Speech #990081516

It is an essential step toward that goal. and #t is one that I hope we will undertake this year. Mr. President. no one can seriously argue with the proposition that It is the promise of greater economic opportunity that draws the vast majority of illegal aliens into our country. As long as we maintain the current law which makes it Illegal for an alien to work but legal for an employer to give that alien a Job. then the flow of illegal immigration will persist. Mr. President. despite all of the criticism that has been leveled at the effort to reform our immigration laws year after year. I believe that Senator SIMPsoNs bill takes the most logical. effective approach to reducing illegal immigration by eliminating the economic magnet that draws people into our country illegally while enhancing the resources of our enforcement agencies. I am confident that this approach will return to us some semblance of control over our borders. In an area as complex and controversial as immigration reform. it will be impossible. as Senator Simpson will attest. to satisfy every interested or affected group. Our goal. of course. is to enact a bill that will be effective while causing as little unnecessary hardship as possible. The bill attempts to do that by recognizing the reality that the population of illegal aliens within our society has. to a large extent. become a significant factor. both socially and economically. In that regard. we must face the fact. that. because of their unpredictable. weatherdependent harvest deadlines. growers of perishable commodities have become dependent on a highly mobile migrant work force. a large portion of which is made up of illegal aliens. These growers will be severely affected and may face economic ruin if they are unable to fill their harvesting needs from the domestic work force or acquire an adequate number of workers through the expanded temporary worker mechanisms provided in the bill. In Alabama we have 450 to 500 commercial fruit farms.