[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 130 (Thursday, September 19, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S11044]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




[[Page S11044]]



     REPEAL OF SECTION 434 OF THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY AND WORK 
                 OPPORTUNITY RECONCILIATION ACT OF 1996

 Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, on September 16, I introduced 
legislation to repeal section 434 of the recently enacted Personal 
Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Section 
434 provides that:

       Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal, State, or 
     local law, no State or local government entity may be 
     prohibited, or in any way restricted, from sending to or 
     receiving from the Immigration and Naturalization Service 
     (INS) information regarding the immigration status, lawful or 
     unlawful, of an alien in the United States.

  This provision conflicts with an executive order, issued by the mayor 
of New York in 1985, prohibiting city employees from reporting 
suspected illegal aliens to the Immigration and Naturalization Service 
unless the alien has been charged with a crime. The executive order, 
which according to a report in the September 12, 1996, New York Times 
is similar to local laws in other States and cities, was intended to 
ensure that fear of deportation does not deter illegal aliens from 
seeking emergency medical attention, reporting crimes, and so forth.
  On September 8, 1995, during Senate consideration of H.R. 4, the Work 
Opportunity Act of 1995, Senators Santorum and Nickles offered this 
provision as an amendment. The amendment was adopted by a vote of 91 to 
6. The Senators who voted ``no'' were: Akaka, Campbell, Inouye, 
Moseley-Braun, Moynihan, and Simon.
  Four of these six--Senators Akaka, Moseley-Braun, Simon, and the 
Senator from New York--were also among the 11 Democrats who voted 
against H.R. 4 when it passed the Senate 11 days later on September 19, 
1995. The provision remained in H.R. 3734, the welfare bill recently 
signed by President Clinton.
  Last week, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York announced that the 
city planned to challenge section 434 of the new welfare law in 
court.

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