Speech #1090132385

For all 133 of those individuals who stood up that morning and raised their right hand and swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States. it was the proudest day of their lives. You can understand why they do not want somebody who came into this country illegally to get a leg up on people who were in the position that they were in for so many years. trying to earn citizenship. The people I saw at that naturalization ceremony truly did earn their citizenship. and it means something to them. as it should to everybody who becomes an American citizen. It does not seem fair to me to call the process those newly naturalized individuals followed earned citizenship and also call the provision for illegal agricultural workers in this bill earned citizenship. There is a fundamental difference between the two that should be recognized in the rhetoric of this debate. Another problem I have with the agricultural amnesty provision is that it does not remedy the problem with fraud that was prevalent in the 1986 Special Agricultural Worker Program. Under the 1986 program. illegal farm workers who did at least 90 days of farm work during a 12month period could earn a legal status. The illegal immigrants had to present evidence that they did at least 90 days of farm work. such as pay stubs or a letter from an employer or even fellow workers. Because it was assumed that many unauthorized farm workers were employed by labor contractors. who did not keep accurate records. after a farm worker had presented evidence that he had done qualifying farm work. the burden of proof shifted to the Government to disprove the claimed work. The Government was not prepared for the flood of SAW applicants and had little expertise on typical barvesting seasons.