Speech #1040243383

Mr. President. the purpose of the series of motions which I will make. which I hope will be considered as a single motion for purposes of our final vote. is to strike from this legislation those sections which relate to the eligibility of legal immigrantslegal immigrantsto receive various Federal needsbased benefits. I do this because to have this language in this welfare bill is both redundant and punitive in terms of those communities which have large numbers of legal immigrants and will have significant costs shifted to them as a result of this legislation. I am joined in this effort by Senators SIMON. MURRAY and FEINSTEIN. who also recognize it would be inappropriate. and a duplication. to consider matters which have already been resolved by this body. As we will all recall. it was only a few weeks ago. May 2. to be precise. that the Senate passed the Immigration Control and Financial Responsibility Act. This act. which had as its primary objective controlling illegal immigration Into the United States. also contained provisions that restrict the rights of legal aliens to a variety of Federal needsbased programs. This legislation was the result of extensive hearings and markups in the Judiciary Committee. It was subjected to exhaustive floor debate which lasted well over a week in the Senate. The majority of the time spent on the immigration bill dealt with the public benefits for legal and illegal irnmigrants. The availability of Supplemental Social Security Income. Aid for Families with Dependent Children. Medicaid and Medicare for immigrants. was examined during several floor votes which resulted in a comprehensive Senate bill. I am going to say. I hope with not excessive arrogance. that this is a subject which I know something about. I was Governor of Florida in 1980 when over 125.000 immigrants in various legal categories came to my State in a period of a few weeks. Since that time. it has been estimated that the total unreimbursed cost of that incident to the State of Florida was in excess of $1.5 billion. Those were costs associated with health care. social services. education. housing. job traininga variety of activities which were necessary in order to facilitate the assimilation of that large population into the population of the State of Florida. The State of Florida has tried for the better part of 15 years to get recognition of those costs which were incurred because of Federal immigration decisions. but which ended up being an unreimbursed. unfunded mandate on the State of Florida. This case finally ended up in the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year.