Speech #1030114021

Mr. Speaker. I was one of the first in the country to call attention to the illegal immigration in the 1970s. I have talked to several Presidents of the United States as to what ought to be done. until the current President. a Democrat. and I am a Republican. he finally suggested what I suggested in the 1970s. a counterfeitproof social security card. so we could keep track of who is crossing our border and who wishes to be employed in the United States. The facts of life are that the turning down of NAFTA is what will create more illegal immigration to this country. It is the exact reverse of what the opponents have said. Right now we do have several thousand a night pouring over the southern border. Nobody talks much about the Canadian border. but we have had illegal immigration pouring over that border for all of the 20th century. waves coming down into Maine. to Michigan. to New York. whenever there is a depression or a recession in Canada. to work in wood cutting or to do other things that were somewhat blue collar type activities. The facts are that they have got it all backwards. that unless we get the economy of both the United States and Mexico going. there will be many more people coming here illegally. Our parents came here legally. or when there were no immigration laws in this country. The problem with illegal immigration is that there are hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world waiting to be admitted legally to the United States. and that threequarters of a million people come in here legally each year. We admit more people to our country than all the rest of the world combined. We have a lot of things to do to stop illegal immigration. A lot of us. I am sure my colleague and I and various others. there are dozens of us on pieces of legislation here to help do it. whether it be the counterfeitproof social security card. whether it be limiting benefits in the United States. whether it be amending the Constitution to straighten out whether children of illegals can be citizens of the United States. all of those things. plus the fact that we are finally facing up in this Chamber to more power for the Border Patrol and more strength. when we voted $60 million a few months ago to be added to the Border patrol to stop the tide of illegal immigration. All I can say is if people want to promote illegal immigration. please vote down NAFTA on November 17th and you will have much more illegal immigration than you have ever wanted.