[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 170 (Tuesday, October 31, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S16379]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      INNOVATIVE LEADERSHIP BY THE INS AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I want to take this opportunity to call 
the attention of my colleagues in Congress to a compelling example of 
the kind of innovation we are seeing today by the Clinton 
administration in addressing the problem of illegal immigration.
  Stronger border enforcement is part of the answer. But is obviously 
not the only answer. The Immigration and Naturalization Service 
estimates that 40 to 50 percent of the illegal aliens currently in the 
United States entered the country legally on visitors visas and other 
temporary visas, then remained illegally in the country after their 
visas expired.
  The overriding challenge we face is to remove the magnet of jobs 
which encourage so many people to come to the United States illegally 
or to remain here illegally.
  A key element in this strategy must be to assist employers to abide 
by the law and to hire only those persons entitled to work in the 
United States.
  Clearly, the INS is making progress. Last week, the Ford Foundation 
and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard announced that 
an INS program in Dallas has won one of this year's Innovations in 
American Government Awards for its success in encouraging employers to 
remove illegal aliens from their rolls and hiring U.S. workers in their 
place.
  This kind of innovation combats illegal immigration, helps employers, 
and provides good jobs for American workers. I am hopeful that as 
Congress considers immigration reform legislation in the coming weeks, 
we can encourage more new approaches like this to combating illegal 
immigration.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that an article from the 
Washington Post describing the Dallas INS initiative be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               [From the Washington Post, Oct. 26, 1995]

        Foundation Awards Honor 15 Creative Government Programs

                           (By Stephen Barr)

       When the Immigration and Naturalization Service discovered 
     220 illegal immigrants were working at a Dallas plant that 
     makes aluminum windows and doors, INS agents could have 
     raided the plant and deported the workers. But a raid might 
     have put the company out of business.
       So INS assistant district director Neil Jacobs offered the 
     company a ``common-sense approach'' to the problem. Rather 
     than treat the company as the enemy, he gave it 60 days to 
     recruit replacement workers from Dallas-area community and 
     welfare programs. When the deadline arrived, the INS made its 
     arrests and the company averted a shutdown.
       Today, the Innovations in American Government awards 
     program sponsored by the Ford Foundation and Harvard 
     University will announce that Jacob's strategy for enforcing 
     immigration laws is one of 15 local, state and federal 
     programs receiving a $100,000 cash prize.
       Thus is the first time that awards have gone to federal 
     programs since the Ford Foundation and Harvard's John F. 
     Kennedy School of Government began their initiative in 1986. 
     The awards will go to six federal and nine state and local 
     programs at a time when a Republican-controlled Congress is 
     cutting federal spending and turning more responsibility over 
     to the states.
       Three of the federal programs honored this year, such as 
     Jacobs's ``Operation Jobs,'' reflect the government's search 
     for less punitive and more effective ways to regulate 
     business. A number of the local and state award winners 
     created solutions to their problems by forgoing partnerships 
     with unions, nonprofit organizations and private-sector 
     companies to deliver services cheaper or more efficiently.
       In the current cost-cutting environment, Michael Lipsky, 
     the Ford Foundation official responsible for the innovations 
     program, said, ``It is the deeply felt position of the 
     foundation that the government deserves more recognition for 
     creativity and ought to be encouraged to be better.''
       As Debbie Blair, the personnel manager at General 
     Aluminum--a plant in Dallas that tried Jacobs's approach--
     said, ``Clearly, the old tactics used by INS were not 
     successful. They are thinking smarter in trying to figure out 
     a new way to solve an old problem.''
       In Texas, a major INS problem has been how to handle 
     illegal immigrants, mostly from Mexico, who obtain jobs with 
     fraudulent papers. Although job applicants must show 
     employers documents that indicate they are U.S. citizens or 
     legal residents, federal law allows candidates to choose 
     which papers from a prescribed list to present employers.
       In some cases when the INS found widespread violations, it 
     would secure a warrant, raid a company without informing the 
     employer and endanger its own agents as they conducted 
     arrests. Jacobs found, however, that the illegal workers 
     quickly returned to the Dallas area and got new jobs or their 
     old jobs back. ``That was frustrating us,'' he said.
       So Jacobs, keeping in step with INS policy to work toward 
     increasing voluntary compliance with the law, threw out his 
     idea for ``Operation Jobs'' at a staff meeting one day and, 
     after a few false starts, his Dallas office created a system 
     linking the INS to police and community groups. The INS 
     ``treats the employer as the client rather than the enemy,'' 
     he said.
       Moving beyond its traditional enforcement functions, the 
     Dallas INS office began putting employers in touch with city 
     social service programs, refugee assistance groups and other 
     community agencies that try to find jobs for laid-off 
     workers, legal immigrants or school dropouts. To avert 
     financial losses, companies are given time to recruit and 
     train the new hires, writhe the understanding that at a pre-
     arranged time the INS will show up to make arrests.
       ``Everybody wins on all sides,'' said Tina Jenkins, a 
     Tarrant County official who helps out-of-work residents get 
     emergency assistance for rent and utilities. ``We get people 
     employed, the employer is happy, and it's good p.r. for INS--
     they aren't looked at as the bad guys.''
       Jacobs estimates that about 50 companies have participated 
     in Operations Jobs over the last two years, providing 
     residents of North Texas about 3,000 jobs that previously 
     were held by undocumented workers.
       Many companies, of course, gamble that INS will never learn 
     about their hiring practices, and not every INS attempt at 
     cooperation with companies under investigation works out. 
     ``We've had situations where we get back in 30 days and no 
     one is left,'' Jacobs acknowledged. ``But most employers feel 
     that if `I don't show I'm a team player now . . . .' we won't 
     be as cooperative the next time we do an inspection.''
       Under pressure from the Republican Congress, the Clinton 
     administration has been moving toward more aggressive 
     enforcement of the prohibition on hiring illegal immigrants. 
     Still, in Jacobs's office, fewer than a dozen of the 50 
     agents he supervises handle employer sanctions.
       The notion that regulatory and enforcement agencies like 
     INS and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 
     also an award winner this year, should create partnerships 
     with the private sector ``doubtless reflects the mood of the 
     time,'' said Alan Altshuler, the director of the innovations 
     program at Harvard.
       ``Good government has to be creative, innovative government 
     today,'' Altshuler said. ``It is not enough to simply get rid 
     of waste, fraud and abuse.''
       The 15 award winners, who were selected from a field of 
     about 1,600, will be honored tonight at a dinner that Vice 
     President Gore is scheduled to attend. The finalists were 
     selected by a committee headed by former Michigan governor 
     William G. Milliken (R) that included industry leaders, 
     journalists and former elected officials.
       The program encountered some of Washington's legendary red 
     tape when it was informed that some of the federal agencies 
     being honored could not legally accept the gifts. As a 
     result, the $100,000 prizes will be administered by the 
     nonprofit Council for Excellence in Government. The council 
     will help the agencies sponsor conferences or events to 
     explain their programs to other groups.
       The awards represent a small fraction of the $268 million 
     in grant money that the Ford Foundation gave away last year, 
     Lipsky said, but provide the foundation with a forum to 
     ``stand for the proposition that there is a great deal of 
     good in government that goes unrecognized. While no one says 
     government is perfect, the balance between positive news and 
     negative news goes heavily toward the negative.''

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