[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 8, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H126-H127]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. TANCREDO. Mr. Speaker, today we have successfully debated and
passed a bill to provide an extension of unemployment benefits to
millions of Americans who find themselves out of work. This is a
laudable activity for us to be involved with and I was proud to be able
to support that particular piece of legislation.
I find, however, that we are soon going to be debating another piece
of legislation that is referred to as an economic stimulus package, and
during the course of that debate we will undoubtedly be talking about
the number of jobs that need to be created in the United States in
order for our economy to get moving again. All of these things I
support and I believe need to be done, but I also believe that there is
something which has been left out of the equation and left out of the
discussion when it comes to jobs and providing economic benefits for
American citizens. I underline the word ``citizens'' because what has
happened over the course of the last decade is that we have allowed
into this country, illegally we have allowed into this country between
8 and 13 million people. We do not know for sure, of course, because
they came without our permission. They came across the borders. We are
told that they are here working and taking jobs no other Americans
would take.
Mr. Speaker, I get many, many letters from people in my district who
are out of work and they tell me that they would take any job available
to them. There are steelworkers out of work, factory workers up and
down the East Coast, all across the rust belt, these people are willing
to take any job available; but, of course, other people have gotten
there before them. But, who are these people? Up to 13 million of them
are people who are not citizens of this country.
{time} 2200
We import them. Of course it is true that many businesses hire people
who are here illegally, even knowingly hire people who are here
illegally because they believe they will work for less, they will work
under conditions that perhaps other people would not. We take advantage
of many people. They are oftentimes manipulated by unscrupulous
employers once they get here.
This is all bad, it is all illegal, but we ignore it and we suggest
that we have to do something else to provide jobs for people who are
here. But why do we not look at the fact that if we secure our own
borders, if we ask people who are here illegally to return to their
country of origin, that we would immediately provide millions of jobs
for American citizens? Only we would not have to spend another dollar;
we would not have to appropriate any more money.
Today it was 7 or $8 billion for the extension of unemployment
benefits, but doing what I ask, and that is to secure our borders, to
identify people who are here illegally and deport them. This does not
really cost all that much. That is what the Federal Government should
be doing. That is our role and responsibility, to secure the border, to
know who is coming into this country, for how long and for what
purpose. We choose not to do that. We choose not to do that because
there are political implications there, and there are political
ramifications of such a decision. If we were to actually defend our own
borders and control the process so that people coming into this country
would do so in a legal process, we would, of course, diminish the flow
of illegal immigrants. That would upset the Democrats because they
would say that this would impede their ability to gain potential
voters, knowing that many immigrants, especially illegal immigrants,
would flock to the Democratic Party.
On the other hand, we have the Republican Party which says that if we
were to secure our own borders, if we were to stop the flow of illegal
immigrants into the country, that would impede the ability of
businesses to hire cheap labor. Both of these reasons are, I think,
bogus. They do not reflect what we should be doing in this body and,
that is, to uphold the law. We should be demanding that the INS, we
should be demanding that this administration uphold the law and that we
address the issue of border patrol, increasing border patrol and also
putting the military on the border which is absolutely necessary in
order for us to achieve any degree of security on our borders and on
our coastline. That is imperative. But we refuse to do it. We are
fearful of doing it.
[[Page H127]]
At the same time, there have been attempts on this floor, there have
been attempts in this body to provide amnesty for people who are here
illegally, to reward people who have come here illegally and give them
the opportunities that are usually provided for people who have gone
through the process, who have spent the time, who have spent the money,
who have had the brain damage of having to go through sometimes years
of bureaucratic wrangling to come into the country legally. They have
waited in line. They have done it the right way. But we keep proposing
to give people who have broken the law, who have snuck into the
country, we keep proposing to give them amnesty. What does that concept
tell everybody who has done it the right way? It tells them that they
were essentially suckers and that they should have simply snuck into
the country, we would eventually give them amnesty and they would get
all the benefits that anyone here legally would enjoy.
Speaking of those benefits, Mr. Speaker, let me tell you about
another phenomenon that is going on throughout the country. There is a
process, something called the matricula consular. This is a card, an
identification card that is being handed out by the Mexican Government
to Mexican nationals in the United States.
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