What does this sort of amnesty program do? We can debate about that. we can bring up hypotheticals. we can say I think it is going to do this. may do that. but the sure answer is to study historyand not ancient history. but recent history. going back only to 1986 because the last time Congress acted on this matter in a major way. it put together a package strikingly similar to this general package before us. which included an amnesty provision. for agricultural workers. One of the most interesting exercises I performed in thinking about this Issue. in getting ready for this floor debate. was to go back to that time period. the mid1980s. and read some of the arguments made in this Chamber. including the arguments of the folks who were for that immigration reform proposal of 1986. The arguments they made are strikingly similar to the arguments being made by the proponents today: We need to do something comprehensive. it cant be enforcement only. we need to do this provision for earned citizenship. once. this one time. and then the problem will be solved forever because we will have border security and will have dealt with illegal immigrants then in our country. What is the bottom line on that experiment doing exactly what we are debating doing again? The bottom line is not very hopeful in terms of solving the problem once and for all. The bottom line is back then the flow of illegal aliens was 140.000 per year. and now the flow is 700.000 per year. So it didnt exactly stop the problem. The bottom line is back then the number of illegal aliens in the country was perhaps about 3 million. and today. by conservative estimates. it is 12 million. It didnt exactly solve the problem.
Keywords matched
illegal aliens illegal immigrants border security immigration