Speech #990085274

Mr. President. the issue of how this country deals with illegal immigration remains one of the most vexing problems iacing the Congress. It is an issue which forces us to balance our Nations sovereigntyand ability to control the borderswith the role America has played as a haven for the oppressed. It is an issue which forces us to reconcile law enforcement needs with our commitment to civil liberties and civil rights. The immigration issue must be addressed. Since the Carterera Commission on Immigration issued its report. the Congress has labored to strike an appropriate balance between these competing. and often conflicting. values. Senator SumpsoN. in particular. deserves to be commended for his unrelenting attention to this issue. Clearly. he wants to see this issue resolved. Many of our colleagues would like to see the problem of illegal immigration behind us. But we must not permit our desire to have a bill to overcome our obligation to support the right bill. In my judgment. S. 1200 is not the right answer to our immigration problems. Consequently. I am not able to support its passage. In prior immigration reform bills. the imposition of employer sanctions and "amnesty" or legalization occurred contemporaneously. In this bill. sanctions will come into force 3 years before legalization. This means that aliens who will be qualified for legal status cannot work. as a practical matter. for 3 years. During these 3 years. illegal aliens will have no protections against abuse. No protections against deportation. for example. even if they are qualified for subsequent legalization. Our colleague. Senator LEviN. offered an amendment to correct this defect in the legislation. but it was defeated. Yet. the sponsors cannot answer the question. What are the immigrants qualified for legalization supposed to do for 3 years until their status is adjusted? Mr. President. beyond the 3year gap. the legalization date in the legislation of 1980 is far too stringent. During consideration of the legislation. we voted three times on the matter of migrant farm labor. Sponsors of the amendment argued that growers could not stay in business without having access to unrestricted numbers of illegal workers to process perishable crops. The Wilson amendment responds to the growers by permitting the importation of up to 350.000 illegal migrant workers for 3 years. At that time. the program will sunset. Even with the adoption of the sunset amendment. the Wilson proposal has rendered the bill contradictory. if not hypocritical. One ostensible purpose of the bill is to stop illegal immigration and legalize aliens. who have been in the country for some time. But the Wilson amendment. permitting entry of 350.000 migrant workers. is totally inconsistent with the enforcement and control provisions of the bill. It is difficult to see how these illegal workers can be monitored. so. once they enter the country. we will have opened the floodgates again. Moreover. as suggested in earlier debate. the Wilson amendment actually contains fewer safeguards than the socalled Bracero programfewer safeguards against wage discrimination. abuse of these laborers. and the like.