Speech #990275048

Mr. Chairman. I rise in support of this immigration reform legislation. Illegal immigration is a critical problem which we must address with a sense of urgency and with a responsible plan of action. Mr. Chairman. if this is a typical month. over 100.000 people will illegally cross the U.S. border into California during October. This evergrowing number of illegal aliens in the United Statesas high as 12 millionis causing the United States to withdraw the warm welcome Americans have traditionally given to immigrants from Europe. Mexico. Central and South America. and Asia. These statistics confirm that we have lost control of our borders. Its essential that we regain control of our borders not only as a deterrent to illegal immigration. but also to preserve our ability to honor treaties. to collect tariffs. and to effectively interdict illegal drugs. I support a twopronged approach to this problem: The first is to beef up our border patrol. For the past 4 years. over 1 million illegal aliens have been apprehended each year crossing the U.S. border. This year apprehensions are expected to be 2 million. At the same time the number of apprehensions have doubled. there has been only a slight increase in the number of agents to patrol the border. Our second goal must be to reduce the incentive for aliens to come here illegally. A key provision in this bill imposes sanctions on employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens. This is based on the belief that if employers of illegal aliens are fined. they will no longer provide such jobs. and the lack of jobs will discourage foreign nationals from entering the country illegally. However. while eliminating most jobs for illegal aliens. its important also to establish a workable mechanism to help California agriculture meet its labor needs while eliminating the factors which have permitted exploitation of foreign laborers in the past. H.R. 3810 satisfies all of these needs. It represents a significant improvement over the 1984 immigration reform bill. It is less costly. sunsets employer sanctions if they dont work. and defers the deportation of Salvadoran and Nicaraguan refugees while the risks to them in their own countries are studied. Today. we are faced with a crisis situation. The Immigration and Naturalization Service reports that its apprehensions of illegal aliens have increased by 50 percent over last year. and that onethird of those they apprehend have illegal drugs in their possession. Just this week we passed a comprehensive drug reform bill. but more needs to be done. With this bill. we have the opportunity to do more to fight the war against drugs and also to regain control of our border.