Speech #980211516

I think most of us are in the same position where we really wish that employer sanctions had not been mandated by this bill and hope they will be taken out of the bill. and that. I think would make the bill much more acceptable. I come from a part of the country where I have watched very carefully the Immigration Service. and I think it is to look and see what happens. If you deal with the average person in my part of the country. the Southwest. and you talk to them about illegal aliens. they immediately think of Hispanics. They do not think of anybody else. I think I have pointed out many other times that Hispanics are really only a portion of the problem. that there are Europeans. there are Canadians. and there are any number of other people working without green cards or who are illegals. So what does this mean? What this means is that the average person thinks that Hispanics are the only ones that are illegal. When you say you are going to go after illegal aliens. employers and everybody else in the general community then become 10 times more suspicious of ever hiring anyone who is a Hispanic. when you have something like employer sanctions. Why else do I think I can guess what employers are going to do? I used to work for the NLRB. the National Labor Relations Board. and that is the model upon which the gentleman from California has made his amendment.