Speech #990284268

President. It will in no way resolve many of the basic problems which it makes more difficult rather than less difficult. The idea that a legalization or amnesty can be given to potentially 6 to 16 million illegal immigrants. who arrived illegally in this country before January 1. 1982. is to undermine the very principles of legality upon which our entire immigration system is founded. In the words of my former colleague. Senator Richard Schweiker. the socalled legalization or amnesty "puts the Government squarely behind the lawbreaker. and in effect. says Congratulations. you have successfully violated our laws and avoided detectionhere is your reward." In clear language. granting amnesty rewards the lawbreaker pure and simple. Just yesterday. a representative of a coalition of Hispanic groups from my own State called our office to tell us of Hispanic opposition in Utah to the bill. Polls taken during recent years. such as the Associated Press Media Journal Public Opinion on February 6. 1985. of 1.532 adults in a scientific polling sample. indicate that almost half of the Hispanic citizens in this country oppose legalization and they wish to make our immigration laws more difficult instead of less difficult. A U.S. News & World Report survey. in February 1986. elicited 36.000 responses from its readership. 74.9 percent of those responding indicated that immigration should be restricted further. In the words of a senior fellow at a Center for Immigration Studies here in Washington. himself a Hispanic: "I know of many MexicanAmericans who are telling me that they feel that * * * the coin of citizenship for them is being debased by this virtually uncontrolled mass of illegal immigration." I might add that I have received literally dozens and dozens of letters from ordinary citizens who are in a state of outrage over using legalization as a tool to immigration control. These concerned citizens ask: Control what? And once legalized. is this not an incentive to other potential illegals to come here and to try and attempt to do the same thing?