Speech #980217873

Mr. Chairman. any suggestion that this bill provides an amnesty is a misnomer. what it provides is a limited chance for a limited number of people to adjust their status from undocumented to documented. It does not confer citizenship. It does not give a blanket right to adjust statusonly an opportunity to apply. and even then the Senate bill would deny any right of appeal from administrative decisions. however wrong or arbitrary or contrary to law they might be. That is hardly an amnesty. The fact of the matter is that the Mazzoli bill would give the right to apply for legal status only to people who would have been entitled to legal status in the first placepeople who would have been admitted as immigrants if visa numbers had been available. And we all know that in the case of Mexico. at least. the possibility of getting a visa is nonexistent except for those in the two top preference categories. The legalization provision in effect says. "if our law had been reasonable in the first place. you would have been admissible. Were now giving you a limited chance to obtain documents." Calling this limited legalization program an amnesty is a gross inaccuracy. The bill says that you have only a limited amount of time to apply for legalization. it leaves it up to the applicant to prove that he or she was continuously in the countrywhatever the word "continuously" is eventually construed to meanfor a prescribed amount of time. The applicant cant become a public charge. nor can anyone with any record of a criminal offense or even a series of misdemeanors adjust status. Any undocumented alien with less than a sterling character. or any alien who cant meet yet to be devised standards of proof. need not apply for legalization. And indeed. anyone who applies must do so in the knowledge that failure to qualify. for any reason. means the likelihood of deportation. In a very real sense. the bill doesnt offer amnesty so much as it offers a chance to turn yourself in. It is true that the House bill says that applicant documents submitted are confidential. but the organizations that have the documents cant process them. Only the Attorney General can say who qualifies and who does not. and of course he is also the official empowered to deport those who do not qualifyhe is judge. jury. and executioner. Thus. if there is some question about eligibility for legalization. no agency that accepts your application can give you much more than advice about how risky it would be to submit the application to the Attorney General. The only sure way to get an answer on any question of eligibility would be to take the risk of being deported. If the standards were more clear. then the guarantee that applications can be received in confidence by designated nongovernment agencies would have greater meaning. but since no such agency can be sure that its advice is correct. it would have no alternative but to forward only the safest applications and advise all others either to run the risk of being found deportable or simply to remain as they areundocumeited. Indeed. it is not likely that more than half the alien population will even be eligible to adjust status. let alone qualify. The bill would probably make legalization impossible for many undocumented aliens who are in fact solid. positive members of society. I have been advised by the committee staff that one family wouldnt be eligible for legalization even though that family had an absolutely stunning record of citizenship and productivityso much so that newspapers have editorialized against attempts to deport them. Why couldnt they adjust status? Because. I am told. at one time or another. one member of the family has used a false green card. a border crossing document. The term "otherwise admissible." which is the ultimate standard prescribed for legalization. is so vague that the administration could easily deny legalization to anyone it wanted to. for whatever reasons it wanted to invoke. If the family I have in mind is not eligible. the legalization provisions of this bill represent anything but amnesty. It might make possible an adjustment for some. but I suspect manyif not mostwill be so wary of the vague standards and likelihood of arbitrary actionaction that is not appealable under the bill as passed by the Senatethat only the brave or the foolhardy might apply for legalization. The legalization provisions will no doubt solve some problems for some people. but I suspect that for half or more of the illegal aliens in this country. legalization will be impossible or not worth the risk of applying. since even under the House bill the agencies that can receive your application in confidence cannot act upon it. Ultimately. the only way to have a chance at becoming legalized would be in effect to turn yourself in. to be judged by standards that have yet to be devised. and submit to proceedings that may turn out not to be appealable. if the Senate bill prevails in conference. For if you apply and cant qualify. you are sure to be deported. Vast numbers will prefer not to run the risk of deportation. Calling the legalization program an amnesty is a misnomer. calling the bill itself a reform is a misnomer. Immigration law is not reformed when the bill keeps in place country limits that make legal entry all but impossible for Mexicans. who constitute perhaps half the countrys illegal aliens. Order is not restored when employer sanctions will in fact act as more of a discrimination device than any uniform check on legal status. thanks to vague documentation requirements and hazy enforcement provisions. The muchfeared flood of easily exploitable. cheap labor is not halted when the bill embraces an annual flood of perhaps a half million foreign farmworkers who are given virtually no legal protections against exploitation of the most vicious kind.