Speech #980043350

I respectfully suggest that were the United States to proportionately replicate Hong Kongs exertions. we would risk imposing not just employer sanctions but the atmosphere of a police state of unbearable costs both in money and in increased tensions. And even were the United States to engage in such unwise exertions. it is by no means clear they would be successful. I will not repeat what so many of my colleagues and I have already have expressed with respect to the discrimination that we fear will result from employer sanctions. other than to say that I believe the small business community in the border States and elsewhere who say that they simply will not submit to the risk of penalty by hiring someone who may be an illegal immigrant. The bitter irony of this legislation is that in the name of protecting American jobs. it will cause defensive discrimination against American citizens who look or sound foreign by small businessmen and women who feel they cannot afford having to defend against Federal prosecution. This is especially true outside agricultural areas where urban employers will have the choice between American citizens who look and sound foreign and those who do not. In addition to the burdens and perils which employer sanctions entail for Hispanic Americans and other U.S. citizens who look or sound foreign. for small business employers. and for growers and consumers of American produce. especially perishable commodities. employer sanctions simply cannot be expected to stop the massive illegal immigration across Americas 1.800milelong land border with the Republic of Mexico. Well. then. ask the proponents of the employer sanctions. what do you propose instead? It is not just a fair question.