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“INTRODUCTION OF LEGISLATION TO ADDRESS THE SERIOUS PROBLEM OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E127-E128 on Jan. 19, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
INTRODUCTION OF LEGISLATION TO ADDRESS THE SERIOUS PROBLEM OF ILLEGAL
IMMIGRATION
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HON. ANTHONY C. BEILENSON
of california
in the house of representatives
Thursday, January 19, 1995
Mr. BEILENSON. Mr. Speaker, today I am reintroducing three bills to address one of the most serious and fastest growing problems facing the Nation: illegal immigration.
The United States has by far the most generous legal immigration system in the world. We allow more people--nearly 1 million a year--to immigrate here than do all other countries combined, and more newcomers are settling here legally every year than at any other time in our history. But, while the vast majority of us take pride in this tradition, I believe we all know that our capacity to accept
[[Page E128]] new immigrants is limited, and that our inability, or unwillingness, to control illegal immigration effectively is threatening our ability to continue to welcome legal immigrants.
Illegal immigration has already had an enormous effect on public services and labor markets in certain areas of the country, and the problems will only get worse. The overwhelming passage of proposition 187 in California, which seeks to deny education and nonemergency health care to illegal immigrants, is an indication of how serious this issue has become. But while that initiative was based on many legitimate concerns, even its most ardent proponents concede that proposition 187 will have little real effect on slowing illegal immigration. We need, most of all, to concentrate on controlling our borders, strengthening and enforcing our work eligibility law, and reducing or removing incentives that too often have the inadvertent effect of encouraging illegal immigration.
The bills I am submitting today--all of which I introduced in the last Congress--are, I believe, all necessary parts of any successful effort to solve the illegal immigration problem.
The first bill would require the Federal Government to develop a tamper-proof Social Security card that every American would use to prove work eligibility. Under the employer sanctions law established under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 [IRCA], 29 different documents may be presented by job applicants to prove work eligibility. This system has not only given rise to a vast multimillion dollar underground industry in forged documents, but has also created considerable confusion among employers and, as documented by the General Accounting Office, has resulted in widespread discrimination against American citizens and legal residents who may appear foreign. Until we simplify the law and establish a single acceptable tamper-
proof work authorization document, existing provisions of law prohibiting illegals from working in the United States will remain unenforceable, and discrimination will continue.
The second bill would establish the Border Patrol as an independent agency within the Department of Justice. By the end of this fiscal year, we will have increased the size of the Border Patrol by over 33 percent in just 2 years; we have already added more agents, approximately 1,350, to the Border Patrol in 2 years than the Reagan and Bush administrations added in 12 years; and we have authorized a doubling of the size of the Border Patrol over the next 4 years. While additional funding and personnel are still necessary, we also need to focus on the administrative restructuring that will enable the Border Patrol to fulfill its mission. The Immigration and Naturalization Service's [INS] dual missions of providing necessary services to legal immigrants, and policing the border, are inherently contradictory. As the law enforcement agency charged with closing the border to drug traffickers and smugglers as well as illegal aliens, the Border Patrol requires independence from the INS, as well as a substantial increase in manpower, in order to meet its responsibilities without having to compete with the INS for the resources to do so.
The third bill I am introducing proposes an amendment to the Constitution to restrict automatic citizenship at birth to U.S.-born children of legal residents and citizens. The 14th amendment to the Constitution, in order to confer citizenship on newly freed slaves after the Civil War, guaranteed citizenship to all people born in the United States. Since the United States did not limit immigration in 1868 when the amendment was approved, and the question of citizenship for children of illegal immigrants was therefore never addressed, the language has had the inadvertent effect of conferring citizenship on U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. This policy is blatantly unfair to the millions of people who have petitioned for legal entry into the United States, and it provides an incentive for entering the country illegally.
Mr. Speaker, we took major steps last Congress to address the illegal immigration problem. We dramatically increased the size and funding of the Border Patrol; we required the Federal Government for the first time to reimburse States and local governments for the costs of incarcerating illegal immigrants who have committed felonies; we provided nearly full funding for expedited deportation and asylum proceedings, including overseas enforcement activities; and we increased penalties for human trafficking, document fraud, and for reentering or failing to depart the United States after a final deportation order.
There is more, however, that we can and must do. The measures I am introducing today are three very powerful steps we can take to help solve the illegal immigration problem, and yet do so in a way that is decent and humane, and that fits our traditional national values about openness and ethnic diversity.
I urge my colleagues to join in supporting these bills.
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