Speech #1040190395

Mr. Chairman. I rise in support of the Immigration in the National Interest Act. and I want to congratulate the gentleman from Texas . the chairman. for the work he has done in bringing this balanced bill to the floor. In addition to my chairmanship of the policy committee. I am the vice chairman of the Speakers task force on California. and our task force has made reform of illegal immigration. fighting illegal immigration. our No. 1 State priority here in the Congress. This bill answers that call. In 1994. the voters of California sent a very loud message all the way here to Washington. DC. all the way to the floor of this Congress: Immigration. a Federal responsibility. needs to be looked after by the Federal Government. Illegal immigration. which affects California disproportionately. we have over half the illegal immigrants in America in our State. needs to be looked after. Prop 187 was simple. It denied welfare and social service benefits to illegal aliens. This bill will fulfill that promise at the Federal level. This bill and amendments that Chairman SMITH has made in order on the floor will succeed in ensuring that the procedures for deporting people who are in the country illegally and who should be sent back to their own countries. that those procedures will be streamlined. that It will not take forever and a day to go through the judicial process for this purpose. It will add sufficient Border Patrol agents. 10.000 of them. so that we can actually enforce the law. It will end welfare dependency among illegal aliens by tightening the existing restrictions against receipt of benefits by illegal aliens and putting teeth into the sponsorship regulations that have been long on the books. but never enforced. This law will permit us to enforce them. There is something else that the gentleman from Texas . the chairman. has permitted to come to the floor in his managers amendment that I think is going to be very. very important for us in southern California. Residents of Orange County were reminded of the costly delays in the current deportation process 6 months ago when Officer Tim Garcia of the Anaheim Police Force was shot and seriously wounded by an illegal alien with a criminal record. This was not an isolated instance in Anaheim. A recent 60day survey indicates that 35 percent of all the inmates sent to the Anaheim jail are illegal aliens. The managers amendment in this bill is going to correct this tragedy through the establishment of a 6month project in Anaheim which will lead the way for the rest of the country. An INS agent will be stationed at the city of Anaheims incarceration facilities to perform frontline documentation and appropriate questioning of criminally charged suspected illegal aliens. This and other provisions to this bill make it a remarkable achievement. I want to congratulate the bipartisan leadership that has brought this bill to the floor.