Session #99 · 1985–87

Speech #990084596

Because of fear: Fear of falsified documents. Fear that the system is unable to detect cheating. Fear of legalizing someone who meets all the usual tests for legal immigration. but does not have employment records demonstrating his continuous residence in the United States. Fear of antagonizing those who want to deport all the undocumented. and perhaps all the legal resident aliens as well. I know that my good friend from Wyoming genuinely believes that passing this unworkable bill is necessary to give the Congress something symbolic with which to stifle those passions. because if they are not stifled. they will intensify. and what we are asked to do next time to rid ourselves of foreignersalienswill be even worse than what this bill will do. I do not believe that waving this unworkable symbol of immigration reform will stifle those passions or persuade anyone that we have achieved genuine reform. This bill may or may not stifle those passions for a time. if it ever works its way through both Houses in the same form. But it will not deter illegal immigration. it will not reform our immigration laws. and it will cause a great deal of injustice and discrimination along the way. I will vote no on final passage.
Keywords matched
undocumented immigration illegal immigration

Classification

Also mentioned
legal resident aliens
Sentiment
Negative
Stereotyping
No
Confidence
95%
Model
gemini-2.0-flash
Framing
Legal / procedural Security threat

Speaker & context

Speaker
ALAN CRANSTON
Party
D
Chamber
S
State
CA
Gender
M
Date
1985-09-17
Speech ID
990084596
Paragraph
#2
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