Speech #980211356

First of all. if this law goes into effect. for the first 6 months we are going to have an educational program. The Federal Government is going to try to tell everybody how it works and no one will receive a violation during that period of time. Following that. the very first time that they discover that you have willfully hired an illegal alien. you get a citation. which is nothiftg more than a warning saying do not do it again. It is then on really. in most cases. for an unscrupulous employer at best. the third occasion that they find that you have willfully violated the law that any sanctions will be imposed whatsoever. It seems to me when we have structured it in that phased fashion to say that after you have had a warning. as the entire Nation has had a warning. after you have had a specific finding that you violated the law and you have nothing more than a warning. then we are going to hit you with a $100 fine. It is ludicrous. in my judgment. because what can happen is that the cost of hiring an illegal alien compared to hiring someone who is here legally can be well worth more than $100. The idea is right now if you find an employer who is hiring 200 illegal aliens willfully. it is going to mean a lot more to him by being hit $1.000 per person than it is by giving him a $100 fine which is not going to cumulatively amount to anything. The tragedy of the situation now is that we castigate the Immigration Service on this floor continually for not doing a job and then those people who are on the front lines. in the border patrol. go out and they find 100 or 200 people working illegally. They deport them to their country of origin and within the week they are back working at the same location and the employer knows they are going to be coming back and waits for them to come back. If employer sanctions are going to work. they have to be in fact real sanctions.