Speech #1060018692

President. I join Senator ABRAHAM. Chairman of the Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee. Mr. President. Minnesota and Michigan are two states which share a common border with Canada. and so I am proud to join my colleague. Senator ABRAHAM as cosponsor of his bill to ensure Canada will continue to receive current treatment of its traveling citizens by requiring a feasibility study of Section 110 of the IIRIRA bill. There has been great concern. especially in Minnesota as to how the immigration law we passed in 1996 will affect the northern U.S. border. Right now the fear is the law is being misinterpreted by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Minnesota has about 817 miles of shared border with Canada and we share many interests with our northern neighbortourism. trade and family visits among the most prevalent. In the last few years. passage back and forth over the Minnesota/Canadian border has been more open and free flowing. especially since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect. There were 116 million travelers entering the U.S. from Canada in 1996 over the land border. As our relationship with Canada is increasingly interwoven. we have sought a less restrictive access to each country. The Immigration Bill of 1996 was intended to focus on illegal aliens entering this country from Mexico and living in the United States illegally. The new law states that "every alien" entering and leaving the United States would have to register at all the bordersland. sea and air. The Immigration and Naturalization Service was tasked with the effort to set up automated pilot sites along the border to discover the most effective way to implement this law. which was to become effective on September 30. 1998. The INS was quietly going about establishing a pilot site on the New York State border when the reality sunk in. A flood of calls from constituents came into the offices of all of us serving Canadian border states. Canadian citizens and the Canadian government. also. registered opposition to this new restriction. It became quite clear that no one had considered how the new law affected Canada. Current law already waives the document requirement for most Canadian nationals. but still requires certain citizens to register at border crossings. That system has worked. There have been very few problems at the northern border with drug trafficking and illegal aliens. In an effort to resolve this situation. I joined other Senators in a letter to INS Commissioner Meissner asking for her interpretation of this law. Other bills were introduced addressing this issue in the last Congress and action was taken extending the implementation of this Section until March 30. However. today. we must make it very clear that Congress did not intend to impose additional documentary requirements on Canadian nationals: Senator ABRAHAMS bill will restore our intent. This legislation will not precipitously open the flood gates for illegal aliens to pass throughit will still require those who currently need documentation to continue to produce it and remain registered in a new INS system. This will allow the INS to keep track of that category of nonimmigrant entering our country to ensure they leave when their visas expire. Senator ABRAHAMS bill will not unfairly treat our friends on the Canadian side that have been deemed not to need documentationthey will still be able to pass freely back and forth across the border. But this bill will enable us to avoid the huge traffic jams and confusion which would no doubt occur if every alien was to be registered in and out of the U.S.