Speech #980109171

President. I call attention to the fact that hundreds of people within the CongressMembers of the Senate. Members of the Houseand representatives of various organizations outside the Congress. have worked now for a number of years to reach the point of developing a reasonable and acceptable piece of legislation to reform our immigration policies. I think the Speaker has done a great disservice to all of those people. certainly a great disservice to Members of the Senate such as Senator SIMPSON of Wyoming. the chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee. who has labored so long and so hard on this complex issue. and Representative MAZZOLI. with like responsibilities on the House side. I think the Speakers action is a great disservice to the Congress itself. because it arbitrarily set aside what has been so laboriously put together over a long period of time. His precipitate actions does not take into account the foregoing effort and the need for the legislation. He said it was political. In my judgment. he has done a disservice to the Democratic Party. because there is a constituency out there that recognizes the need for immigration reform. Perhaps most importantly. he has done a great disservice to the people of the United States of America. Less than 2 weeks ago. Mr. President. new figures were in about the actions of our Immigration Service along our borders and already this year. a recordbreaking 1 million apprehensions have been made of illegals coming across the border. We all know that. historically. there is about one apprehension for each two or three that come through. so I think we can generally agree that probably already this year. 2 million illegal aliens have come into the United States. The illegal alien problem is growing and growing at great proportions at a time when we have a large number of unemployed in this country. Now is not the time to be backing away from a bill that offers at least a partial solutionnone of us thinks it is perfectto these particular problems. Mr.