Speech #980219364

Mr. Chairman. efforts should be focused toward fashioning a humane and compassionate response to the problem of immigration. but not at the expense of our own citizenry. Our primary commitment should be to our own poor unemployed and underemployed who are jobless and desperate in many cases. through no fault of their own. Legalization is unfair to the thousands of potential immigrants waiting years to enter this country legally. We are rewarding those who blatantly flaunt our immigration laws and punishing those who would follow them. The argument which propounds legalization as the only means to eliminate a frightened subclass in our society is unfounded. Legalization under this bill creates a situation whereby those who cannot prove residency prior to 1982 will remain illegal. This in essence is a subclass within a subclass. The potential for major disruption of our population is serious. The range of the number who would come forward for legalization is between 2 and 12 millionif 6 million legalized aliens each eventually brings in 2 immediate family members. there would be a rapid increase of an additional 12 million new immigrants in a few years. Petition for relatives to join citizens of the United States is commonplaceit is a nearly invisible element of immigration policy because their relatives are not counted against a countrys quotas of permanent visas. The promise of citizenship through amnesty encourages more illegals to enter the United States either in the belief that they can fool the authorities about the length of their stay or in anticipation that there will be future grants of amnesty if weve done it once before. Amnesty creates a potential for continueddecadesenormous and undeterminable expense at every level of government. Primary sources of illegal aliens are countries in which fertility rates now rank among the highest in the world. In Mexico alone. there are more women of childbearing age than ever before. I want to share the following editorial that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.