Speech #1020014360

President. last year. a very important report was presented to Congress by the Commission for the Study of International Migration and Cooperative Economic Development. As some of my colleagues may recall. Congress established this bipartisan Commission under the auspices of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 [IRCA] to Investigate the "push factors" that cause persons to flee their own countries and Immigrate into the United States without proper documentation. The report. entitled "Unauthorized Migration: An Economic Development Response." is the culmination of a 3year study of these push factors. Mr. President. the Commissions conclusions make excellent sense. Stemming undocumented immigration to this country will never be a reality if we rely solely on border controls and the continued enforcement of the failed employer sanctions program. Rather. an effective solution will require a combination of strategies. both at home and abroad. One Commission Idea in particular merits the serious consideration of the Congress--the establishment of an independent agency with jurisdiction over immigration and refugee matters. I am today reintroducing legislation to establish an Agency for Migration Affairs. which would consolidate most of the immigration and refugee functions that are currently being handled or mishandled by a myriad of Federal bureaus. At present. there are at least five agencies that have jurisdiction over some area of migration policy. These agencies and their various bureaus are often not working in coordination with each other. in fact. they sometimes duplicate each others functions. Presently. the Immigration and Naturalization Service [INS] has the primary responsibility for shaping and implementing the Nations immigration policy. In January 1991. the General Accounting Office [GAO] released a report which documented the failure of the INS to carry out their duties effectively. Specifically. the report found that the INS lacked leadership and budget accountability and is highly fragmented with complicated lines of authority and communications. The GAO made a number of recommendations but concluded that acting on their recommendations alone will not solve the troublestriken agency "Something more fundamental must occur." Mr. President. I represent a State with the single largest immigrant and refugee populations in the Nation. California is home to over 6 million legal immigrants. an estimated 500.000 refugees. and. though it is difficult to calculate. 500.000 undocumented immigrants. I have endured with my constituents the frustrations of dealing with a patchwork of ineffective Federal bureaucracies in resolving extremely complex problems--some of which are life threatening. I have also witnessed the inexplicable separation of our domestic and foreign policies with respect to migration consequences. In my view this is shortsighted and contrary to common sense. The legislation I introduced today would elevate immigration and refugee policy to a national policy by reorganizing the currently fragmented Government structure into one cohesive entity. An independent Agency for Migration Affairs would infuse this area of policymaking with the direction and leadership that are lacking at present. My bill would also promote the coordination of U.S. domestic and foreign policy agendasa major concern for the Commission.