Speech #1040269094

I just want to underscore what my colleague has said. The President obviously does not feel California is paying when it comes to illegal immigration. He is the cause of it. By gutting the immigration bill or attempting to do so after it has already gone through HouseSenate negotiations. after it has passed by a bipartisan record majority here in the House of Representatives. after the Gallegly amendment was dropped at his request. to now say he wants to carve the bill up and take out Proposition 187. the guts of it. that is. prohibition on welfare for illegal aliens. prohibition on social security for illegal aliens. a prohibition on SSI benefits. on food stamps. on AFDC for illegal aliens. a prohibition on free housing. taxpayer supported for illegal aliens. a prohibition on cash assistance for illegal aliens. a prohibition on subsidies including contracts and grants and loans and licenses for illegal aliens. that is what he wants to take out of the bill. He wants illegal aliens to get all of these things. I think we in California understand this much. If you pass a law and you expect it to be obeyed. then there needs to be a penalty. The penalty in the case of breaking our immigration laws is deportation. That is. we are supposed to send you home. But the Clinton administration. which. we want to remind ourselves. controls the Justice Department and the INS. is not deporting illegal aliens. They are funding ways to give them taxpayersupported benefits in reward for breaking our laws. And never has it been more clear than in this instance today when the President said: I am willing to shut down the Government. Even though you have given me a spending bill that includes billions of dollars more that I asked for in House and Senate levels. I have one more request. and that is that you take out the ban on welfare benefits for illegal aliens. that you take out the ban on social security benefits for illegal aliens. that you take out the ban on SSI benefits. food stamps. housing. cash assistance. and so on for illegal aliens. because I care so much about giving taxpayersupported benefits to people who have broken our immigration laws that I am willing to sacrifice the good of the whole Nation. I think that sends a very terrible message to this Congress. to the Democrats and Republicans who worked so hard on this bill. and to the American people. and particularly the Californians. Texans. Arizonans. people in New Mexico. all the border States. who are so hard hit by the illegal immigration problem. and I would certainly thank my colleague from Indiana for bringing this to the attention of the full House of Representatives.