Speech #980216024

Even that I would not object to. and my amendment would not preclude that. but the underlying criteria here of the provision with regard to excludability is not whether they are below the poverty line. but whether or not they are actually likely to become a public charge. What my amendment does is to assert that the Attorney General will follow a criteria which is based upon whether or not that person has a consistent employment history that shows the ability to support himself and his family even though his income may be below the poverty line. That merely recognizes a fact which is known to all of us: that these people. these undocumented aliens. historically have worked at the lowest rung of the economic ladder. that they are sometimes paid less than the prevailing wage or have an in come that is actually less than the prevailing wage would provide. that they may actually show incomes that are below the poverty line. and yet still they may not have been a public charge. They may have supported themselves and they may have been productive citizens of this country. My amendment does not change the flexibility that exists. The Attorney General can waive this provision in the amnesty program if he wishes. But I will tell you precisely why it is that I seek to incorporate in the language of this bill a provision which demonstrates more flexibility than we have historically had in connection with the application of the immigration law. I would like. if I may be permitted to. to recite one anecdote that goes back to my earliest years in this body. showing the inflexible and arbitrary and inhumane way in which the immigration service can. on occasion. interpret the immigration law. My first case. my first private bill before this body more than 20 years ago. involved a retired Mexican citizen who was excluded because more than 50 years before. as a teenager in this country. and as an illegal. he had been picked up in possession of a small amount of marijuana. For 50 years that man was excluded. as a criminal and damned of moral turpitude. In the meantime his legal American wife. his legal American children. his legal American grandchildren. sought in every way possible to bring him over. They were unsuccessful because the Immigration Service as I have said. held that this man was a man of immoral character with a criminal record.