He could get proof from his past employers. some of my colleagues say. My friends. when his employers have never deducted or reported his wages. And how many employers are going to testify to the Government that illegals was here before 82 and admit they broke the law and employed an undocumented alien? This amnesty program is a farce. Six months after the bill is enacted. it gives aliens 18 months to apply for the program. Is this fair to those who apply after the 18month deadline? Undocumented aliens in the barrio and in on the farms are not the best informed people. To notify millions of illegal immigrants about this law. and convince them that it is safe for them to apply. is going to take a lot longer than 18 months. Legalization should be done on cases of merit. not in a blanket amnesty. The Government should determine how undocumented aliens have benefited and how they have hurt society. and adjust the numbers and qulifications for legal status accordingly. Strangely enough. the bill does this for Western European immigrants. in an attempt to reinstate numbers that were reduced in 1965. These numbers go by a tried and true preference system. which specifically takes into account the skills needed by our country and the skills these immigrants can offer. This is just and reasonable. The blanket amnesty contained in this bill is a monstrous farce. Someone who has been here 10 years may have a much more stable and productive livelihood. and may be contributing much more to society. than someone who has been here 4 years. Yet this bill requires that the two be considered for legalization under equal terms. One of our own INS regional commissioners describes illegal immigrants in general as drug users and thieves. Would he. then. consider all of them together under a blanket amnesty? We saw the unfortunate result of such a policy during the Mariel boatlift of 1981. when our blanket acceptance of Cuban immigrants gave our country a boatload of people seeking refuge and some seeking a place to practice their criminal activity. A blanket amnesty is a quick fix. not a policy. Treating applicants like potential American citizenson a basis of meritis our present policy and should continue to be our policy. This bill continues this policy in the case of Europeans. Do the authors of this legislation consider European immigrants people but undocumented aliens who live in the United States cattle? Undocumented aliens are not different. they are more numerous. We should not put them under a different policy. we should provide more resources for the INS to process them under existing policy. There is a provision in this legalization program which is particularly glaring in its shortsightedness and its injustice. That is the socalled Schumer proposal. which would give legal status to 350.000 illegal aliens who had worked for 90 days last year in perishable agriculture. It further allows for admission of socalled replenishment workers. who would be eligible for permanent resident status after working in agriculture for 3 years for at least 90 days per year. Why should we make special provisions for farmworkers but not for garment or factory workers? I assure my colleagues that there are many more American farmworkers than garment or factory workers who are displaced by illegal aliens. The only difference is that the garment industry does not have the lobby that agriculture does. This is ironic because. after the 90 days of work on the farms. where are these workers going to go for the other 9 months of the year?
Identified stereotypes
Illegal immigrants are described as drug users and thieves.