Speech #1040190242

Mr. Speaker. having said that. I do rise in support of this rule and the bill that it makes in order. the Immigration in the National Interest Act. Mr. Speaker. just to put into perspective the problem we will be considering over the next 2 days. let me begin with a few facts. No. 1: Nationwide more than onequarter of all Federal prisoners are illegal aliens. According to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. in 1980. the total foreignborn population in Federal prisons was 1.000 which was less than 4 percent of all inmates. In 1995. the foreignborn population in Federal prisons was 27.938. which constitutes 29 percent of all inmates. The result is an enormous extra expense to be picked up by the Federal taxpayers. Fact No. 2: The U.S. welfare system is rapidly becoming a retirement home for the elderly of other countries. In 1994. nearly 738.000 noncitizen residents were receiving aid from the Supplemental Security Income program known as SSI. This is a 580percent increaseup from 127.900 in 1982in Just 12 years. The overwhelming majority of noncitizen SSI recipients are elderly. Most apply for welfare within 5 years of arriving in the United States. By way of comparison. the number of U.S.-born applying for SSI benefits has increased just 49 percent in the same period. Without reform. according to the Wall Street Journal. the total cost of SSI and Medicaid benefits for elderly noncitizen immigrants will amount to more than $328 billion over the next 10 years. Fact No. 3: In the public hospitals of our largest State. California. 40 percent of the births are to illegal aliens. Since each newborn is automatically a citizen. he or she becomes eligible for all the benefits of citizenship. Fact No. 4: There is a link between legal immigration and illegal immigration. According to the report of the Judiciary Committee on this bill. close to half of all illegal aliens come In on legal temporary visas. and never return home. Fact No. 5: According to a Roper Poll in December of 1995. 83 percent of all Americans are in favor of reducing all immigration. Within these totals. 80 percent of AfricanAmericans favor reducing all immigration and 67 percent of HispanicAmericans favor reducing all immigration. Mr. Speaker. these facts serve to point out the nature of the problem we are facing. The poll numbers point the direction our constituents want us to go. The bill which will be before the House over the next couple of days is a giant step toward solving the problems facing our Nation and I commend the members of the Judiciary Committee who did the work to put it together. I would particularly like to commend the chairman of the Immigration and Claims Subcommittee. the gentleman from Texas. Mr. LAMAR SMTH. and his ranking minority member. the gentleman from Texas.