Speech #990275148

I favor that. I think it is necessary to deal with the economic incentive that brings some people here. A number of people. especially Hispanic Americans. are afraid because Hispanic Americans have had some experience with discrimination and because so much of the immigration. legal and illegal. occurs on our border with Mexico. that the introduction of employer sanctions may increase discrimination against people based on their ethnicity because people will say. "Gee. the surest way not to hire anybody illegal is to not hire anybody who is Hispanic." We hope that is wrong and we are going to do everything we can to discourage that. In 1984 when this bill was last on the floor in the House. an amendment had been prepared by the gentleman from California . which I then offered after it was defeated in another form. that set up a special provision to deal with discrimination that may come because of employer sanctions. That was substantially compromised. as the gentleman from California pointed out in the 1984 conference.