[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 35 (Friday, February 24, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3072-S3074]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     THE IMMIGRANT CONTROL AND FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT OF 1995

  Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I return here to a familiar refrain, a 
theme revisited, not, as has my good friend from Montana, with regard 
to the balanced budget amendment or base closing. Those are critical 
issues we will face in these next weeks. But there is one that we will 
face that is rather awesome in nature, too, and that is the issue of 
illegal immigration.
  Mr. President, on January 24 I introduced S. 269, the Immigrant 
Control and Financial Responsibility Act of 1995. At that time I 
presented to my colleagues and to the American people a rather general 
overview of the bill.
  Today I wish to describe in greater detail one particular part of 
this legislation--the requirement for a new system to verify 
eligibility to work in the United States and to receive benefits under 
certain government-funded programs of public assistance.
  Let me speak first about the urgent need for effective enforcement of 
the current law against knowingly employing aliens in U.S. jobs for 
which they are not authorized, and about the simple fact that such law 
cannot ever effectively be enforced without a more reliable system to 
verify work authorization. After explaining clearly why a new system is 
needed, I will describe to you the provisions of S. 269 which will 
require--no, demand--the implementation of such a system.


                      need for employer sanctions

  Mr. President, it has been recognized for so many years--I would 
hunch for as long as there has been interest in the issue, and that is 
quite a time--that the primary magnet for most illegal immigrants is 
the availability of jobs that pay so much better than what is available 
in their home countries. It is also widely recognized that satisfactory 
prevention of illegal border entry is most unlikely to be achieved 
solely by patrolling the very long U.S. border. That border of the 
United States is over 7,000 miles on land and 12,000 miles along what 
is technically called ``coastline.'' Furthermore--and heed this or hear 
it--the real sea border consists of over 80,000 miles of what the 
experts at the Nautical Charting Division of the National Ocean Service 
call ``shoreline,'' including the shoreline of the outer coast, 
offshore islands, sounds, bays, and other major inlets. And patrol of 
the border is, of course, totally inadequate to deal with foreign 
nationals who enter the United States legally--for example, as tourists 
or students--and then choose openly, blatantly to violate the terms of 
their visa, by not leaving when their visa expires or by working at 
jobs for which they are not authorized.
  Therefore, every authoritative study I have seen has recommended a 
provision such as that in the 1986 immigration reform law, making it 
unlawful to employ illegal aliens--those who entered the United States 
illegally and those violating the terms of their visa. These studies 
include that of the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee 
Policy, on which I served over 10 years ago, and the Commission on 
Immigration Reform, now doing such fine and consistent work. They are 
doing beautiful work under the able chairman, former Congresswoman 
Barbara Jordan.
  Such studies also recognize that an employer sanctions law cannot 
possibly be effective without a reliable and easy-to-use methods for 
employers to verify work authorization.
  Accordingly, the 1986 law instituted an interim verification system. 
This system was designed to use documents which were then available, 
even though most of them were not resistant to tampering or 
counterfeiting. Not only that, but it is surprisingly easy and totally 
simple to obtain genuine documents, including a birth certificate. 
Thus, we believed then that the system would most likely need to be 
significantly improved. In fact, the law called for ``studies'' of 
telephone verification systems and counterfeit-resistant Social 
Security cards.
  Unfortunately, the interim system is still in place today, over 8 
years later. This is true even though--as many of us feared and which 
certainly came to pass--there is widespread fraud in its use.
  [[Page S3073]] As a result, the employer sanctions law has not been 
as effective in deterring illegal immigration as it could be--and 
should be. In the fiscal year that ended about a month before the 1986 
law passed, apprehensions of illegal aliens had reached the highest 
level ever--1.8 million. After the law passed, there was a decline for 
3 years to just over 900,000. But then the level began to rise again. 
The latest figure available is for the fiscal year that ended in 
September--1.3 million.
  It is most assuredly disgraceful that, over 8 years after a law was 
enacted making it unlawful to knowingly employ illegal aliens, so many 
are still able to find work, thus still having that powerful incentive 
to violate America's immigration laws in doing so.
  We must do better. An improved system to verify eligibility to work 
in this country must be implemented--in order that the enforcement tool 
with the greatest potential to deter illegal entry and visa abuse can 
produce the benefit that is required.
  Mr. President, as I said in my introductory statement on the 24th, 
``We must be able to assure the American people that whatever other 
goals our immigration policy may pursue, its overriding goal is to 
serve the long-term interest of the majority of our citizens.'' It is 
our paramount duty as legislators to serve that singular interest, and 
that is precisely what the goal of our immigration laws should be.
  Yet no matter how successful we might be in crafting a set of 
immigration laws that would--in theory, at least--lead to the most 
long-term benefit to a majority of U.S. citizens and their descendants, 
such benefit will not actually occur if those laws cannot be enforced.
  Effective enforcement requires effective employer sanctions, and 
effective employer sanctions requires an effective verification system. 
It is just that simple. Nothing more. And S. 269 is intended above all 
else to lead to a verification system that has the needed degree of 
effectiveness.
  S. 269 would require the President to implement a new verification 
system--the word is ``implement''--not merely talk about it; not merely 
establish scores of studies to talk about it and read about it, to do 
it. And it imposes an 8-year deadline for the implementation.
  The bill does not require that any particular form of verification be 
used, only that it satisfy certain criteria of effectiveness and 
protection for privacy and civil liberties.
  It also authorizes separate 3-year demonstration projects in five or 
more States, so that the design of the final, nationwide system would 
be based not only on theory, but on what has actually been found to 
work in practice.
  The system must reliably verify first, that the person who the 
applicant claims to be is authorized for the work, and second, that the 
applicant actually is this person.
  If the system requires that a card or other document be presented it 
must be in a form that is resistant to tampering and counterfeiting.
  Most importantly, very importantly, the bill explicitly states that 
no such card or other document may be required by any Government entity 
as a ``national ID card,'' and I have been through all that.
  It is not to be required to be carried on a person. It is not to be 
presented except at the time to verify eligibility to work or to 
receive benefits under Government-funded programs of public assistance. 
There is a tremendous fraud in the receipt of Government-funded public 
assistance. We will hold hearings on the issue of SSI fraud, disability 
insurance fraud.
  With regard to the Social Security system, people bring their 
relatives from another country and say they are disabled, they do not 
speak English, they need the help of our Government, and we, as 
Americans, generously respond. But that system needs careful attention. 
We found recently one of the applications for that particular benefit 
had been filed overseas, so they have figured that one out. They are 
beginning even to file for assistance from a foreign country, come 
here, take them to the agency, and say: Here is this person; they 
require assistance; they do not speak English; they are not well. And 
then they are placed in our social support system, our safety nets, the 
ones for our U.S. citizens. This is not what the safety net is about.
  This was part of the reaction of proposition 187 in California. The 
document will be used only to enforce certain criminal statutes related 
to fraudulent statements or fraudulent manufacturer or use of 
documents.
  Let me just share this most fascinating picture ID. I did this 
several weeks ago, but it is so dazzling that I thought I would do it 
again. Several months ago, a member of my staff was contacted by a 
person in California who said, ``Look, just send me Simpson 
biostatistics, and we will go from there.'' So he just went down--this 
is a dazzling picture of one of the most certainly attractive Members--
oh, no, excuse me. This gentleman here is a very astute, wise-looking 
fellow. This is my California identification card, which expires on my 
birthday, September 2, in the year 1998. Alan Kooi Simpson. My address, 
I have never heard of. I have never been to Turlock, CA, but the mayor 
has contacted me and made me an honorary citizen. I appreciated that, 
and I enjoyed the lovely letter. There is an address here of 4850 
Royal, Turlock, CA, and included are the correct vital statistics. This 
is not my signature.
  All right, that was obtained on a street corner in Los Angeles, at 
night, with $100 bill. It was illegal, of course, but someone else did 
it. My father always taught me, in the practice of law, ``If anyone 
goes to jail, be sure it is your client.'' Now, it is my Social 
Security card. I did block out two of the numbers, but here it actually 
is. This is not my number. This is a counterfeit-resistant so-called 
card. It has the same material in it, and so I am now in the Social 
Security system with somebody else's number. I do not know whose number 
this is. I am not sharing with you the entire number.
  Now, that is just a $100 bucker, an overnighter. This document would 
enable me to seek public assistance in California. I could go into any 
public assistance agency. There is a holographic card, and this is the 
correct one. But if you were not careful and you were not looking 
carefully, you would not notice the holograph in the true card.
  So this little card which is reproduced here would enable me to get 
social support. It would likely even enable me to vote in certain 
jurisdictions of California. It would certainly get me a driver's 
license, and it would get me into the money stream. Now, that is what 
is happening in your country.
  It is endemic. Within 500 yards of this building, we can pick up not 
only these--these are minor documents, they will get a person 
anything--but a person can pick up passports, pick up birth 
certificates. So we have a cottage industry of fake documents. The 
documents then lead into things like Social Security and workmen's 
compensation, and drain away the systems of the country.
  So this is what we are up to. We are going to do something with 
documentation. We are going to do something to people who provide these 
documents. We are going to see that we might use the driver's license 
system, the holographic system in the State of California. But we are 
going to see that these documents are not easily forged, and those who 
do forge them and produce fraudulent documents will serve big time in 
the big place.
  Now, these are the only uses to which any form of the system might be 
utilized, including one not even relying on the presentation of 
documents--for example, a telephone call-in system. We might look into 
that. That is part of the recommendation. The bill also provides that 
the privacy and security of any personal information obtained for or 
utilized by the system must be carefully protected. It must be treated 
as highly confidential information, and not made available to any 
person except as is necessary to the lawful operation of the system.
  Furthermore, a verification of eligibility to any person may not be 
withheld or revoked for any reason other than that the person is 
ineligible under the applicable law or regulation. The bill explicitly 
provides all of those protections.
  So, Mr. President, in concluding, I feel so very strongly that the 
greatest contribution this current Congress could make toward the 
enforcement of 
[[Page S3074]]  our U.S. immigration laws would be to improve the 
effectiveness of the current law against the knowing employment of 
aliens not authorized to work or even to be present in this country. 
The passing of a bill such as S. 269 would be a monumental step toward 
making that contribution.
  In the coming weeks, I will make additional statements to this body, 
describing other provisions of S. 269 and exactly why those provisions 
are important. Hearings will begin at the end of that period in the 
Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, which I chair. And a fine group of 
Members are on that subcommittee, Democrat and Republican alike. I look 
forward to working with my ranking member, Senator Kennedy. He and I 
have worked together on immigration issues for 17 years.
  Hearings will be held. We will consider all other immigration reform 
legislation from all of my colleagues, comprehensive, bipartisan, as 
well as specific proposals such as this one for the accuracy of a more 
fraud-resistant system for issuing these documents. We have to look 
into the one for issuing of birth certificates and matching records. 
Can Senators believe we do not even match birth and death records?
  I sincerely look forward to hearing the ideas of my fine colleagues 
on these issues. Then we will be able to avoid things that are bringing 
down the system, things that give rise to the power of the force of 
proposition 187.
  It reminded me of the story of the child who was at the graveyard in 
a jurisdiction noted for rather shabby election processes. Pick your 
own State, as you might imagine. The child was crying, and the person 
came up and said, ``Son, why are you crying?'' And he said, ``I just 
learned that my dad came back to vote, and I never even saw him.''
  So we do want to try to avoid that in the future, because people use 
these cards to vote, to vote themselves largess from the Treasury, to 
then draw on our resources that we taxpayers--legal taxpayers--provide. 
That must stop. There is a way to stop it. We propose that. I would 
enjoy working and will enjoy, as I always have, working with all of my 
colleagues on this most serious issue. We are very dedicated to this 
process. I intend to spend a great deal of time and effort in these 
next months in doing responsible immigration reform--not only illegal 
immigration, but legal immigration.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I may use time 
from that under Senator Daschle's control.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  

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