Speech #1030091056

He could have at this point thrown away his work document. The Virginia drivers license enabled Kansi to buy a gun in the State of Virginia. and with this gun. to kill innocent people outside the CIA headquarters. The drivers license has become a common way for undocumented immigrants to show employers and others that they are here legally when. in fact. they are not here legally. Mr. President. this Is only one problem of what I believe is one of the two or three most serious problems facing our country today. that is. immigration legal and illegal. Today. we are only going to talk about illegal immigration as it relates to this amendment. The cost of illegal and legal immigration at all levels of Government this next year will be about $5 billion. It is about $45 billion until the turn of this century. This figure takes into account the taxes that these immigrants pay. According to the Attorney General of the United States 26 percent of Federal prisoners are noncitizens at a cost of $30.000 per inmate per year. In 1982. 128.000 immigrants received Social Security benefits. Ten years later. that figure Jumped to offer 600.000. an increase of some 370 percent. In 1986. we graciously. even though I opposed it. granted amnesty to 3.2 million illegal immigrants. After being in this country for 10 years. the average amnesty recipient had a sixth grade education. earned less than $6 per hour and presently qualifies for the earned income tax credit. Last year alone. INS estimatesI think this is low3.5 million illegal border crossings occurred in our country. Of these. the INS apprehended only about 1 million. The INS currently employs 3.800 Border Patrol agents. keeping in mind. Mr. President. how inadequate this is. because last year the United States had over 500 million entries. I am not going to go into a lot more detail about the problems that are here regarding immigration legal and illegal. There is legislatiof I have introduced with others that addresses this. I would hope this body would recognize what a serious matter this is and move on with the substantive legislation.