Speech #1100057031

Mr. President. I oppose amnesty for illegal aliens. Waiving our immigration laws. instead of enforcing them. is amnestyno matter what the level of fines and penalties assessed. It encourages others to flout our laws knowing that they could be similarly rewarded. Amnesties undermine the great American principle that the law should apply equally and fairly to everyone. This bill would create a separate set of rulesone for those who obey the law and one for those who do not. It is a special set of laws for those who chose not to follow the regular process that everybody else had to go through. It is a congressional pardon for lawbreakersboth for illegal aliens and the unscrupulous employers who exploit them. Many employers are anxious to take advantage of the cheap labor that this bill would Provide. but the responsibility would fall on the Nation as a whole to make the public investments necessary to absorb these workers into the economy. It is a false promise. to immigrants and U.S. citizens alike. when the infrastructure of our Nationour schools. our health care systern. our transportation and energy networksare increasingly unable to absorb this untenable surge in the population. I speak from experience when I say that this amnesty will not work. President Reagan signed his amnesty proposal into law in 1986. At the time. I supported amnesty based on the very same promises we hear todaythat legalizing undocumented workers and increasing enforcement would stem the flow of illegal immigration. The 1986 amnesty did not work. After 1986. illegal immigrant population more than quadrupled from 2.7 million aliens. to an estimated 12 million illegal aliens today. In that time. the Congress continued to enact amnesty after amnesty. waiving the Immigration Act for lawbreakers. I will not vote to make the same mistake twice. Our immigration system is already plagued with funding and staffing problems. It is overwhelmed on the borders. and in its processing of immigration applications. It only took nineteen temporary visa holders to slip through the system to unleash the horror of September 11. The pending proposal would shove tens of millions of legal and illegal aliensmany of whom have never gone through a background checkthrough our border security system over the next decade. in effect swamping a bureaucracy that is already struggling to keep its head above water. Terrorists and criminal aliens have exploited these kinds of amnesties before. and they will do so again. The United States cannot guarantee the security of its borders. and simultaneously waive the law for those who circumvent that security. The Congress must choose between law enforcement and amnesty. I choose law enforcement. The Congress must choose between border security and amnesty. I choose border security. I will oppose this measure. in the hope that the amnesty provisions are removed. and that the Senate quickly passes a clean border security bill.