Speech #990084584

This is intended to protect employers who. after making a good faith effort to abide by the law. are found to have inadvertently hired illegal workers. Under the system an employer must keep records on all newly hired employees which verifies that he or she had checked specified documents. such as a U.S. passport. certificate of U.S. citizenship. drivers license. or Social Security card. to determine the prospective employees identity and work authorization status. If an employer chooses not to keep the verification records and is found to have employed an illegal alien. he or she is presumed to have knowingly hired the alien and must rebut the presumption with "clear and convincing evidence." Finally. S. 1200 institutes a legalization program for certain illegal aliens already in the country. It does not grant legal status to all illegal aliens. Such an act would be far too burdensome to State and local governments and would send a dangerous signal to those considering entering this country illegally. Also. the legalization program does not make all forms of public assistance available to these newly legalized persons. S. 1200 does grant temporary legal status. not citizenship. to aliens who can prove they have resided continuously in the country since January 1. 1980. There is an estimated 6 million undocumented aliens in our country. It is both impractical and unwise to attempt to round up these aliens and throw them out of the country. In parts of the United States such an attempt by the Federal Government would precipitate a near civil war. and would subject legal residents of foreign appearance to gross invasions of privacy. Studies have shown that between 64 to 75 percent of all undocumented aliens pay Federal income taxes. and as many as 88 percent pay Social Security taxes. Eight years ago. a report by the Federal Government stated that undocumented aliens pay almost $6 billion a year in Federal. State. and local taxes. By setting the cutoff date at January 1. 1980. those aliens legalized will have been the ones who are holding jobs and producing identifiable benefits for their communities.