I regret that. because I am sure that all of us who are here. each of us recognizes that we have a responsibility to address this problem. to speak out on behalf of what we believe to be the right course of action. If we do not tackle the problem today. we are going to find ourselves continuing the status quo and granting immunity to those employers who are the greatest offenders. the greatest violators. the greatest transgressors. There are people who unfortunately. coming here illegally. become undocumented. and as such. have no recourse if they are threatened with the loss of job or deportation by employers. The bill that was fashioned by this committee. is a bill that was thought out over a long period of time. I might say that. speaking especially to my friends in the Hispanic community and those who have been so impassioned. and with reason. about the possibility or potential of discrimination. that I though we dealt with that yesterday. The genesis of this particular provision dealing with civil and criminal penalities came about not as happenstance. and I would like to recite its history. I probably will take more time to speak on this. only because I feel very strongly. The genesis of this arose many years back when I. as a Member of the Congress. found that there was a group of people who were. as I later found them out to be. undocumented. But they happened to be of Portuguese ancestry. Some of them happened to be Slovakians. Some of them were Chinese. All of these people were being herded into a truck and brought to a place where they were working on construction work at substandard wages. I later found that these very same people were living in substandard housing and were being exploited by having to pay excessive rent that they could not afford. and all of this under the threat that if they were to speak out. they would be deported. It was as a result of this that my interest and concern arose and at that time I developed and conceived the idea of employer sanctions. Always bearing in mind that these were individuals coming from whatever part of the world came because they saw here a land of opportunity where they could find a job.
Keywords matched
undocumented deported deportation