Speech #1030054404

Signs of the tension are increasing. In Orange County. CA. a grand jury recommended the drastic step of imposing a 3year national moratorium on all immigration. A New York TimesCBS poll last week showed that 61 percent of the people surveyed said the rate of immigration into the United States should be reduced. Only 49 percent felt that way in a similar 1986 survey. I am deeply concerned about the consequences of these rising tensions. I believe that we can avoid a serious backlash against all immigrants if we take strong action now to restrict illegal immigration and to protect legal immigration. It is estimated that about 8.9 million people have come to this country legally over the past decade. but another 3 million have slipped into the country illegally. I. for one. support legal immigration. It is the foundation of our Nation and it is the fabric from which America derives her magnificent coat of diversity. In California. there are 1.3 million undocumented immigrants. with more than onehalf of them residing in one county. That is the county of Los Angeles. And the undocumented come from many places around the world. Many work hard to earn a living and to feed their families. But increasingly. the numbers of undocumented workers rise in larger and larger numbers. For example. 3.000 to 5.000 people attempt to cross the MexicoCalifornia border each night. and 50 to 60 percent succeed. In just one recent weekend. 2 weekends ago. 9.000 people attempted to illegally cross the border. And 4.500 in just a weekend were actually arrested. In this same region. an underground tunnel was recently discovered that was built to transport drugs and illegal immigrants under the border. The wellpublicized cost of immigration goes a long way toward explaining although not justifying the increasing concern about immigration across our land. Last year. the State and localities of California spent $1.7 billion to pay for the educational. medical. and correctional costs associated with undocumented persons. The Federal Government spent an additional $377 million of its share of medical costs. That is a total of almost $2.1 billion in California alone. Put in another perspective. Mr. President. 10 percent. or $308 million. of Los Angeles Countys entire budget goes to the cost of undocumented individuals. Mr. President. I ask unanimous consent that three tables illustrating the impact of undocumented individuals be printed in the RECORD.