Speech #990082580

I reluctantly observed that the Senator from Wyoming is correct in his observation. I am aware of no plan to address this problem by the Government of Mexico. and we have. in fact. an open border now. It is not officially open. it is factually open. which is why the Senator from Wyoming has spent so much of his time and energy trying to perfect immigration reform legislation that would bring to the United States not Just tnose of Mexican ancestry. but. as he pointed out. Salvadorans. Nicaraguans. Guatemalans. Costa Ricans. and Hondurans. those who are refugees from the turmoil that apparently exists in Central America. I might. by way of observation. add this fact: While an official U.S. observer of the Salvadoran election of President Jose Napoleon Duarte in El Salvador. one of the interesting sidelights of that trip was to learn. in a nation presumably of 5 million population. threequarters of a million are no longer there. We learned this in the course of inquiries that were made into the elaborate electoral practices that were devised to conduct a free and honest election.