Speech #1040267252

I was a cosponsor of this legislation. I stood in a press conference alongside the gentleman from Texas [Mr. SbrrH] and said we have got to do something to reduce legal immigration and to reduce illegal immigration. With a great deal of criticism from many people on my side. I said we had to pass a bill. and I was for the bill we introduced. But that is not the bill that is before the House today. We put together a bill that was to have reflected what the Barbara Jordan Commission recommended to us was to have been a bipartisan bill. It was going to be tough on employers that hire illegal aliens and include tough measures to stop illegal aliens from coming into the country and taking jobs. But somewhere along the way. in the back rooms. the stuff that was tough on the folks that bring illegal aliens here. and that is to say. the employers that attract them here with a promise of jobs. somehow it disappeared. and in its place was put a list. a wish list offered up by lobbyists for the biggest employers of these illegal aliens in the country. The bill that passed the House committee included 150 wage and hour inspectors that were asked for by the Jordan Commission. The Senate bill included 350. Why? Because people that hire illegal aliens also violate the wage and hour laws. Why? Because half of the jobs in this country that are lost to illegal aliens are lost to illegal aliens that did not get here by sneaking across the border. They are the ones that got here with a visa. but then they did not go home. they overstayed the visa. You can put a million Border Patrol agents at the border. but you are not going to find that onehalf of the problem. The only way you are going to find it is with wage and hour inspectors. Those are gone from the bill.