Speech #1040201732

President. I am pleased to be here today to speak about an issue that profoundly impacts my State of California. That Issue is illegal immigration. I know that there has been a big debate in the Senate committee of jurisdiction over whether we should blend in the Issues of legal and illegal immigration. I want to restate and reaffirm my position that I hope they will be handled separately. I know that Chairman SIMPSON. who has worked so hard. would prefer to combine these two issues. The reason I believe it is important to have a separate debate is that one group of people. illegal immigrants. choose to break our laws. and legal immigrants choose to follow our laws. Those are two distinct and Important differences. Mr. President. no State in the entire country receives more illegal immigrants than the State of California. Out of the approximately 300.000 Illegal immigrants that come to the United States and stay each and every year. about 35 percent to 40 percent of them live in California. Why do most illegal immigrants come to America? Clearly. it is to find work. They are hired because we are not fully enforcing the laws we have on the books. which make it unlawful to hire illegal immigrants. That is clear. It is against the law. Now. it seems to me we have to do more to enforce those laws. I have always said that In order to control the problem of illegal immigration. we need to do it at the border and at the workplace. To intercede elsewhere. in my opinion. is not particularly effective. Clearly. if you enforce the immigration laws at the border. you stop the problem immediately. If you miss that opportunity. the workplace is the next best place to go. The bill before us that deals with the issue of illegal Immigration has many provisions I very strongly support. I strongly support the provisions in title I of the bill. which strengthens law enforoements ability to stop Illegal immigration. For instance. the bill will increase the number of Border Patrol agents by 4.000 for the next 4 fiscal years--a 90percent increase over current levels. and it is noeded. I also strongly support the bills provisions to add up to 900 new INS investigators over the next 3 fiscal years to enforce the laws against alien smuggling and the unlawful employment of illegal immigrants. This increase of 900 new INS investigators is a 100percent increase over current law. So. clearly. this bill is moving us in the right direction in regard to stopping illegal immigration at the border and the workplace. I want to take an opportunity to thank and compliment the Clinton administration for getting serious about enforcement at the Southwest border. It Is long overdue. We have had protestations from detractors of this administration that they do not do enough. The fact Is that this is the first administration to do anything about Illegal immigration. Let me repeat that. The Clinton administration Is the first administration to do anything about illegal Immigration. Whether it is to begin to reimburse the States for the costs they have to bear. which are outrageouscosts for emergency medical care. costs for putting those criminal aliens into prisonwe are finally beginning to see some reimbursement here. However. it is not enough. and we need to do more. I compliment the leaders of this bill because there is an authorization in there for full reimbursement for the costs of providing emergency medical assistance to illegal immigrants. We have also seen an Increase in the National Guard at the border. Their presence relieves Border Patrol agents from desk jobs. and their work on such things as building fences and roads and repairing sensors and night scopes Is very important. At the time that I recommended bringing more National Guard to the border. the National Guard at that time was about 145 in San Diego. Now they number up to 400. So we see that there has been an increase in National Guard at the border. doing such things as relieving the Border Patrol of desk jobs and these other engineering jobs that I have outlined for you. When I first injected more National Guard presence. people thought I was going to send them down to the border in uniform with weaponry. That was never the point. We said it is a resource that ought to be used. and I think we ought to use them more. In 1994. the Immigration and Naturalization Service kicked off Operation Gatekeeper. its initiative along Californias border with Mexico. In the last 2 fiscal years. we have seen an increase of 500 Border Patrol agents in San Diego. So we see that this administration Is moving forward. But this bill is very necessary and gives us more resources at the border than we have had up until now. and. I might add. more technology and equipment that we need at the borderequipment such as infrared scopes. sensors. automated fingerprint ID systems. INS will be installing a new radio network in San Diego to handle encrypted voice communication. and that Is very important. As I said before. we have to stop illegal immigration at the border. and if we fail there. at the workplace. I think we have to remember that that is why illegal immigrants come herefor work. Now. how badly are our wage and hour laws being violated? We only have to look at the case of the sweatshop uncovered in El Monte.