Speech #1040243768

Let me just mention two. One of those is the fact that very few of these local communities requested the circumstance In which they find themselves. Immigrants. legal and illegal. come Into this country for a variety of reasons but virtually none of them come in because they receive an Invitation from a particular community. It Is Federal policy that determines who can come legally. It is Federal willingness to allocate resources that will determine whether we can enforce the immigration laws that we have enacted or will we be faced with floodtides of illegal Immigration. Unfortunately. my State. as does California. peculiarly has to deal with this issue. We have had hundreds of thousands of immigrants in all categories. from refugees to parolees to asylees to special categories of entrants. come into our State. as well as those who have come through the normal immigration process. All those decisions are made by those of us who are privileged to be Federal officials. The consequences of those decisions almost always fall at a local level: At a hospital attempting to cope with overwhelming numbers of persons seeking medical assistance. at an educational institution. a school that Is overcrowded because of the large surge of immigrant childrenthe social institutions. My State was so overwhelmed that we went to Federal court with a request. under litigation. that we be compensated for the expenses the State had paid on behalf of those persons who came to the United States as a result of Federal action. The U.S.