Speech #1000059063

The mother entered the United States with her three small children before the cutoff date of January 1. 1982. and thus all four are eligible for legalization. The father. however. entered the country shortly after the cutoff date. and therefore. is ineligible for amnesty. As the law now stands. there is a possibility that he will be deported and separated from his family. Furthermore. even if he decides to remain with his family illegally. he will be unable to work because of the new laws strict prohibition against hiring illegals. Another such case came to light a few weeks ago during a candlelight vigil held recently in Rhode Island to protest the lack of guidelines on family unity. An 11yearold girl. an undocumented alien. came forward and announced that only her father had applied for legalization. The little girl. her mother. and her two siblings had entered the country on January 20. 1982. just 3 weeks after the cutoff date for legalization. and will not be able to join their father in applying for amnesty! In my opinion. hers is a tragic situation. and an intolerable one that Congress should remedy. Across the country. there are thousands of such cases. I believe that they offer one explanation for the low level of activity in the amnesty program. which has been receiving a trickle of applications rather than the flood that was expected. Many. many hardworking. honest. immigrant families. fearful of deportation of one or more ineligible members. are choosing not to participate. The irony is that these are exactly the kinds of people the new law was meant to help. Rather than offering them a new beginning. as was our intention in passing the law. the amnesty program has given them more cause for confusion and anxiety. Immigration officials and some members of Congress argue that INS officials will use the flexibility of the regulations to avoid the separation of family members. That is encouraging to hear. but it is not enough for me. Family unity is too important to leave to the goodfaith efforts of busy bureaucrats. In recent weeks. I have received letters and petitions from thousands of constituents. asking that Congress correct this problem. These friends and neighbors of undocumented aliens insist that the law as it stands is. as one petition stated. "punitive to family life in our community." I agree with them that it is time for us to act. and believe the solution is legislation that will leave no doubt about the unity of immigrant families. The bill I am introducing today will allow spouses and children of eligible aliens to remain here legally with their families. Since my bill will only assist individuals who were already in this country when the immigration law was passed. it will not increase immigration levels whatsoever. Nor will it pose a new threat to American jobs. In fact. many sectors of our economy. especially agriculture and the service industry. would welcome additional labor.