Speech #1010173439

I am appealing to you to support me in a quest to end discrimination against legal workers who look foreign or speak English with an accent. For this reason. today I am introducing a resolution which calls for the repeal of thu employer sanctions provision of IRCA. and provides for stricter enforcement of wage and hour laws. increased personnel levels of the U.S. Border Patrol. inservice training of U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Naturalization Service personnel. and increased penalties for commercial smuggling and harboring of undocumented immigrants. Specifically. my new legislation includes the following provisions: Increased personnel levels of the Border Patrol. For fiscal year 1991. my legislation increases the current number of fulltime border patrol positions to 5.300. Rather than needlessly threatening our civil liberties. it uses the common sense and costeffective solutions to controlling our borders by increasing the resources and personnel of the INS. Increased enforcement of wage and hour laws. Enforcement will be used to remove incentivw for employers to hire undocumented workers. Additional personnel will be assigned to investigate wage and hour violations in areas where there are high concentrations of undocumented workers. Provide inservice training of U.S. Border Patrol and INS personnelThis bill provides for inservice training to familiarize personnel with the civil rights and varied cultural backgrounds of immigrants and citizens. The sum of $2.000.000 will be appropriated to the Attorney General for fiscal year 1991 to carry out the inservice training. Increase penalties for commercial smuggling and harboring undocumented immigrants.-The penalty for commercial trafficking in. transporting. or harboring undocumented immigrants will increase from 5 years imprisonment to 10 years. In addition. my legislation allows the Office of Special Counsel for Immigrationrelated Unfair Employment to remain intact for 1 year to address discrimination cases with respect to charges of unfair immigrationrelated employment practices filed within 180 days of practices. which occurred before the date of enactment of this act. At the expiration of the 1year period. the Attorney General. acting through the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. shall assume all the duties carried out by the Special Counsel with respect to charges of unfair immigrationrelated employment practices. As a country with a rich history of immigration. and an abhorrence for discrimination. we cannot continue implementing a program for employers to discriminate against U.S. citizens and other legal workers. I strongly urge you to cosponsor and support this legislation. H.R.