Speech #1040204777

It argues that this new Office would be duplicative of ongoing programs within the INS and the Office of Special Counsel. In fact. the Attorney Generals office suggests that a new office would not only be a waste of money. but make the program even less effective. The employer sanctions provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 [IRCA] have not successfully controlled illegal immigration. That is not simply my opinion. it is a fact. Illegal aliens continue to pour into this country. A cottage industry in counterfeit and fraudulent documents has flourished. and an increasingly lucrative black market in smuggling aliens into this country has thrived. Employer sanctions do not work. If they did. we would not be debating a verification system. If sanctions worked. we would not have the level of concern we presently have about the very issue of illegal immigration. We would not have seen so much television footage of persons illegally crossing our borders by running against traffic on highways in order to defeat vehicular pursuit. We would not have seen a ship ground off of the New Jersey shore a few years ago loaded with aliens to be smuggled into our country. We would not be reading about illegal aliens loaded onto boxcars which are then sealed south of our border on their way north. At the same time. sanctions have had serious adverse consequences. Though unintended. they are still very real.