[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 136 (Friday, September 27, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H11578-H11579]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 IMMIGRATION BILL STANDS TO BE GUTTED IN OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS MEASURE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Rohrabacher] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, President Clinton has been in 
California probably more often than Ronald Reagan. The fact is that he 
is out there visiting his billionaire buddies from Hollywood and, of 
course, these billionaire buddies, along with the millionaires, are the 
ones who bankroll the liberal left activists who control the Democratic 
party.
  But being out in California so often, he has spoken to the people of 
California and made the promise that he would try to help us come to 
grips with the problem that threatens the social infrastructure of our 
State and, that is, the flood of illegal immigration that is basically 
destroying the education, health care and social service infrastructure 
of the State of California. He has made this promise on several 
occasions.
  The fact is that this is the same President who people have learned 
to sort of when he promises something, to take it with a grain of salt. 
After all, he is the same one who, as soon as he became President, 
started referring to taxes as contributions and Federal spending as 
investment which seems a little crass in the use of words. He is not 
putting anything over on anybody.
  He is the one who promised us a middle-class tax cut, then raised 
taxes on gasoline and, of course, raised taxes dramatically on senior 
citizens; and also promised to end welfare as we know it, but then 
vetoed welfare reform bills that made their way through Congress.
  But he did promise California, to help us with this flood of 
immigration. The people of the State of California, and I think the 
people of the rest of this country, should understand what is happening 
in Washington today. Today the President of the United States is in 
negotiations with the Republican leadership. What is he demanding of 
us? What is he demanding of the Republicans who now control both Houses 
of Congress? The President who promised to help us stem this flood of 
illegal immigration that is destroying our schools and our health care, 
that same President is now threatening to close down the United States 
Government if the Republicans do not agree to gut the immigration 
reform bill that was recently passed in the House of Representatives 
with a substantial majority.

  Yes, we were told that we had to remove that provision that said 
illegal

[[Page H11579]]

alien children cannot get free education, or the States, we had a 
provision that said the States should not be forced to provide 
education benefits for illegal alien children. The cry went up, ``Oh, 
the poor children.'' Well, the fact is we should be caring more about 
our own children rather than millions of children coming from overseas. 
We took that provision out, however. We took it out of the immigration 
bill and they moved the goal post.
  Now the administration says we have got to take out a whole section, 
the guts, the real meaning, the heart and soul of our immigration 
reform bill in order for him to move, to agree with us and to cooperate 
with us to see that there is an omnibus spending bill that will keep 
government going. He is willing to cut off widows and veterans 
benefits, checks that go to the destitute in our country, the checks 
that are going to these programs that our people depend upon, he is 
willing to close all of that down to ensure that illegal aliens and 
immigrants who are getting benefits that they do not deserve, to make 
sure that they continue to drain away these resources. Whose side is he 
on? He is not on the side of the American people. This is not just a 
broken promise. Mr. Speaker, this is a betrayal. Not only of the people 
of California but for people across the United States of America who 
are picking up the bill.
  In SSI and Medicaid benefits alone, the legal immigrants who come 
into this country are expected to sign a pledge that they will not be 
draining these resources away. But $20 billion of our tax dollars are 
going now to pay for these benefits for legal immigrants who are 
basically going straight for the office, filled out the forms and 
immediately start collecting these benefits. The fact is they should 
not be collecting the benefits at all because in order to come here 
they have agreed not to become wards of the government. But the 
President, in order to keep spending this $20 billion on foreigners who 
have come here on the understanding that they will not collect these 
benefits, the President is threatening to close down the government.

                              {time}  2015

  He is threatening to end the checks to our veterans, to our widows 
and our orphans, because he is insisting that we do this.
  This is an attack on every taxpayer in the country, and what it is is 
an invitation to people throughout the world to come here in even 
greater numbers.
  Again, the people of this country should understand the travesty that 
is happening and the betrayal that of their interests by President 
Clinton.

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