Speech #980109056

That is the job of the Speaker of the House. Attempts to obfuscate delineations of constitutional authority between the legislative and executive branch are in fact nothing more than political hard ball. The attempt to politicize the issue of immigration reform. unfortunately. defies the consensus and the support of what the select Commission characterized as "immigration policy in the national interest." Instead. the Speaker of the House. unfortunately. has joined in the weeping and wailing of the various special interests who have voiced opposition to this bill or any bill because of effects on individual partisan or parochial interests. Unfortunately. the Speaker of the House. who is supposed to represent all the people of this House. has cast his lot with those interest groups who are most comfortable with the nonsystem of immigration that currently exists. It may be easier for some to defeat or ignore this legislation than do the responsible thing and come to grips with the crisis that currently confronts our Nation. However. the failure of the Speaker of the House to allow us to do so is. unfortunately. the height of irresponsibility and an abnegation of any leadership that we might have to offer the American people. The option of doing nothing is really no option at all. Such an alternative is tantamount to surrendering control of our borders to the economic and political woes of the rest of the world. If we stifle the effort of this Congress to formulate a U.S. immigration policy. that prerogative will fall to others by default. But perhaps the most tasteless comment made by the Speaker is that the Hispanics view this legislation as the same sort of move that Hitler made against the Jews in Germany because of its employersanctioned provision. This smacks of the same kind of innuendo that we so often hear characterize the McCarthy era of the 1950s. It is an unfortunate attempt to indirectly smear those in both parties who sought to bring about a reform of our immigration laws. And I personally resent it. I am incredulous to ask why. if you have the courage of your convictions. Mr. Speaker. you felt a need to use a group within our society to couch the strength of your own antipathy for the legislation. The fact is that both the Field Foundation poll taken in my own State of California. as well as the TerranceHart poll. that is Lance Terrance. a noted Republican pollster. and Peter Hart. a noted Democratic pollster. their poll taken throughout the Nation. the two of them indicate widespread support among all groups. regardless of race. for immigration reform legislation. The attempt by the Speaker of the House to revert to the old politics of division by exploiting the sensitivities of different groups within our society is most unfortunate. According to the California Field poll taken in 1982. there is strong support for imposing severe penalties on employers who hire illegal or undocumented immigrants. Statewide. such measures were supported by 76 percent of all white respondents. 71 percent of Hispanic respondents and 81 percent of all black respondents. In fact. the interesting thing about this very poll that was taken in 1981 in my home State is the unanimity of opinion on these various issues dealing with the overall immigration problem. Interestingly enough. when asked the question. "Should we deport all immigrants found to have entered this country illegally or without documentation in the State of California?" the answer was: 75 percent favored it77 percent of those who were white. 68 percent of those who were black. and 59 percent of those who were Hispanic. Then asked the question. "Should we grant amnesty to illegal immigrants who have lived here 5 or more years?" 73 percent of the respondents in California answered favorably74 percent of the whites. 74 percent of the Hispanics. 71 percent of the blacks. Interestingly enough. when you take those two elements together. you find that they form a core of what is known as SimpsonMazzoli that the Speaker suggests that the Hispanic community is against. On the question of whether we should have a guest worker programand we have an expanded H2 provision. we have a transition program on the House side. the Judiciary Committee bill. the SimpsonMazzoli version that was passed out of Agriculture has a guest worker provision58 percent of all Californians said that they would support it. 57 percent of the whites. 63 percent of the Hispanics and 59 percent of the blacks. When we asked the question during this survey of whether we should impose severe penalties on employers hiring illegal immigrants. as I mentioned before. 76 percent of all respondents agreed76 percent of the whites. 71 percent of the Hispanics. 81 percent of the blacks. That is supposed to be one of those things that is being fought by the Hispanic community in America. The Hispanic community in California supports that element of the SimpsonMazzoli bill. Similarly. the TerranceHart poll indicated that by a margin of 60 percent to 33 percent Hispanic respondents support adopting legal sanctions against employers who hire illegal immigrants. Blacks favor penalizing employers who hire illegal immigrants by a margin of 66 to 27 percent. In other words. we find a strong support for legal sanctions against employers who hire illegal immigrants among all categories of Americans. but also among Hispanic citizens and black citizens. As a matter of fact. Hispanic noncitizens are the only group that I can find who oppose the employer sanctions. and that not by a very wide margin. When we take it among all Hispanics who are responding. they do support it. Steppedup spending on tougher border enforcement is supported by all Hispanics by a margin of 61 to 30 percent. with 47 percent saying they feel strongly about their support for greater efforts to patrol the borders. Among blacks. fully 69 percent favor major increases in funding for border patrols. These just happen to be support for elements of the SimpsonMazzoli bill that the Speaker suggests is not supported by the Hispanic community in America. Nationally. when asked how they feel about the idea of establishing some sort of amnesty or legalization program that would allow illegal immigrants or undocumented workers who have been in the United States for a certain period of time to remain here legally. 74 percent of all Hispanics say they favor this plan. 57 percent say they favor it strongly. 19 percent oppose it. Blacks favor it by a margin of 57 to 34 percent. Interestingly enough. only 28 percent of Hispanics feel that the period of time that would qualify people for a legalization program would be 4 years or less.