Speech #1010094000

We have talked about this considerably. and he is the author of these provisions. But I have studied the Salvadoran question extensively. and I have spent a lot of time in El Salvador. I have spent time looking at the people who are being returned by the Immigration Service. and the fact of the matter is simply that by and large the Salvadorans who are in this country are here for economic reasons. They are not in fear of political or religious persecution or any other form of persecution upon being returned to that country. and as important as it may be to some people to see Salvadorans stay here for economic reasons. that is not the policy that has guided our Immigration Service in this country in the past. It is not the policy we should be setting here now. and it completely guts the immigration law and the Refugee Act of 1980. Those of us who are involved would have liked to have been able to divide these questions a little bit and to have had amendments to the bill that is coming forward today instead of having a closed rule like this. Unfortunately. we do not have that opportunity.