[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 11 (Thursday, January 19, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E127-E128]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF LEGISLATION TO ADDRESS THE SERIOUS PROBLEM OF ILLEGAL 
                              IMMIGRATION

                                 ______


                       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.

                          ____________________