Speech #1040201732

President. I am pleased to be here today to speak about an issue that profoundly impacts the State of California. That issue is illegal immigration. And before I go any further. I want to reaffirm my position that legal and illegal immigration must be treated separately. I know that Chairman SIMPSON. who has worked very hard on the issue of immigration. would prefer to link these two issues together. However. I believe having a separate debate on the two issues will better ensure that Congress recognizes the critical difference between those illegal immigrants who choose to break our laws. and those legal immigrants who choose to follow them. Mr. President. no State in the entire country receives more illegal immigrants than California. Out of the approximately 300.000 illegal immigrants that come to the United States and stay every year. about 35 to 40 percent of them live in California. Why do they come here? Most of them come to find work. And they are hired because we are not enforcing the laws we have on the books which make it unlawful to hire illegal immigrants. That must change. I have always said that in order to control the problem of illegal immigration. we need to do it at the border and the workplace. To intercede elsewhere. in my opinion. is not effective. The bill before us today is S. 1664. the Immigration Control and Financial Responsibility Act of 1996. The bill contaIns many provisions which are praiseworthy. I strongly support the provisions intitle I of the bill which strengthen law enforcements abilities to stop illegal immigration. For instance. the bill would increase the number of Border Patrol agents by 4.000 for the next 4 fiscal yearsa 90percent increase over current levels. I also strongly support the bills provisions to add up to 900 new INS investigators to enforce the laws against alien smuggling and the unlawful employment of illegal immigrants. This is an increase of about 100 percent over current law. I want to take this opportunity to compliment the Clinton administration for getting serious about enforcement at the Southwest border. It is about time and long overdue. for despite protestations from detractors of this administration in Californiathis is the first administration to do anything about illegal immigration. And we have 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. At the time I recommended bringing more National Guard at the border. they numbered 145 at the San Diego border. Now they number as high as In 1994. the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS] kicked off Operation Gatekeeperits initiative along Californias border with Mexico. In the last 2 fiscal years. we have seen an increase of 1.150 border patrol agents nationallymore than 500 of whom have been deployed in San Diego. Counting the 800 new Border Patrol agents for this fiscal year. the Border Patrol force will have been increased by 40 percent since the Clinton administration took over. California now has over 1.500 Border Patrol agents patrolling our border and enforcing our immigration laws. But as we all know. Mr.