Speech #1040272708

TED KENNEDY and ALAN SIMPSON. deserve much of the credit. Mr. President. this legislation provides the Immigration and Naturalization Service [INS] and other law enforcement officials with new resources to prevent aliens from entering or staying in the country illegally: 1.000 new border patrol agents for each of the next 5 years. additional INS investigators to combat alien smugglers and visa overstayers. and enhanced civil penalties for illegal entry. to name just a few. The conference report also gives the INS and businesses tools to keep American jobs and paychecks out of the hands of illegal aliens--tools to prevent illegal aliens from securing employment that rightfully belongs to American citizens or legal immigrants who have played by the rules and respect the law. Specifically. this legislation provides for three pilot programs to move us toward a workable employer verification system and a framework for the creation of more fraud resistant documents. The original Senate approach. which included more privacy and antidiscrimination protections. was preferable to the one adopted by the conference. however. the pilot projects in this bill still deserve a try.