Speech #990215854

Hagan. almost all of the calls supported his groups activities. One caller. tragically in my view. described the CMA as "the best group of volunteers in this country." In sum. it is clear that the ingredients exist for an explosive reaction on the part of Americans to conditions at the southwestern border. Crime is rampant among the undocumented entrants into the United States. Now. by that I am not suggesting that every single member who comes into the United States in this group is committing crime. In fact. I do not believe the vast majority of them are. but we do know that crime is up among this group. Crime is up. as crimes as committed against illegal aliens coming to this country in increasing numbers. Crime is up as more illegal aliens are committing crimes in this country. so we have Just a situation in which the border is absolutely out of control. Criminal activities are spreading into urban and residential areas. The physical and psychological conditions of existence for undocumented aliens compare unfavorably at times with medieval Europe. While medieval conditions may be interesting for purposes of anthropological investigation. they are intolerable for people who have to live next to them. In this context. I found it significant that my colleague. RON PACKARD of Carlsbad. CA. recently called immigration policy "the hottest. most crucial issue" in his district. Unfortunately. the issues of crime and human degradation may become even hotter If left unattended. As Edward Fike indicated in his editorial. authorities believe that the number of border crossings by undocumented aliens has significantly increased this year. Mr. Inzunza of the INS stated last week that while 1.2 million illegal aliens entered the United States last year. approximately 2 million will probably make the trek this year. Roger Brandemuehl. Chief of the Border Patrol. has justifiably labeled these figures very alarming. As the value of the peso and the price of Mexican oil continue to drop. the alarms may sound even louder. This is because many undocumented aliens enter the United States for specifically economic reasons. Interestingly enough. both Mr. Inzunza and Mexican Congressman Romeo Flores Caballero noted the economic motives and migratory character of much of illegal immigration. Mr. Inzunza observed that naturalization rates continue to be low for immigrants from Latin America. An article In the May 18 edition of the New York Times reinforced these points. Focusing on the village of Santiago Comaltepec in Mexico. it observed that residents of the village occasionally leave their homes for about a year to work in the United States.