Speech #990080196

So. Madam President. I want to remind my perceptive colleagues that if the problem of illegal immigration is not solved. then there is a very great risk that the American people will turn against legal immigration and against refugees and against asylees. as well. I think there are signs around us that that is already occurring. I never spend much time playing government by polling. That is why I get into all these delightful issues. I guess. But it is consistently found that the American people want immigration reform. In Roper polls 91 percent of respondents have stated that they want the United States to make an "all out effort to stop illegal entry into the United States". 79 percent of respondents. in a Gallup poll of 2 years ago. said they thought it "should be against the law to employ a person who has come to the United States without proper papers". 75 percent of the Hispanic respondents agreed. My mail from Hispanic Americans has been rather significant in the last 6 years. They will often express to me that it is they themselves who are often most injured by the influx of illegal immigration. It is their Jobs that are at stake and it is their people who we are unable to legalize under this bill. It is an irony of the rarest form.