Speech #1040201778

It also attacks the serious problem of document fraud by setting Federal standards for making key identification documents. birth certificates. and drivers licenses tamperproof and counterfeit resistant. The result is that the most counterfeited document. a birth certificate. would be counterfeitproof. as would drivers licenses. The bill before us would increase the criminal penalties for document fraud. including raising the maximum fine for fraudulent use of the Governments seal to $500.000. and increasing the fine for lying on immigration documents to 3250.000 and 5 years in prison. The bill also denies the earnedincome tax credit to persons here illegally. You might say. is this a strong. tough bill? I would have to say. yes. It is a strong. tough bill. Former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan and the immigration commission which she chaired said this eloquently. "We are a Nation of laws." We are also a Nation that has the most liberal immigration quotas in the world today. No country absorbs more foreignborn people than does the United States of America in the course of a year. So there is more opportunity for an individual to come to the United States than virtually any other place on Earth. Therefore. because we are a Nation of laws and because we have a liberal immigration system. it is not unjust. unfair. or unwise to require that we follow our laws and make sure that we enforce the prohibition against illegal entry Into our country. The largest source of illegal immigration. next to visa overstays. comes from people who slip across our borders. That is what this bill addresses. The bill also addresses visa overstays. As many as 700.000 people a year overstay their visas. This bill would require that immigrants who overstay their visas either be deported or be denied future visas. So there is some visa enforcement in this legislation. The need for the legislation has been and will be explained at length over the course of this debate. From the point of view of my State. the problem of illegal immigration is severe. Fortyfive percent of the Nations illegal immigrants now reside in California. That is between 1.6 million and 2.3 million. as I mentioned earlier. Fifteen percent of illegal aliens are in our State prisons. Fortyfive percent. or 150.000. of all pending asylum applications come from people in California. and 35 percent. or 40.000. of the 113.000 refugees entering the U.S. claimed residency in California in 1993. Our county governments are being forced to absorb more and more of the costs of medical care. social services. and incarceration for illegal immigrants. and those costs are going upnot down. In the 19961997 fiscal year. California will spend $454 million in incarceration costs for criminal aliens.