Mr. Chairman. there has been a lot of debate on this issue this morning. but there is one thing that really concerns me. The issue we are dealing with here today is illegal immigration. It is almost in every case. when we get into this discussion. that we start talking about how much contribution immigrants make to this country. And I could not agree more. We are a Nation of immigrants. Most of us can track our immigrant roots back less than two or three generations. but the issue we are discussing here today. Mr. Chairman. is illegal immigration. We are a generous Nation. We allow more people to legally emigrate to this country every year than all the rest of the nations of the world combined. But the issue we are talking about is illegal immigration. I have had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time down on our international border at San Diego in recent years. and it is absolutely unbelievable the conditions that our young men and women who are trying to protect our borders are living under. Trying to solve this problem with the current Border Patrol is like trying to catch a B1B bomber with a butterfly net. it Just aint going to work without more help. Two weeks ago I was down at the border. Our Border Patrol agents explained to me that they have over 100 new vehicles. brandnew vehicles that they cannot use because they do not have money to put radios or screens in them. Mr. Chairman. in my State we have 866.000 children in our public school system. K through 12. who are children of illegal aliens. Twothirds of all the births in Los Angeles County general hospitals last year. the mother had no legal right to be in this country. Twentyfive percent of the entire Federal penitentiary inmate population are aliens. You know. there is discussion that illegal aliens do not take American jobs. That is just plain bunk. Professor Huddle of Rice University. an academic. not on one side or the other. produced a document last month that showed that 900.000 Americans have been displaced and replaced by illegal alien workers. In fact. in my home district in Oxnard. CA. a couple of months ago there was a raid on a plant. Fiftytwo illegal aliens were arrested. That hit the papers. and within 24 hours 210 American citizens were at the door of that plant applying for those jobs. Mr. Chairman. my office. my staff in California. have one of the finest staffs of any Member in this body. They spend as much time helping immigrants legally come into this country than any other issue. and they will continue to do that. But I commit to you that this Member is going to work very aggressively to see that those coming to this country come here legally and orderly for the benefit of this Nation.
Identified stereotypes
Generalization that illegal aliens displace American workers.