Speech #980210317

Mr. Speaker. Thomas Reed. twice Speaker of the House in the late 19th century. called reform "an indefinable something to be done. in a way nobody knows how. at a time nobody knows when. that will accomplish no one knows what." Nothing more perfectly fits Speaker Reeds recipe than the bill before us today. the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1983. The bill has farreaching ramifications. It establishes an employer sanction system that increases the potential for discrimination against Hispanics. It grants amnesty to undocumented workers and their families who can prove they have been here a certain number of years. It requires businessmen to enforce immigration law. It would result in the establishment of a national ID card. It ignores the difficult economic and political refugee question. Support for the bill has waned because it is becoming increasingly clear that it is flawed. The major premise is that immigrationlegal and illegalis out of control. This premise was fueled by the media coverage of the Cuban influx into Florida in 1979 and the plight of the Haitian boat people. The U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) recently released an indepth survey of public attitudes on immigrants and refugees. The survey. funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. found that most members of the public do not know the difference between refugees and other immigrants. Only 18 percent are aware that a smaller number of refugees has entered the United States over the last decade than immigrants or undocumented aliens. Over 50 percent believe that Mexico is one of the largest sources of refugees coming to the United States. The facts. however. are that refugees have consistently been the smallest percentage of the three major categories of persons coming to the United States to stay and that Mexico is not a source of refugees. but rather is a major source of both documented and undocumented workers. A second major flaw of the SimpsonMazzoli bill is that immigration and refugees are viewed as domestic problems. The bill does not address where immigrants come from. why they flee their countries. what they do when they arrive here. It did not consider how many jobs are saved and created by immigration. In the January 1983 issue of the Wilson Quarterly. Aaron Segal said that Congress could revise U.S immigration laws. but it could not change the underlying realities. which is that a rapidly growing number of people from other countries are looking for work. In the United States. farmers. restauranters. small manufacturers and ranchers are willing to provide that work. On June 25. 1952. President Harry Truman vetoed another comprehensive omnibus immigration bill. He said: A general revision and modernization of these laws unquestionably is needed and long overdue. particularly with respect to immigration. But this bill would not provide us with an immigration policy adequate for the present world situation. Indeed. the bill. taking all its provisions together. would be a step backward and not a step forward. Those words ring true today in consideration of the SimpsonMazzoli bill.