[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 96 (Wednesday, June 26, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1182]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     LEGISLATION TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY CARD

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                           HON. BILL McCOLLUM

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 26, 1996

  Mr. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, today I am proud to introduce legislation 
which would improve the quality of the Social Security card and make it 
a crime to counterfeit work authorization documents. This is absolutely 
critical to our fight against illegal immigration. Several of my 
colleagues, including Mr. Stenholm, Mr. Levin, and Mr. Horn, join me in 
this effort.
  Illegal immigrants come to the United States for one overwhelming 
reason: jobs. In response to this obvious magnet for illegal 
immigration, the 1986 immigration bill created employer sanctions, 
making it illegal to knowingly hire an illegal alien. That law requires 
everyone seeking employment in the United States to produce evidence of 
eligibility to work. One of the documents that may be produced together 
with a driver's license to prove this eligibility is the Social 
Security card. The primary reason employer sanctions are not working 
today is the rampant fraud in the documents used to prove eligibility 
to work, specifically the Social Security card. H.R. 2202 would reduce 
the number of documents that may be produced from 29 to 6. This helps, 
but one of the six is still the Social Security card. As long as it can 
be easily counterfeited, employer sanctions will not work.
  Why is it so important to make employer sanctions work? There are 4 
million illegal aliens in the United States today. This number 
increases by 300,000 to 500,000 annually. Most illegals are non-English 
speaking, poorly educated, and lacking in marketable skills. Their 
numbers are so large in the communities and States where they are 
settling that they cannot be properly assimilated, and they are having 
a very negative social, cultural, and economic impact.
  Even if the southwest border were sealed, which it can't be, it would 
not solve the illegal immigration problem. Nearly 50 percent of 
illegals are here because they entered on legal temporary visas and did 
not leave. The only way to stop illegals from coming, through the 
border or otherwise, is to eliminate the magnet of jobs. The only way 
to do that is to make employer sanctions work.
  Mr. Speaker, the bill I am introducing today will make major strides 
in our efforts to make employer sanctions work. Until sanctions work, 
our fight against illegal immigration will be in vain.

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