hold. tell that to the 40 million Americans who worry every day about whether their boss will fire them so he can hire an illegal alien. Even those who used to say that illegals are good for the country are changing their tunes. Wayne Cornelius. a zealous advocate of illegal alien workers. now says: In some labor markets. especially those where labor contractors and subcontractor shops have become prevalent (such as in harvest labor and the garment industry). downward pressure on wages and working conditions is more severe and U.S.-bom workers may be discouraged from seeking jobs in those sectors of the economy . .. Undoubtedly indirect displacement of U.S.born workers and legal immigrants by Mexican illegals does take place as specific labor markets become depressed. In other words. even those most interested in a continuing flow of illegal aliens admit that illegal immigrants hurt American workers. Illegals take jobs that Americans want and need. and. by taking lower wages and poor working conditions without complaint. they hurt American workers wages and working conditions. The average wage of an illegal immigrant apprehended in Denver in the last 2 years was $6 an hour. The average illegal immigrant today is working in a city in a good job paying well. When we talk about creating more jobs for America. do we want these jobs to go to illegal aliens? Everyone in recent weeks has been talking about jobs programs. I think that our emphasis on getting America back to work is correct. but let us not forget that one of the easiest and least expensive ways of generating jobs is to do something about uncontrolled immigration. Let us go after one of the real problems in unemployment. something that will solve immediately one of the causes of unemployment. When illegal aliens displace American workers. the unemployment rate increases. In Miami. a landscaping service fired 30 Americans and hired 30 Haitians at lower wages. I constantly hear about people in the garment industry who have been fired so their employer can bring in illegal aliens. Now I am hearing more and more about skilled people. mechanics. machinists. draftsmen. being displaced by illegal aliens. It was once fashionable to talk about the poor starving illegal immigrant who came here because he or she could not get work in their home country. We have to change that image today. however. because it is no longer the poorest and least skilled people who come here. Often it is the most skilled. middleclass worker who comes here illegally. Today we are taking the cream of the crop of the Third Worlds elite. And. the flow is increasing steadily as the worldwide recession causes more unemployment in foreign countries. These new sophisticated illegal aliens are not as afraid of taking Government benefits as in the past. In the past 2 years. we have seen new evidence of just how easy it is for illegal aliens to get social services and benefits from American taxpayers. The Supreme Court ordered the State of Texas to provide more than $400 million in public school tuition to illegal alien children. A study by David North of the New Transcentury Foundation found millions of dollars in prohibited unemployment compensation payments to illegal aliens last year. The State of Illinois found that illegal aliens were getting $66 million in unemployment compensation in that State alone. twothirds of the deficit in that States unemployment compensation program went to illegal aliens. Remember that the Congressional Budget Office found that each unemployed person costs the Federal Treasury more than $7.000 a year. in 1978 dollars. If we could replace 1 million illegal aliens with American unemployed workers. we would save $7 billion in 1 year. That money would be saved for necessary entitlement programs. And because employed American workers pay far more in taxes. relative to their wages. than do illegal aliens. we can generate more revenue from putting those Americans back to work. Although I will not go into a great deal of detail. I have to mention the effect that uncontrolled immigration has on our population and our resources. Immigration now makes up more than half of our population growth. while Americans are sacrificing to have smaller families. fewer children. But our population keeps growing because so many people enter this country each year. More people means that our scarce resources. like water and energy. will be used up faster. Can we really afford to allow all of our difficult conservation efforts to be balanced out by new immigrants? Those who follow immigration know that I am not in favor of stopping immigration. I support a generous. but controlled level of immigrant admissions. But I am increasingly concerned about the lack of any realistic response to this problem from Congress. Listening to the debate on immigration in the House of Representatives last year. I was surprised to hear so many others commenting on the danger that has troubled me for so long: If we do not control immigration now. when we have a chance to set policies that are generous and flexible. we may soon face an irresistible clamor to cut off immigration entirely. My colleague. ALAN SIMPSON of Wyoming. has also noted this increasing resentment.