Speech #990083210

Mr. President. the distinguished Senator from Wyoming has struggled and campaigned through at least three Congresses with skill. care. thoughtfulness. and wit to deal with a terrible and depressing national problem. The present system of immigration and naturalization has broken down almost completely. It is without effective control. It has resulted in the presence in the United States of millions of illegal aliens here to seek employment. and often as a result of being badly exploited. and living hand to mouth in an underground existence. The cure which has been proposed by the distinguished Senator from Wyoming is a new law which offers better and more effective controls over our borders. deals with the problem of seeking of employment by illegal aliens by providing for sanctions against employers who knowingly hire and utilize them. and which also provides for amnesty for people who have effectively become Americans by being here for an extended period of time and by having contributed to our society. The problem which the Senator from Wyoming and his bill have given to a number of Members in this body. myself and the Senator from California include. is that we represent a number of basic. distinguished. and hardworking American farmers who grow crops which are highly labor intensive and which cannot be harvested by the use of machinery. At the present time. they are forced to use large numbers of these illegal aliens. some of whom are clearly mistreated. in order to keep their businesses literally in operation because of an immense lack of interest in this kind of occupation on the part of many citizens. And so the solution is this amendment. Had the Senator from Ohio studied the issue mere carefully. he would have recognized how eloquent were the statements he made a moment ago on behalf of this amendment. He spoke of the way the present system. the use of vast numbers of aliens. depresses working conditions not only for those aliens but for many citizens as well. He stated that our amendment seeks to allow 350.000 illegal aliens to work in the United States. It does exactly the opposite. It seeks to allow 350.000 legal workers in the United States. subject to the protection of all of the laws of the United States and the various States if. and only if. it is determined by the Attorney General that citizens are unavailable for these Jobs. He speaks of the benefits provided by the present system. the huge corporate farms. He certainly is not speaking of the farms in my State or in the State of the distinguished Senator from California. where. almost without exception. these farms are small. very. very modest in size. and run by individual families. The solution to the problems which the Senator from Wyoming seeks to solve is. of course. to encourage a better system. to prefer the hiring of citizens. and to permit the hiring of aliens for this kind of work only when citizens are not available. and subject to all of the protections of the laws of the United States with maximum encouragement for these noncitizens to return to their countries of origin when their work has been completed. That is precisely what this amendment does. It prefers citizens.