[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 45 (Thursday, March 28, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E472-E473]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            IMMIGRATION IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST ACT OF 1995

                                 ______


                               speech of

                       HON. ESTEBAN EDWARD TORRES

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 20, 1996

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2202) to 
     amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to improve 
     deterrence of illegal immigration to the United States by 
     increasing border patrol and investigative personnel, by 
     increasing penalties for alien smuggling and for document 
     fraud, by reforming exclusion and deportation law and 
     procedures, by improving the verification system for 
     eligibility for employment, and through other measures, to 
     reform the legal immigration system and facilitate legal 
     entries into the United States, and for other purposes:
  Mr. TORRES. Mr. Chairman, I include for the Record the following 
correspondence from the NCLR:


                                  National Council of La Raza,

                                   Washington, DC, March 15, 1996.
       Dear Representative: I am writing on behalf of the National 
     Council of La Raza (NCLR), the nation's largest constituency-
     based national Hispanic organization, to express profound 
     concern about H.R. 2202, which will be considered by the 
     House next week. NCLR supports effective measures to control 
     our borders. We believe that effective immigration reform 
     must include professionally conducted border enforcement, 
     visa

[[Page E473]]

     control, and enforcement of labor laws against employers who 
     knowingly hire and exploit undocumented workers. However, we 
     believe that many of the provisions in this bill undermine 
     the ultimate purpose of immigration control, often at the 
     expense of major groups of Americans including Latinos and 
     others who look or sound ``foreign.''
       Several such provisions in this sweeping legislation have 
     generated severe opposition from many sectors of society and 
     leaders on both sides of the aisle because they undermine the 
     basic principles of good immigration reform legislation. NCLR 
     joins in that opposition on the grounds that such measures do 
     not constitute effective immigration reform, and are likely 
     to harm hardworking Americans, particularly Latinos. We urge, 
     therefore, that you consider the following recommendations 
     when this legislation reaches the floor:
       Support the Chabot/Conyers amendment to strike the 
     verification system--NCLR joins a broad range of 
     organizations including small businesses, labor unions, and 
     civil rights organizations, which oppose the establishment of 
     a government computer system to verify workers. Because of 
     the intense opposition to this provision, the bill's sponsor, 
     Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) has modified this provision by making 
     the system ``voluntary'' for employers and by deleting some 
     civil rights protections which were added to the system by 
     the Judiciary Committee. Such changes do not appease 
     opponents of the verification system; even a voluntary system 
     ensures the creation of the government database, and it is 
     highly unlikely that it will be ``voluntary'' in practice in 
     the short term. We believe that once Congress invests in the 
     creation of a system, it will inevitably act to make the 
     system mandatory. The establishment of a verification system 
     will be costly, and will inappropriately inconvenience both 
     employers and legally authorized workers who are playing by 
     the rules, and simply want to do business and work without 
     government interference.
       Oppose the Gallegly/Bilbray/Seastrand/Stenholm amendment 
     establishing a mandatory verification pilot program in 5 of 
     the 7 states with the largest number of undocumented 
     immigrants. This amendment would restore the original 
     mandatory verification system, which was modified because of 
     concern that it would prove costly to taxpayers, to 
     businesses and to workers, and that its error rates would 
     result in a one-in-five chance that a legitimate worker would 
     be denied job opportunities because of mistakes in the 
     government's computers. Employers who play by the rules would 
     be forced to abide by new procedures, while those who 
     intentionally hire undocumented workers with full knowledge 
     that they are violating the law would simply continue to do 
     business as usual.
       Support the Brownback/Berman/Chrysler amendment to strike 
     the legal immigration changes: H.R. 2202 represents the most 
     extreme changes to the legal system in 70 years, and unfairly 
     exploits public concern over illegal immigration to impose 
     unwarranted restrictions on legal immigration. The provisions 
     in this section of the bill would prevent U.S. citizens from 
     reuniting with their spouses, minor children, adult children, 
     and siblings. Such changes unnecessarily undermine the 
     nation's family values, and punish U.S. citizens who play by 
     the rules and wait in long lines to reunite with their loved 
     ones.
       Support the Velazquez/Roybal-Allard amendment to allow 
     U.S.-born children to have access to services and protections 
     regardless of the legal status of their parents. It is 
     unreasonable and outrageous to use U.S. citizen children as a 
     means of punishing their parents for their immigration 
     status. This provision does nothing to control undocumented 
     immigration, and severely punishes innocent Americans.
       Oppose the Pombo/Chambliss, Goodlatte, and Condit 
     amendments to create a massive new guestworker program. NCLR 
     strongly opposes amendments to introduce or alter guestworker 
     programs in order to bring hundreds of thousands of new, 
     exploitable workers for the agricultural industry. These 
     amendments are inimical to the purpose of the legislation; 
     they are unnecessary, and would harm both the guestworkers 
     themselves and Americans who work in agriculture.
       Oppose the Gallegly amendment to deny public education to 
     undocumented children--This amendment defies a Supreme Court 
     decision by allowing states to deny public education to 
     undocumented children. It is both ineffective and 
     unreasonable to punish children for the immigration status of 
     their parents; such a measure undermines the well being of 
     the entire community.
       Oppose the McCollum amendment to create a national I.D. 
     card--This amendment would turn the Social Security card into 
     a national identification card. The Social Security 
     Administration has estimated that the cost of generating such 
     a card for all Americans would be $6 billion. Such a card 
     would lead to massive civil rights abuses as Americans who 
     look and sound ``foreign'' would be asked to demonstrate that 
     they really belong in this country over and over again.
       Oppose the Tate amendment to bar admission to former 
     undocumented immigrants--This amendment is excessively harsh, 
     and would undermine several key tenets of immigration law. A 
     U.S. citizen who marries someone who came illegally to the 
     United States would be precluded from petitioning for his/her 
     spouse to become a permanent resident. It is unnecessary to 
     punish U.S. citizens in this manner; such a policy will do 
     little to control immigration.
       Oppose the Bryant (TN) amendment to require medical 
     facilities to report their patients to the INS--If such an 
     amendment is adopted, immigrants and their American family 
     members will be frightened to seek medical care, to the 
     detriment of the entire community. America can control 
     undocumented immigration without bringing ugly enforcement 
     efforts to the emergency room.
       Oppose the Rohrabacher amendment to repeal the immigrant 
     adjustment provision--This amendment would eliminate a 
     procedure in existing law requiring persons adjusting their 
     status to pay a higher fee rather than return to their home 
     countries to process their papers. This procedure was 
     advocated for by the State Department, to avoid having to 
     process large numbers of immigrant petitions at foreign 
     consulates. Overturning this procedure accomplishes nothing 
     toward immigration enforcement, and would seriously 
     inconvenience Americans reuniting with immigrant family 
     members.
       NCLR acknowledges the right and duty of any sovereign 
     nation to control its borders, and we have consistently 
     supported sound measures pursuant to that goal. We do not 
     support the kind of unnecessary, extremist, and ineffective 
     proposals embodied in--and being proposed as amendments to--
     the pending legislation. Such amendments do a great deal to 
     undermine the nation's most sacred values and nothing 
     substantive toward immigration control. We urge you to vote 
     in keeping with American values and ideals and prevent 
     unnecessarily divisive provisions from being enacted.
       Thank you for your consideration of our views.
           Sincerely,
                                                   Raul Yzaguirre,
     President.

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