Speech #990082595

Mr. President. certainly what Senator SIMON says has a great deal of importance. There is not anyone here. perhaps not in the Chamber at present. who would not feel that we should go back and redirect our attention to a very important section of the Immigration and Nationality Act. That is what the Senator was quoting from. That is section 212 of the INA. the Immigration and Nationality Act. That section has to do with general classes of aliens ineligible to receive visas and excluded from admission and waivers of inadmissibility. All I can tell you is when the Select Committee on Immigration and Refugee Policy. which consisted of 16 spirited people who were not known for their lack of attention toward civil rights and civil liberties. got to the issues that are contained in section 212. we just stopped dead in our tracks. We said there could not be anything which could divert us more from dealing with illegal immigration and trying to correct that situation if we get into the problems with the INA which have to do with legal immigration. I can assure you that debate did not last long because all you have to do is look at the first few categories of aliens who are ineligible to receive visas and be excluded from admission to the United States under any circumstances. but always legallywe are talking about legallyand we have the definitions of aliens who are mentally retarded. aliens who are insane. aliens who have had one or more attacks of insanity. What is that in this day and age? It is difficult to know an attack of insanity.