    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
    [May 6, 1995]
    [Pages 646-648]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    May 6, 1995

        Good morning. This morning I want to talk with you about the problem
    of illegal immigration. It's a problem our administration inherited, and
    it's a very serious one. It costs the taxpayers of the United States a
    lot of money, and it's unfair to Americans who are working every day to
    pay their own bills. It's also unfair to a lot of people who have waited
    in line for years and years in other countries to be legal immigrants.

    [[Page 647]]

        Our Nation was built by immigrants. People from every region of the
    world have made lasting and important contributions to our society. We
    support legal immigration. In fact, we're doing what we can to speed up
    the process for people who do apply for citizenship when they're here
    legally. But we won't tolerate immigration by people whose first act is
    to break the law as they enter our country. We must continue to do
    everything we can to strengthen our borders, enforce our laws, and
    remove illegal aliens from our country.
        As I said in my State of the Union Address, we are a nation of
    immigrants, but we're also a nation of laws. And it is wrong and
    ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind
    of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years.
        This week, I sent strong legislation to Congress to try to stop
    those abuses, to secure our borders in the future, and to speed up
    deportation of illegal immigrants.
        Our immigration policy is focused in four areas: first,
    strengthening border control; second, protecting American jobs by
    enforcing laws against illegal immigrants at the workplace; third,
    deporting criminal and deportable aliens; fourth, giving assistance to
    States who need it and denying illegal aliens benefits for public
    services or welfare.
        Let me talk a little bit about two or three of these issues. First
    of all, on strengthening border control: For 2 years, we've been working
    very, very hard to strengthen our borders. We've put the best American
    technology to work at our borders. We've added a lot of Border Patrol
    agents, 350 last year, 700 this year. We're going to add at least
    another 700 next year.
        In El Paso, our border guards stand so close together they can
    actually see each other. They maintain a sealed border in what used to
    be the biggest route into America for illegal aliens. We're extending
    this coverage to other sectors of the borders. We'll increase border
    control by 51 percent this year over 1993 and by 60 percent along the
    southwest border. That's pretty good for just 3 years.
        We're also helping States to remove illegal aliens who are
    criminals, and I want to talk more about that in a moment. But focus on
    this: Right now we're deporting 110 illegal aliens everyday. That's
    almost 40,000 a year. And we're going to do even better.
        Now, let me talk a little bit about increasing deportations. Our
    plan will triple the number of criminal and other deportable aliens
    deported since 1993. We want to focus on the criminal population or on
    those who are charged with crimes but who are here illegally. Every day,
    illegal aliens show up in court who are charged. Some are guilty, and
    surely, some are innocent. Some go to jail, and some don't. But they're
    all illegal aliens, and whether they're innocent or guilty of the crime
    they're charged with in court, they're still here illegally and they
    should be sent out of the country.
        If they're sentenced to jail, they should go to jail. But then after
    their term is over, they should be removed from the United States. And
    when there is a plea bargain, I want deportation to be part of the deal.
    We've been doing this now in southern California, and just in southern
    California, under this provision, we're going to send out 800 to 1,000
    illegal immigrants this year. It simply doesn't make any sense for us to
    have illegal aliens in our custody, in our courts, and then let them go
    back to living here illegally. That's wrong, and we should stop it.
        Now, in addition to strengthening the Border Patrol, deporting more
    aliens who are part of our court system, and really cracking down on
    inspection at the work site in America, we have to face the fact that
    we've got another big problem, and that is the backlog. There is
    actually a backlog in the deportation of illegal aliens of over 100,000.
    That's 100,000 people we have identified who are still awaiting the
    completion of their deportation hearings. I have instructed the Justice
    Department to get rid of this backlog. If it takes extra judges, we'll
    ask Congress for the money to get them. We cannot justify continuing to
    have this large number of illegal aliens in our country simply because
    our court system won't process them.
        We also have hundreds of thousands of people who have been ordered
    to leave our country, who then disappear back into the population. I
    have instructed the Justice Department, and particularly the Immigration
    and Naturalization Service, to come up with a plan in which we can
    cooperate with the States to identify these people and move them out as
    well.
        Our country was built by immigrants, but it was built also by people
    who obeyed the law. We must be able to control our borders; we must
    uphold respect for our laws. We're cracking down on this huge problem we
    found when

    [[Page 648]]

    I got here, and we're going to keep working at it until we do much, much
    better.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:06 a.m. from the Map Room at the White
    House.