Speech #980132985

The action taken by our conferees will not relieve this situation. Mr. Speaker. the conferees eliminated the immediate funding for 400 additional border patrol personnel. In fiscal year 1983. the border patrol apprehended more than 1 million aliens trying to enter the United States illegally. This is the highest number recorded to date. Let me emphasize. these were apprehensions. We have no idea how many aliens were not apprehended. how many made successful entriesmaybe one successful entry per apprehension. maybe twowhich translates into 2 million. Precise statistics are not available. but we can be sure that a lot of aliens succeeded. Given the economic conditions in Mexico and the constant pressure exerted on our overtaxed border patrol. we may expect attempted entries to continue to climb. Over the years. many of us have taken the floor pledging our support for increased border patrol and enhanced enforcement. Many of us have called attention to the presence in our country of millions of illegal migrants who take jobs away from our constituents. who live in an underground culture in exploitable conditions. and who impose a burden on our social services. Yet. faced with the opportunity to do something about rectifying these conditions. the decision is that $30 million is too big a price to pay for a start at correcting these intolerable conditions. The addon also included funds for 100 positions in the adjudication activities. Why are they needed? Hundreds of people stand in lines dayinanddayout in front of our INS district offices waiting for an adjudication service. be it for a petition for a relative. an application for an adjustment of status. an extension of stay. or even a naturalization application. In some districts. it takes up to 2 years to be naturalized. this after having met the 5year residency requirement. Backlogs on adjudications are a fact of life in INS. Serious efforts have been made by the Service to streamline and automate some of these adjudication functions. However. it is our experience that no serious inroads can be made on backlogs. nor can prompt beneficiary services be given to the public without additional INS personnel. We should not forget that besides being an enforcement agency. the "S" in INS stands for service and that service is charged with the responsibility for granting certain benefits accorded by the Immigration and Nationality Act to eligible aliens. I can only guess that every single Member of this body has. at one time or another. been asked to intercede with INS on behalf of his constituents for a certain benefit accorded by the Immigration Act. Also. I am sure I am safe in saying that many of you have had less than adequate responses by INS to your inquiries.