Speech #980210494

It perpetuates the errors and wrongs of the past and creates new evils of its own. It is a response arising out of fear. the very same fears that produced the preference quotas that were nothing more nor less than racist in their origins and purpose. and racist in their effects. a system that was neither workable nor defensible. The 1965 reform erased the blatant racism of the old quotas. but imposed. out of the fear of immigrants. a new country limitation and a new preference system that were and are likewise unworkable and morally indefensible. And now this bill perpetuates that system and makes it worse by establishing an engine of discrimination against all American residents who have a foreign appearance. The bill solves nothing. it is born of fear and sour suspicion. and it will not work. What is required is an immigration system that looks to the future with confidence. not fear. a system that welcomes those who can show they have a reasonable opportunity to be selfsupporting. a system that tries to deal with the desperation that drives people toward our borders. a system that deals with realities and not the haunting fears of those who have forgotten form whence they came. SimpsonMazzoli is. sadly. the latest in a long history of immirgation law that springs from the heart of the KnowNothings. those who feared and loathed all foreigners. though they themselves were only recent arrivals. The spirit and driving force of the KnowNothings is present. alive. and embodied in the SimpsonMazzoll bill. an unworkable unworthy addition to a body of law that has never been distinguished by muck it any. pretense toward justice. decency. or workability. It satisfies for the moment the passions and fears of those who demand what they see as control over our borders. but it does not solve the pressures that drive Immigrants to our borders. nor does it enable those who want to be legal immigrants to obtain the documents they need to become legal entrants. It puts the next crisis off a few years. but the next crisis will not be long in the making. because the bill solves nothing other than the passions and prejudices that have historically driven our immigration laws. The only difference today is that the passions are muted. the prejudices sophisticated. but they are no less real for all of that. The bill should not be enacted. We should seek a law that is along the lines I have suggested: Entry for those who can show a reasonable likelihood of selfsupport. and help for the countries from whence the greatest numbers of immigrants come.