[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 36 (Tuesday, March 28, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E432-E433]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      CALL FOR ROADMAP FOR LEGALIZATION OF UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 28, 2006

  Mr. Rangel. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to echo what the vast majority 
of Members of Congress believe: Our country is in need of a solution to 
address the influx of undocumented immigrants into the United States. I 
would also like to enter into the Record a Wall Street Journal 
editorial advocating for amnesty, a letter signed by esteemed Members 
of Congress calling for orderly, legal venues for new immigrants and 
earned legalization for those in the United States and an opinion piece 
by Cardinal Archbishop Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles explaining his 
archdiocese's stand against proposed legislation that would penalize 
social and religious organizations that help undocumented immigrants.
  This Nation was founded by immigrants fleeing religious persecution. 
Ironically, today this country has evolved to one that persecutes 
undocumented immigrants who, like our forefathers, came here searching 
for a better quality of life. Upon arrival, if undocumented immigrants 
are so lucky to cross the border alive and evade exploitation by drug 
smugglers and coyotes, they are forced to live in the shadows without 
access to health care or employment benefits at a job that pays little 
salary. In fear of detection by law enforcement, they cannot live 
normal lives.
  This is an unjust burden imposed to persons who are welcomed with 
open arms into this country by U.S. employers to perform unskilled 
labor. As George Melloan states in his opinion piece, ``The U.S. needs 
labor; immigrants supply labor. So the solution is to find ways to 
bring the two together in some legal, orderly way.'' While it is true 
that this country is suffering from astronomically high deficits, the 
American entrepreneurial spirit drives an economy that embraces cheap 
labor. There is no reason to believe that the labor demand will subside 
and as a result immigrants will continue to be attracted to employment 
opportunities here. We in turn will continue to depend on immigrant 
labor to harvest our crops, tend to our gardens, clean our homes and 
offices and even take care of our children.

[[Page E433]]

  We cannot deny that immigrant labor is vital to our economy. As 
leaders of this Nation, we also have a moral obligation to those within 
our borders. Undocumented immigrants have suffered sufficient hardship 
to arrive here and are forced to lead secret lives to put food on the 
tables. This cannot continue. As Cardinal Archbishop Mahoney eloquently 
states in his piece, providing humanitarian assistance to those most in 
need, such as undocumented immigrants should not be a crime, as is 
stipulated in H.R. 4437. This bill so vaguely proposes punishing those 
who offer aid to undocumented immigrants, that it would penalize acts 
of mercy such as offering a meal or administering first aid. I admire 
Cardinal Archbishop Mahoney's stand for instructing priests not to 
follow the proposed law. I can only hope similar conviction will be 
found in Members of Congress as they oppose such legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, please join me in agreeing that the only way to right 
the wrong endured by undocumented immigrants is to take them out of the 
shadows and offer them a way to achieve citizenship. As Melloan states, 
this is the ``only practical solution.''

             [From the Wall Street Journal, Mar. 21, 2006]

                     Exam Week for the GOP Congress

                          (By George Melloan)

       Immigration reform is on the Senate agenda this week. The 
     issue has been festering for years and probably will still be 
     when Congress takes its Easter break, once again 
     demonstrating the weakness of Republican congressional 
     leadership.
       It hardly needs saying the U.S. immigration policy is a 
     mess. An estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants are 
     among the 300 million souls who inhabit the Nation. Most fill 
     jobs U.S. citizens disdain. It would be hard to run U.S. 
     hotels and restaurants without the maids and busboys who have 
     made their way from places like Quito and San Salvador.
       Yet their presence annoys what Weekly Standard editor Fred 
     Barnes aptly calls ``paleocons,'' conservatives of the Pat 
     Buchanan stripe who go hysterical over these brown-skinned, 
     Spanish-speaking toilers. Vigilantism has broken out on the 
     Mexican border, with macho guys packing six-guns searching 
     for wetbacks. More seriously, the hysteria has infected 
     Congress, resulting in House passage in December of a bill 
     that would, along with other drastic measures, authorize the 
     construction of a 700-mile Berlin Wall on the Mexican border.
       One guy who really loves that wall is a Yankee-baiting 
     Mexican leftist named Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The highly 
     visible testimony to gringo abhorrence of Mexicans is feeding 
     his campaign for the July 2 Mexican presidential election. If 
     he makes it, the U.S. will have only a few friends left in 
     Latin American capitals. The aging, tottering Fidel Castro 
     will have finally achieved his life's ambition of turning the 
     Spanish-speaking world against America.
       Illegal immigrants are indeed a problem, although also the 
     principal victims of their illegal status. Because they don't 
     have documents they can be easily exploited in ways offensive 
     to the American sense of justice and fair play. The industry 
     that has developed for sneaking them into the country is used 
     for other purposes, such as smuggling drugs. A few, partly 
     because of attachments to the smugglers, turn to crime in 
     places like Los Angeles and Albuquerque.
       The inability of the U.S. to devise a sensible set of 
     immigration policies has broader repercussions beyond Latin 
     America. Microsoft's Bill Gates complains that the U.S. is 
     shutting out foreigners with needed skills. Colleges and 
     universities say that Immigration and Naturalization Service 
     bureaucracy complicates the admission of students, limiting 
     the ability of the U.S. to earn foreign currency and 
     international goodwill by offering the world's youth first-
     class educational opportunities. Employers protest at 
     criminal penalties if they fail to detect document forgeries 
     and thus don't fulfill their ``duties''' as surrogate law 
     enforcers.
       If Congress had been living up to its responsibilities, 
     these problems would have been addressed long ago. The first 
     requirement is for members to accept the fact that 
     unfilled jobs in a booming economy are going to attract 
     individuals seeking better lives. That's a normal and 
     powerful drive in homo sapiens. Spending taxpayer billions 
     on a hideous wall and more cops might reduce the flow, but 
     it won't stop it or deal with the issue of what to do 
     about those already in the country.
       Lawmakers of course have a natural predilection toward 
     exercising police power. Large construction projects appeal 
     as well, especially in a Congress that seems mainly focused 
     on finding ways to pass out federal dollars to key 
     constituencies. But it should be evident by now that those 
     kinds of approaches are limited in coping with honest human 
     instincts.
       The equation is simple: The U.S. needs labor; immigrants 
     supply labor. So the solution is to find ways to bring the 
     two together in some legal, orderly way. President Bush 
     understands this, which is why he has proposed the 
     restoration of a guest-worker program. But for some reason--
     perhaps because the president's staff is not sufficiently 
     skillful or vigorous enough in pressing his case--the 
     Republican leaders in Congress seem deaf to the wishes of 
     their own president.
       The second part of the equation, what to do about existing 
     illegals, is a bit more difficult, politically at least. The 
     first bit of advice worth taking: Stop treating it as a 
     police problem. Nearly all of the illegals sneaked into the 
     U.S. for nothing more heinous than to offer their honest 
     labor. They violated U.S. immigrations laws but they aren't 
     criminals in the sense of posing a threat to persons and 
     property. If approached seriously and with sufficient 
     goodwill, it should not be beyond the mind of man to find 
     ways to make them legal.
       In other words, they need to be given amnesty. The 
     paleocons immediately object that doing so would reward them 
     for breaking the law. How about changing the phrasing a 
     little bit? Let's say they are to get amnesty in recognition 
     of the fact that they already have suffered sufficient 
     hardship in getting into the U.S. and living secret lives. 
     Various other schemes that have been mentioned, such as 
     sending them home to wait in a queue, have one fatal defect: 
     They won't convince illegals that it is safe to come out of 
     hiding.
       Offering to give illegals green cards and wipe the slate 
     clean is the only practical solution. If they come forward, 
     they can stay on their jobs and travel back and forth to 
     their homes legally. Some who have been trapped in the U.S. 
     by their inability to travel freely will choose to go home 
     permanently. There will be less incentive to sneak in family 
     members, since it will be possible to visit relatives or send 
     remittances. Restoring something like the old bracero program 
     for temporary farm workers would further regularize the flow 
     of labor.
       Let's admit that Beltway politics has gone crazy. Aside 
     from the paleocons, there are the labor unions and their 
     ``liberal'' friends. Most unions long ago gave up 
     representing working people in favor of representing 
     themselves, which is no doubt why they are losing membership. 
     It is hard to think of a class of workers more in need of 
     union support than poor Latinos with no legal rights. But 
     politics are what Congress is paid to manage. It's too bad 
     this Congress is making such a hash of it.

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