Mr. President. I have been working on the issue of illegal and legal immigration for many years. as has a colleagues on this floor. Senator KENNEDY of Massachusetts. We may not agree on all the issues that confront us with regard to this burning issue. but we have worked closely together for many years in the spirit of friendship and accommodation. There will be issues here that we will not agree on once again. I served as a member of the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy. as chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Policyserving under Senator STROM THURMOND. the former chairman of Judiciaryand now as ranking member on the Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Policy. In those capacities I see that we have come to the point where now we see large scale illegal immigration into the United States. fueling an antiimmigration mood in this country. The American people believe that our immigration laws and policy are ineffective. and this feeling of helplessness about immigration will soon have a most detrimental affect on legal immigration and on legal immigrants. I know this is so. Mr. President. because our constituents make this so very clear to us whenever we return to our districts. Mail to my office from persons concerned about immigration is at its highest level since I have been on the Immigration and Refugee Subcommittee. Some will say this is the result of a recession. and as the economy improves. so will the feelings we have about immigration. But this is not so. Mr. President--not this time. This antiimmigration mood was virtually nonexistent during the depths of the recession. Efforts to make it a political issue during the last Presidential campaign failed miserably and completely. But today the mood is changed. and we had best be prepared to respondand in our best as a Nation. Newspapers and television have given wide coverage to those aliens who destroy their passports upon arrival at our airports. and then inform the immigration authorities that they want to stay to pursue an asylum claim. They well know that the system is so overwhelmed that it will be a year or more before their claim can be heard. They should be detained. yet they also know that there is limited detention space. and they will be released to live and work in the United States.
Keywords matched
Immigration immigration immigrants Refugee illegal immigration asylum claim antiimmigration