[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 99 (Wednesday, July 20, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H6178]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   COMING TO AMERICA THE ILLEGAL WAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE. Madam Speaker, I want to speak today about how to come to 
America. Millions of people apply for visas every year, and 90 percent 
of the people that legally come to this country do so through an 
immediate family member. If someone has a mother, father, brother, 
sister or spouse in the United States, they may apply for immigrant 
visas. They go to the United States consulate, fill out the appropriate 
paperwork, and then they wait, and continue to wait.
  It is a long process even when they are fully eligible. According to 
the State Department, unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens 
that are in Mexico or some other foreign country that applied in 1983 
are just now being considered for immigration status. Twenty years is 
too long to make people wait to enter the United States legally.
  So while thousands of immigrants patiently wait, millions are 
sneaking in illegally and exploiting and disregarding American laws 
every day.
  Madam Speaker, I would like to bring to your attention the illegal 
way to come to America. An illegal can walk to the local Mexican flea 
market, purchase a combination of fake documents. For $100 or $200, an 
illegal can purchase a fake green card as well as a fake Social 
Security card with the number picked at random. They can borrow someone 
else's Social Security number, and the next step is crossing the 
border. This does not seem to be too difficult, especially since the 
Mexican Ministry of Foreign Relations has made available to Mexican 
migrants that want to come to the United States this extensive book on 
how to come to America, even illegally.
  The cover of this book, Guide for the Mexican Migrant. Throughout 
this book it shows possible scenarios that could occur to the migrant. 
First of all, it shows how to cross the border. You run across. If you 
come across an American border agent, how you handle that situation. It 
discusses how some places are not as safe as others to cross the 
border, and it talks about coyotes, those people who are bringing 
illegal individuals into the United States, and how to deal with those 
individuals. This book is extensive on how to come to America the 
illegal way published by the Mexican government.
  Once they get into the United States, it is simple to visit their 
local consular, and for $26 they can purchase a matricula consular 
card, which is a so-called identification card issued by the Mexican 
consulate to prove an illegal immigrant's identity. This card has been 
pushed onto the United States Federal Government. The Mexican 
government wants the Federal Government to use these identification 
cards, but the Federal Government refuses to do so. So Mexican 
consulates are going to local communities, local governments and trying 
to get them and businesses to use this document.
  The card resembles a driver's license and is becoming widely accepted 
as a form of identification at many of the Nation's banks, car 
dealerships, insurance companies, and even in some States they are 
allowing individuals to purchase or get driver's licenses based upon 
this document. It is so widely accepted that many companies are 
spending millions of dollars marketing directly to these migrant card 
holders.
  It is a total lack of enforcement of our immigration law by the 
Federal Government that puts businesses in the United States in this 
precarious position. It seems to me to come to the United States is not 
that difficult. In May of this year, the Department of Homeland 
Security arrested 60 illegal immigrants who worked in 12 critical 
infrastructure sites in six States, including my home State of Texas.
  Illegal immigrants were working as subcontractors at seven 
petrochemical refineries, three electric power plants, and a pipeline 
facility. They were said to have presented phony documents and some of 
them had entered the country after being deported once before.
  Although this may sound distressing, it is not shocking considering 
that we require employers to accept 94 different documents to verify an 
employee's legal status. The United States policy makes businesses in 
the United States do the police work that the Federal Government ought 
to be doing.
  There seems to be a growing amount of fraud associated with Social 
Security cards as well. Illegal immigrants use fake Social Security 
cards, they buy legitimate Social Security cards from migrants, and 
some of them use the same Social Security card at different times.
  In 1986, the United States offered amnesty to millions of illegal 
individuals, and we are still suffering from that policy because it is 
estimated that 3 million of those immigrants received resident papers 
and went directly back to their homeland where they made a profit from 
loaning out those papers to other individuals in their homeland, and 
then they came to the United States and used them.
  Most of this is taking place unbeknownst to the employer that 
unknowingly accepted the fraudulent document in the first place. Not 
only is this widespread use of fake documents deplorable, it is also 
detrimental to homeland security. Eighteen of the 19 hijackers 
possessed either a State-issued or counterfeit driver's license or ID, 
and all 19 of them had obtained some sort of Social Security number.
  And the word has gotten out. Due to the widespread acceptance of the 
matricula consular card, other countries such as Guatemala, Honduras, 
El Salvador, Nicaragua, Peru, and even Poland are preparing to issue 
similar cards for their own citizens that come to the United States 
illegally; and why not? Clearly we are not punishing those that 
continue to break the law and exploit America's compassion to other 
foreign citizens.
  Madam Speaker, if the United States expects to solve the immigrant 
problem, we must come up with a plan to stop the widespread use of 
fraudulent documents. If we are truly, as ``Business Week'' puts it, 
``embracing illegals,'' then our homeland is at risk.

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