Speech #1010107556

In order to solidify those gains. they wrote a Constitution. a beautiful document. a document which has internal coherence. Two of the aspects of that coherent document are relevant this evening in this debate. One of those is the very clear statement in the Constitution that it is the responsibility of the Federal Government to control naturalization and immigration policy. It is the responsibility of this Government to determine who gains entry. and to provide the enforcement mechanism to assure that those laws operate. Second. without regard to classification. all people are counted for purposes of the census. and have been since 1790. Those two provisions. that it is the Federal Governments responsibility to control who as a person gains entry to the United States. but all those that the Federal Government by action or inaction allows to enter will be counted for purposes of the census. are basic parts of our Constitution. They are basic parts of essential fairness. If the Federal Government. by its decisions to act. by its decisions to allow porous borders. causes certain areas of the country to have large numbers of illegal aliens. then the Constitution says that those people should be counted for purposes of representation. We have accepted that for purposes of allocation of Federal funds because they are people who. by Federal action. are going to be imposing real needs and real obligations of representation on those particular communities. I strongly urge.