Speech #980217587

I am skeptical. anecdotal evidence to the contrary. that news of a potential legalization was so widely credited in South and Central America and the Caribbean and elsewhere. that it contributed to a vast increase in the number of people. I think the thing that drives the number of people who come here are the relative economies of those countries and our own. I do not think that reading select commission reports. albeit a distinguished select commission. is a significant factor. anecdotal evidence to the contrary. in the flow of immigration. The question is if you accept. on its own terms. the premise that legalization and sanctions go together because the alternative is to have sanctions and say that people cannot work and they are here. and to create a class of we do not know what. then the January 1980 date does not make sense. There is one other problem with the gentlemans amendment. that is the twotier.