    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [June 10, 1996]
    [Pages 886-888]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 886]]

    Remarks to the Community in San Diego, California
    June 10, 1996

        Thank you so much. Thank you, Chief Emerson, Sheriff Kolender,
    District Attorney Phingst. Chief Sanders, thank you very much for the
    tour of your activities this morning and your statements. Thank you,
    Congressman Filner. Thank you, Madam Attorney General, for all the great
    work you do. I'd like to also say a word of appreciation for some others
    who are here who have not spoken today: our United States Attorney, Alan
    Bersin; the Immigration and Naturalization Commissioner, Doris Meissner;
    the person who was very active in helping me pass the crime bill which
    put these police officers on our streets, former Congresswoman Lynn
    Schenk, I'm delighted to see you here.
        I want to thank all the officers who are here from the Customs, the
    Border Patrol, Immigration, from Chula Vista, from San Diego. I
    especially want to thank these uniformed officers who give their lives
    to make our lives safer and all the community citizens groups who work
    with them. Thank you all very much.
        Ladies and gentlemen, when I came to California and to San Diego 4
    years ago and I listened and attempted to learn what was going on here,
    I saw an enormous amount of potential and a lot of stress. Mostly what
    people talked to me about then were two problems, the economy and the
    problem of crime and illegal immigration. I spent a lot of time here 4
    years ago and had the opportunity to come back often since. If you'll
    forgive me just one personal note, this is the first time I've come back
    to San Diego since the death of my friend Larry Lawrence, who served
    this country so well as our Ambassador to Switzerland, and I miss him
    now, coming back here, and I want to thank him for what he did for me
    here. Anyway, what we tried to do was to develop a serious approach, to
    work with you, to help you seize control of your destiny, and to help
    you do more of what you were already inclined to do.
        On the economy, I'd like to make just a couple of comments. Because
    we're building two new ships for our national defense, the San Diego
    shipyards are busy, securing another 4,000 jobs until the year 2000. I
    think that's a good and positive step. Because in 1993 and 1994 the
    Congress agreed to invest in defense conversion, in high technology
    research and development and new environmental technologies and
    biotechnology, jobs are being created here that have a real future to
    grow in number and to strengthen and diversify the economy of this area.
    Because we've started work on a new sewage treatment plant and we're
    proposing to step up our sand reclamation efforts, thanks in no small
    measure to the relentless efforts of Congressman Filner, we're ensuring
    that the San Diego beaches will be enjoyed by children and their
    children for generations to come.
        But we all know that America has had, building over years and years
    and years, a serious problem of illegal immigration which has aggravated
    the crime problem along our borders. The Attorney General talked about
    some of the progress we've made. She gave me a report today which
    reviews where we are and what we've done. So as we have worked hard to
    bring the crime rate down all over America, we've made special efforts
    in our border communities, because we know that we have special
    responsibilities there. Immigration laws are national laws, not State
    laws. They have to be enforced, and the consequences of their
    enforcement or their failure to be enforced have to be borne primarily
    by the National Government. I have done what I could to get more money
    into California in very difficult fiscal circumstances in Washington to
    help you deal with the costs of illegal immigration--more than ever
    before--and I will continue to work on that.
        But the most important thing is we have to be able to work together
    to prove that we can do better. I agreed with what the district attorney
    said when he said there's a difference in being a safer community and a
    safe community. I agreed with what the sheriff said when he said that
    we'd never fully solve this problem until both the United States and our
    friends in Mexico are working together in a long-term and consistent
    way.
        But think about how far we have come in the last 3\1/2\ years. Three
    and a half years ago, many people believed that these problems were
    totally intractable, that drugs would always flow freely, that illegal
    immigration would always be

    [[Page 887]]

    rampant, that criminal immigrants deported for crimes they committed
    here in America would return the very next day to commit crimes again.
        For a lot of years people in public life at election time talked
    tough about immigration, but didn't do much about it. We tried to change
    that. We tried to substitute deeds for words. It's a pretty good
    practice in a lot of areas of life, and I think it's worked pretty well
    here. Our message has been simple: We will work with you to give you the
    tools you need to patrol your streets, protect your children, secure our
    common border. And you have to do what you can to help the police to
    bring the crime rate down and make your community safe.
        Well, you heard what the prosecutor said: San Diego has the 5th
    lowest crime rate in the country of the 75 biggest urban areas. I
    actually believe when the numbers come out this year, you'll be even
    lower than that. And it's a great tribute to the work that you have done
    together.
        Let me say, again, while the job is far from over--and we have a lot
    of work to do--the report I got from the Justice Department makes clear
    that we have begun to turn border communities under siege into
    communities where law and order and safety and security are once again
    the order of the day. I want to say too, again, I'm glad that we're
    working to put 100,000 police officers on the streets of America, that
    we're putting community policing in every community in the country
    that's willing to receive it. But what really makes it work are law
    enforcement officers committed to it and citizens groups working on it.
        Today I had a very impressive briefing from people involved in the
    San Diego citizens patrol in the Safe Streets Now program. They are also
    helping your communities to be safer. The RSVP program is helping your
    community to be safer. So I ask you, don't stop now. We need more
    citizens working with more police officers until crime is the exception,
    not the rule. When you're surprised when you hear about a crime, then
    you'll know you've got a safe community. And you need to continue to do
    it.
        The second thing we're doing is to put criminals behind bars. And
    after they serve their time, if they don't belong here in the first
    place, they're being deported. The crime bill gave us the weapons we
    need to do things that had not been done before to deal with the
    problems of criminal activities by illegal immigrants. As of January of
    last year, we have arrested more than 1,700 criminal aliens and
    prosecuted them on Federal felony charges because they returned to
    America after having been deported in the first place. We are changing
    the policy of this country on that problem.
        We are also making strides in getting control of our border. We've
    added Border Patrol agents, in San Diego alone increasing by 762 the
    number of agents who are working for you by the end of this year. In El
    Paso, our border guards stand so close together, they can actually all
    see each other. [Laughter]
        Here in San Diego, control has been taken back of Imperial Beach
    from the criminals and the illegals. We deployed underground sensors,
    infrared night scopes, encrypted radios. We built miles of new fences,
    installed thousands of watts of new lighting. There is more to do. I
    heard what was said earlier about the threats facing San Diego residents
    in East County, particularly with the onset of the fire season. Today I
    have asked the Secretary of Agriculture, Dan Glickman, to send 20 more
    law enforcement officers to Cleveland National Forest, and they will be
    there by the close of business today.
        Let me say one final word of appreciation here to the cooperation
    between the Federal, State, and local law enforcement officials. What
    they have done here today, over the last several months--I mean, it
    ought to be something that we all take for granted. It ought to be the
    rule in every jurisdiction in America. It's a shame that it's rare, but
    it is rare, and we can be grateful that here there is one American law
    enforcement team. And I tell you, that's what we're trying to create for
    all the citizens of the United States, wherever they live.
        And I am very proud of what they've done. They've put aside politics
    and put the people of this community first, their safety first, their
    future first. That's why there has been an 84 percent increase in felony
    drug prosecutions in one year. That's why murders and robberies and car
    thefts have dropped so much, because they're all working together and
    working for you, instead of protecting their turf and playing politics.
    And I say, God bless them, we need more like them all over this country.
        Let me just say one other thing that affects Americans a long way
    from you, but I bet you've all identified with them in the past few
    months. Even as we crack down on illegal immigration and do more than
    has ever been done before

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    on that, we must never forget that we are all a nation of immigrants
    and, except for the Native Americans, we all came from somewhere else. I
    say that to make this point: Our incredible diversity is a source of our
    rich potential as we move into this global society. Anybody who is
    willing to work hard, obey the law, respect their neighbors, and follow
    the values inherent in the Constitution ought to have a chance in
    America, and that ought to be the rule here.
        And because we're people and because we're imperfect, the country
    will always have problems. There will never be a time when there will be
    no problems. But we really fall into a dangerous trap when we start
    blaming our problems on other people just because they are different
    from us.
        I say that because even though I'm a long way from there, my heart
    has been in my native South for the last several weeks as we have dealt
    with this incredible rash of church burnings. That's just another way of
    people finding a way--trying to blame somebody else or put down somebody
    else or put distance between them and someone else in a totally
    dehumanizing way, forgetting that everybody should be treated equally
    before the law, in the eyes of our fellow Americans, just as we are
    before God Almighty. And to burn a church is a terrible thing. Just 2
    days ago, I reported to the American people about what we were doing to
    deal with the church bombings. And then barely a day later yet another
    congregation, this one in Greenville, Texas, found its church in flames.
    We have got to stop these things.
        We do have a team of Federal, State, and local law enforcement
    officials working overtime to investigate these crimes. Just this
    morning, Federal investigators made an arrest for the burning of the
    church in Charlotte, North Carolina, last Thursday. And I do want you to
    know that for all the partisan fights you hear about in Washington,
    there is a bipartisan bill before the Congress, sponsored by a Democrat
    from Michigan, John Conyers, and a Republican from Illinois, Henry Hyde,
    to make it easier to prosecute anyone who attacks any house of worship,
    of any religious faith, of any race in America, and I urge Congress to
    pass it without delay.
        We need to come together as one America to rebuild our churches,
    restore hope, and show the forces of hatred they cannot win, just as we
    need to come together as one America to say we are a nation of
    immigrants and we're a nation of laws. If you want to be in our country,
    you should be here lawfully. We will protect our people. We will enforce
    our laws. We will secure our future. And we will do it together.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:56 a.m. at police headquarters. In his
    remarks, he referred to Richard Emerson, Chula Vista police chief;
    William Kolender, San Diego County sheriff; Paul Phingst, district
    attorney; and Jerry Sanders, San Diego police chief.