Speech #980211355

Chairman. I will be very brief. I think the House Committee on the Judiciary and its Subcommittee on Immigration labored very hard to bring a fair. equitable. and balanced bill before this Chamber. I think that is what we have. Part of the genius and beauty. I think. of H.R. 1510 is that it applies to everyone in approximately the same situation. And what we found in our long deliberations over basically 31/2 years was that fixed fines rather than flexible fines. first of all. would be the firm statement on the part of an assembly like ours that employer sanctions was meant to work. it was meant to hurt those people who would knowingly hire undocumented aliens. Once you have the range. anywhere from $100. which is fairly low. to $1.000. and from $500 to $2.000. the low end of the range is really just a cost of doing business. it is just like. in effect. a license fee. It really will not hurt and it would pay an employer of great numbers to just pay this because it is cheaper than not hiring undocumented workers. So first off. our idea of fixed fines of a stern dimension was for simplicity in administration and for firmness of resolve. The Judiciary Committee and your subcommittee also felt that. looking around the world to the nations which have employer sanctions laws on the books. we found that where those laws have not worked. they have not worked because the fines are too low. they were sporadically enforced. and that is why they did not work. But where they were sternly enforced and where fixed fines were imposed. and the criminal penalties were imposed with resolve. then. of course. employer sanctions worked and flow of undocumented aliens was curtailed. So here we think. at least I think on behalf of the committee. that a range of penalties would weaken employer sanctions. the low range of these penalties is so low as to simply constitute a cost of doing business and would not be a deterrent to the hiring knowingly of undocumented workers. I add that the administration is against this amendment. The administration feels.that fixed penalties of a high level which hurt is the way to go.