Speech #990186054

Much to their credit. the H2 Coalition. a group of agricultural interests working to try to come up with legislation. has supported S. 1200. the Simpson bill. along with the reform of the H2 program adopted in the other body. They have also worked constructively with our subcommittee to bring about similar provisions to streamline our version of the bill as well. This is a welcome departure from the activities of some in the agriculture industry in the last Congress who lobbied. both publicly and behind the scenes. feverishly throughout the conference last year to kill immigration reform when it became apparent they would not get everything they wanted in the guestworker program. I should note once again for clarity. however. that the conference itself resolved the agricultural labor issues with relative ease. Since the conference. I think that it is instructive to note that the challenges posed by uncontrolled illegal immigration have not subsided. Quite to the contrary. As I noted in my special order 2 days ago. apprehensions are up over 40 percent compared with the previous year. In one 66mile sector of the border that is in the sector that includes San Diego more than 270.000 undocumented aliens have been arrested in the last 6 months. In other words. those who have a vested interest in the status quo are. in my estimation. sadly mistaken if they feel they can bury their heads in the sand and hope the problem will simply go away. Perhaps they dont care. but we as elected officials of the U.S. Government must care. because it is absolutely an essential challenge facing our constituents around the country. Similarly. if the agricultural labor issue is to be addressed in the context of immigration reform legislation. it is also necessary to examine all proposals not only from the standpoint of whether they are good public policy but also with an eye toward their political feasibility. In this regard. proposals for a dual legalization programknown euphemistically as a green card proposalare a nonsolution. in my judgment. Are we supposed to believe that this Congress would create a revolving door for potentially millions of people based solely on a tangential contract they may have had with agricultural work? As I mentioned in a previous special order. if one figures that a work force of 300.000 at minimum will be required and each worker brings in three family persons. the initial group alone could total over 1 million persons.