Speech #1090173420

Then the gentlewoman from California says that this bill is unnecessary because we already can refuse to admit gang members into this country. And she is not correct on that. In order to refuse to admit a gang member into this country under the Immigration and Naturalization Act. that gang member had to have been convicted of a crime. And the difference between her side of the argument and our side of the argument is pretty simple: They require there to be a victim first. Somebody has to be a victim of a crime that has been committed by a gang member who serves time in an American prison and then is deported and attempts to come back. We dont think that a gang member should have to be convicted first to keep him out of our country. That is a big difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. Now. we have heard an awful lot of rhetoric on this floor about the fact that we have to have a comprehensive immigration bill. We passed a comprehensive immigration bill in 1986. and the failure of that bill has caused the problems that this country faces today with 11 to 12 million illegal immigrants in this country and the number growing by over half a million ever year. The 1986 bill was triggered by a commission that was appointed by President Carter which was headed by the thenPresident of Notre Dame University. Father Theodore Hesburgh. Let me quote a little bit from the commission report. and. remember. this was the Hesburgh Commission. Five years before the 1986 bill was passed. the Hesburgh Commission said: "We do not believe that the United States should begin the process of legalization until new enforcement measures have been instituted to make it clear that the United States is determined to curtail new flows of undocumented/illegal aliens. Without more effective enforcement than the U.S. has had in the past. legalization could serve as a stimulus to further illegal entry. The select commission is opposed to any program that would precipitate such movement." That was true 25 years ago when Father Hesburgh and his commission penned those words.