Speech #1040206326

Mr. President. I voted for the illegal immigration reform bill before the Senate yesterday. The final bill is a much more balanced approach than what was first proposed in committee. Importantly. the illegal immigration reform bill deals only with illegal immigration. and expanding deemIng for legally sponsored immigrants. I supported dealing with illegal immigration separately from legal immigration because of my concern that if the two Issues were dealt with together. as first proposed. legal imnigration would be swept up in very different issues surrounding illegal immigration. The illegal immigration bill sets necessary and clear limits while continuing Americas history of being a nation of immigrants. In recent years. illegal immigration has become an issue of serious legislative and national security concern. The bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City by undocumented aliens led the Clinton administration and various Members of Congress to propose legislation reforming the immigration process in the United States. particularly political asylum. This illegal immigration bill deals with stopping illegal immigration on two frontsat our borders by keeping illegal aliens out in the first place. and within our borders for those who have entered the United States legally but are now here illegally. It improves the controlling and policing of our borders from illegal entry by increasing border patrol and INS inspectors. It also addresses the magnet of Jobs and public assistance that has attracted illegal immigrants to the United States by authorizing a series of pilot projects to verify eligibility for employment in the United States and for receiving public assistance and by establishing a program to develop tamper proof birth certificates and drivers licenses to reduce their vulnerability to forgery. This bill also increases the number of border patrol agents by 4.700 over 5 years. It adds 300 fulltime INS investigators over 3 years to enforce alien smuggling and employment laws. It also deals with the fact that half of all illegal aliens in the United States came here legallythey then overstayed their visas and are now here illegally. We cant eliminate the problem of illegal immigration only by policing our borders. We must also find ways to keep people from coming here legally as tourists or students and not leaving. The bill deals with this in a number of ways. but its major thrust is clamping down on the magnets that attract illegal aliens in the first place by eliminating access to U.S. jobs and taxpayer supported benefits. In order to block illegal aliens from working and receiving public assistance employers and administrators of public assistance need to have a reliable way to know who is eligible to work or to receive benefits and who isnt. It has been illegal since 1986 to hire illegal aliens. but far too many are working and taking jobs from American citizens and legal permanent residents. The relative ease of access to U.S. jobs is what is drawing illegal aliens to the United States. The main reason the current system is not working as it should is because we dont have an accurate or forgeryproof way to verify employment eligibility. This bill attempts to address this issue.