Speech #1040206039

Mr. President. as the Senate considers S.1664. the Immigration Control and Fiscal Responsibility Act. I want to take this opportunity to explore and comment on a number of the key issues. Immigration reform has always been a controversial issue for our immigrant based society. As our Nation continues to develop and grow. it is appropriate for the Senate to debate these issues. Therefore. I want to complement the members of the Judiciary Committee. both the majority and the minority. who have labored to bring this bill to the floor. The bill does do much to address the problems associated with illegal immigration. I support the bills provisions to add several thousand new border patrol agents between now and the year 2001. Additionally. I support the language to add new INS investigators to enforce alien smuggling and employment laws. Illegal immigration along our Southern border is a serious and costly problem. We have a responsibility to meet the needs of our Southern States and to ease the financial burdens associated with illegal immigration. It is important to note that many of the bills provisions dealing with illegal immigration are similar. and in some cases identical. to legislation proposed by President Clinton. Despite the ongoing problems with illegal immigration. the Clinton administration has waged an unprecedented campaign against illegal itmnigration. The administration has increased the number of Border Patrol agents by 40 percent since 1993. The administration is on target to meet its goal of 7.000 Border Patrol agents. trained and deployed. by the end of fiscal year 1998. I commend the administration for committing the financial resources and political capital to fight illegal immigration. Despite laudable attempts to combat illegal immigration. this legislation threatens to become a punitive vehicle aimed directly at children and families. My objections are numerous. I will detail a few today. If the Senate chooses to follow our House colleagues down the road of punishing children and families as well as abandoning our historical and cultural acceptance of legal immigrants. I will oppose the legislation. My objections begin with any effort to combine legal immigration restrictions and cutbacks with S. 1664. the bill before the Senate to curb illegal immigration. The effort to combine the two issues will doom passage of illegal immigration reform this year. Legal immigrants have long been a source of strength for our Nation. My own family has an immigration story to tell. My husbands family immigrated to Washington State from Norway and settled in the Ballard section of Seattle. Even today. the Ballard community remains the focal point for Scandinavian. culture in Seattle. Flags from Norway dot most of the storefronts. school children can learn to speak Norwegian and summer festivals highlight our shared cultural heritage. My husbands family came to Seattle as the shipping and fishing industries first began to shape the Pacific Northwest economy. Today. these industries generate thousands of jobs for Washingtonians and more than $1 billion in annual economic activity. Just as early immigrants boosted the growth of the shipping and fisheries industries. todays immigrants are instrumental to the growth of Washingtons hightechnology sector. My Washington State colleague. Senator SLADE GORTON. and I wrote to Chairman SIMPSON in late November to express our opposition to language that would severely restrict the ability of the hightechnology industry to access global talent when necessary to facilitate economic growth in the United States.