Speech #1010044083

And I said. "We will deal with that sometime in the future. I see what you are trying to do. I realize it is contentious and the issues of constitutionality are here." But I think that this is an appropriate amendment in that it would prohibit the Census Board from counting Illegal aliens. I would rather we did not deal with it on this bill. but since it is here and now that it is the third amendment on illegal immigration that we have dealt with on this legal immigration bill. we should address it. I am going to support it. I am well aware that the Constitution states that we shall count personsthat is the descriptionnot merely citizens. when conducting the census every decade. But I do not believe that the framers of the Constitution in 1789 or the framers of the 14th amendment in 1866 ever conceived of the stunning phenomenon of illegal immigration. While there is no distinction drawn in the Constitution between persons and citizens. I am not at all of the belief that the framers would have wanted us to include illegal aliens. A concept unknown to them at that time in our history. and yet oddly enough. they believed wholeheartedly in slavery. or at least partially in slavery. So it is unknown what they may have been thinking when they used that term. but they certainly. I think. did not suspect what would occur with regard to the problem of illegal immigration. I think it would have been out of the scope of their definition of "person" to be counted for apportionment purposes. It is the first duty. and I have said it so many times. the first duty of a sovereign nation to control its own borders.