Speech #990214177

President. it is required of those of us in the Congress to ask: What provision will we make for the expenses that will be incurred locally. large expenses. in the aftermath of this ruling? I have made some rough calculations. I cannot speak to it with the authority of the Human Resources Administration of New York City. for example. but the numbers are roughly that in 1980. there were 234.000 illegal aliens in New York State. just over onequarter of 1 million. At that same time. In 1980. of the 17.5 million residents of our State. 1.3 million. or 7 percent received Medicaid payments of $1.486 per month. Jul 151986 Mr. President. it is altogether unfair that local and State governments should have to assume a large share of the cost of dealing with illegal aliens. whose presence is a manifest evidence of a failure by the Federal Government to enforce its laws. Were the Immigration and Naturalization Service able to police our borders and regulate their movement. as they are required to do under law. If the Federal Government did what it says it must do. there would be no illegal aliens or. if there were. there would be an insignificant number. They would not be the massive numbers that we all are aware of in the State of New York of 234.000. In any event.