[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 149 (Thursday, October 28, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H11124-H11125]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AND THE EEOC

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, first I want to commend this House on a vote 
of 218 to 211. We put ourselves in a position of saving Social 
Security. We have said to all agencies that we can and do expect them 
to find ways to make savings so that we can sacrifice today to save 
Social Security for tomorrow for this generation and for future 
generations.
  I commend my colleagues to stay tuned as the gentleman from Texas 
(Mr. Sessions) will deliver a special order. We will go more into 
detail on the very significant plans we have voted on today and I 
believe we can achieve.
  I would also like to remark on a comment made by the Vice President 
last night in the debate with Senator Bradley.

                              {time}  1800

  The debate was centered on bureaucracy, and the Vice President 
basically said that we should not allow a faceless, nameless bureaucrat 
to stand in the way of health care of Americans, basically saying we do 
not need a bureaucracy in order to deliver health care.
  Well, I say to the President and the Vice President today that maybe 
we should use that same strategy when we talk about education. Because 
I think we have created a lot of bureaucracies, and the gentleman from 
Texas is going to talk about some of the ways we believe we can save 
the American taxpayers some money.
  But I want to discuss another situation today, an outrageous 
situation. In fact, my district office sent up the clippings from the 
newspaper. And Diane, who works for me in Port St. Lucie, puts 
``today's outrage'' on things she thinks bears specific note on where 
we might have gone astray.
  This week the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced they 
are planning to extend anti-discrimination rights to working illegal 
immigrants. This policy would include remedies such as potential back 
pay, punitive damages, and even reinstatement to their jobs. 
Reinstatement to their jobs? I am sorry, I must not understand the term 
illegal immigrant. Perhaps the EEOC can start providing free towing for 
car thieves or free checking for bank robbers.

[[Page H11125]]

  It just baffles my mind. I clearly do not want things to happen to 
any worker, no matter how they are in this country, but if the Equal 
Employment Opportunity Commission is really concerned with equal 
employment opportunity, as their title would indicate, they should be 
ensuring that legal residents and citizens have fair and equal access 
to earn a living. This does not include protecting illegal immigrants 
who are working illegally for an employer who hired them illegally.
  This is all illegal. We are talking about the rule of law. We must 
make a concerted effort to track down employers who are hiring illegal 
immigrants and charge them not with worker discrimination, but with 
hiring illegal workers. Working illegal immigrants take jobs away from 
Americans. They hurt the U.S. work force and they damage the economy.
  This is just another misguided attempt by this administration to--
well, I will be quite honest, I have no idea what they are trying to 
do. I hope my colleagues will join me in sending a message to the 
administration that coddling illegal aliens is not what our policies 
are all about.
  I cannot underscore this enough. None of us should sit willingly by 
while workers' rights are being abused, but we also have to recognize 
first and foremost that there are laws on the books that have to do 
with hiring illegal aliens, hiring illegal workers, and we should 
enforce this policy. But this policy, announced by the EEOC today, just 
once again extends the reach of government into an area where they 
should be concentrating and working clearly to track down illegals and 
return them to their native countries.
  Mr. Speaker, I will be submitting a bill, in fact, it is here at the 
desk, and I will be submitting it to the committee for consideration, 
because I believe we should tell strongly the EEOC, yes, protect 
workers rights; yes, stand for equal employment for all Americans; yes, 
make certain that employers are treating workers fairly, but, in a case 
like this, where they are not permitted to work based on their status, 
we should not provide protection under the law for those who choose to 
work or those who choose to hire illegal immigrants.

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