Speech #1040190328

Of course. I would dispute that it is significantly less. even if those figures are accurate. We are working with figures that we have worked with throughout this debate that were brought to us by the Commission on Immigration that Barbara Jordan chaired. The bottomline figure. however. still is the same. The number of people who are entering the country is enormous. and the biggest number of people entering the country are in the category of legal immigrants. The gentleman is advocating. as a number of my friends are. and I wish they were not. that we sever legal immigration from illegal immigration. meaning that we leave out. if we take his figures for a minute. and we leave out the question of 800.000 a year. and I say a million. we leave out that question. but we get real tough here on 300.000 illegal immigrants that are entering the country. I would just suggest that it makes no sense to omit legal immigration. If you are concerned about the rapid growth in our population. and I did point out that between 1981 and 1985 legal immigration was 2.8 million. and from 1991 to 1995 it was 5.3 million. about twice as much. and even by Mr. Bermans figures it would be a lot more. if not twice as much. the problem is the quantity of people. How can we not deal with legal immigration if we are going to look at the problem of quantity of people coming Into the country? I say we have to.