Speech #1040017331

Madam President. today. President Clinton announced an important and innovative new $1 billion immigration initiative to address the problems of illegal immigration. This initiative represents a coordinated new approach by the Immigration Service. the Customs Service. and the Labor Department to confront this problem headon. and to do so in ways which protect the rights of lawabiding Americans and legal immigrants. This initiative comes on top of already substantial accomplishments by the Clinton administration in the enforcement of the immigration laws. This administration. more than any other. has enhanced border enforcement by increasing the ranks of the Border Patrol and applying modem enforcement tools. It has soughtand receivedthe largest budget increases in the history of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. It has expanded efforts to identify and remove criminal aliens from the country. And it has provided specific assistance to States which bear the brunt of the costs of illegal immigration. It is clear that effective control of illegal immigration requires not only strong border enforcement. but also removal of the magnet of employment that attracts illegal aliens to the United States. For the past 2 years. the administration has focused unprecedented new resources on the problem of illegal border crossers. The administrations fiscal year 1996 plan will add 700 new Border Patrol officers this year. and bring the total officers adde4 during this administration to 1.750. It will give these Border Patrol officers the backup support they need to do their jobs. by adding 140 support staff and by providing additional sophisticated border technology such as surveillance cameras and motion sensors. Millions of people enter the United States for business and tourism each year. The administrations goal is to ensure that legitimate border crossers are assisted in entering as rapidly and efficiently as possible. and that potentil lawbreakers are identified and kept out. The administrations proposal will provide 680 new INS inspectors and 375 new Customs inspectors to facilitate legal entries and to prevent smuggling of aliens. drugs. and other contraband. The plan will provide these inspectors with upgraded lookout systems and other computer facilities for rapid detection of those unqualified for entry. Since legitimate border crossers benefit most by these enforcement activities. the administration is seeking authorization to charge a nominal border crossing fee. for use exclusively in upgrading ports of entry and in border enforcement. Aliens enter the United States illegally. or overstay legitimate visitor visas. principally because too many employers are willing to violate the law to hire them. The second aspect of the administrations proposal will invest an additional $93 million in workplacerelated enforcement. The administration will add 365 new INS investigators and 202 Department of Labor wage and hour investigators to target geographical locations and industries where illegal aliens most commonly find employment. The majority of American employers want to comply with the law. But many find it difficult to determine which aliens are eligible to work. To address this problem. the Commission on Immigration Reform has called for establishment of a nationwide database of INS and Social Security data that employers can use to verify the workauthorized status of job applicants. The Commissions recommendation has significant support. but a number of critics have raised important questions about the wisdom of a nationwide database. Experts in computer privacy and civil liberties have questioned it. and others have suggested that the cost of such a database may be prohibitive. The administrations plan is a stepbystep approach to test the feasibility and desirability of the Conunissions proposal. and to explore other methods of verifying eligibility for employment. This approach will permit us to evaluate the potential benefits and costs of such reforms. while making real improvements in existing systems now. The third major portion of the administrations plan provides $178 million in additional funding for the deportation of criminal and other deportable aliens. including a major enhancement of an existing program that permits INS to deport criminal aliens immediately after they have finished serving their criminal sentences. The administration will also concentrate greater resources on locating and deporting noncriminal aliens who have been ordered deported in the past but have failed to leave the country. Madam President. I commend.the Administration for its proposal.