Speech #990084592

President. I commend Senator SIMPSON for his long and arduous work in a difficult and almost impossible task. He has given a great deal of time and energy to S. 1200 and has done a prodigious job in attempting to pull together the various issues relating to immigration. No one can have been more dedicated and more sincere in seeking to create a bill which would be acceptable to the multiplicity of views on immigration issues. Unfortunately. although I believe that the immigration bill has made a valiant attempt to resolve the basic issues of immigration control. I cannot support S. 1200 in its present form. The immigration bill rests upon the twin pillars of employer sanctions and legalization. I share the view of the American Bar Association that the proponents of the bill have failed to demonstrate that employer sanctions will provide an effective mechanism to curb illegal immigration into the United States. I particularly feel that the threat of criminal sanctions. even though to be applied to a second offense. will have a detrimental effect on employment of agricultural workers. I have been told by a number of perishable crop growers and those involved in agricultural production that employer sanctions will have a discriminatory effect upon their hiring of farm workers. The presumption contained in S. 1200. that employers knowingly hired undocumented aliens found in their employment unless they keep records of the immigration status of their employees will have a discriminatory effect upon the very group that this bill is seeking to protect. Even those agricultural employers with less than four employees. knowing about civil and criminal sanctions in the immigration bill. will shy away from hiring foreign workers. The burden placed upon prospective employers and the cost of administration to those same employers outweighs whatever positive effects might be obtained from the punitive aspects of the bill with respect to the reduction of illegal immigration. Criminal sanctions are all the more unacceptable. There is a question of their enforceability.