Chairman. I think the gentleman raises an important point because our experience is not just at the State level and our experience is not just with other countries. The Migrant Labor Contractors Act. which this House passed last year has for some time. the old Farm Labor Contractors Act. has for some time had a prohibition against employing illegal aliens. Section 106 says. no farm labor contractor shall recruit. hire. employ. or use. with knowledge. the services of any individual who is an alien not lawfully admitted for permanent residence or who has not been authorized by the Attorney General to accept employment. For those who are concerned about the penalties. whether civil penalties will work or criminal penalties will not work. if a farm labor contractor commits a violation of section 106. is liable for fines of not more than $10.000 or sentenced to prison to a term not to exceed 3 years. Let me tell you that the very farm labor contractors who have these sanctions against them are among the largest suppliers of illegal aliens into this country. Now there have been a number of convictions under this act but. the reason we are here now is because the tide of illegal aliens to this country has not been stemmed and yet the largest purveyors of illegal aliens are violating the law today. a law that has been on the books for many. many years. with very tough criminal sanctions and penalties against them. Now. I think you have to ask yourself whether or not you really believe this is going to work because this is the most dramatic law that we have on the books with the largest segment of our economy that uses illegals and in fact. as would be tested in the agricultural community in my State and others. there is no problem getting help from farm labor contractors. many of whom would supply illegal aliens for that purpose. So we have a law that has been on the books for years which is very direct and has very harsh penalties. including civil and criminal penalties. yet we find out that the tide of illegal aliens to the agricultural communities of the United States of America is greater now than it ever has been.
Keywords matched
Migrant illegal aliens