[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 24 (Monday, June 21, 1993)]
[Pages 1110-1112]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the Nomination of Doris Meissner To Be INS Commissioner and 
an Exchange With Reporters

 June 18, 1993

    The President. Thank you all very much for coming. I want to say a 
special word of thanks to the Members of Congress who are here from both 
parties, demonstrating a strong bipartisan interest in the subject of 
immigration. I also want to recognize Admiral John Kime, the Commandant 
of the Coast Guard, and Admiral Robert Nelson, the Vice Commandant, 
thank them for coming. And in a moment I'll recognize a couple of other 
people.
    The immigration issue poses real problems and challenges and, as 
always, provides great opportunities for the American people. It is a 
commonplace of American life that immigrants have made our country great 
and continue to make a very important contribution to the fabric of 
American life. In one of our counties, Los Angeles County, there are 
today people from 150 different national and ethnic groups. But we also 
know that under the pressures that we face today, we can't afford to 
lose control of our own borders or to take on new financial burdens at a 
time when we are not adequately providing for the jobs, the health care, 
and the education of our own people. Therefore, immigration must be a 
priority for this administration.
    I am pleased to announce today my intention to nominate Doris 
Meissner for the position of Commissioner of the United States 
Immigration and Naturalization Service. I want to say that this 
nomination has the full support of Attorney General Janet Reno, who 
could not be here today because of a previous commitment to be at the 
FBI Training Academy at Quantico. But she has very strongly endorsed and 
supported Ms. Meissner's nomination.
    She has an extensive background in immigration affairs, bringing a 
unique combination of management and policy experience. She served as 
Acting Commissioner and in other senior positions in the Immigration and 
Naturalization Service between 1981 and 1985. She served at the 
Department of Justice as Deputy Associate Attorney General from 1977 to 
1980, and in a variety of other policy positions at the Justice 
Department where she began as a White House fellow in 1973. Since 1986, 
Doris Meissner has been senior associate and director of immigration 
policy project of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She's 
authored numerous articles on a wide variety of immigration issues and 
has testified before Congress on many legislative proposals. First and 
foremost, she is committed to the effective management of the INS and 
the vigorous and fair enforcement of our country's immigration laws. Her 
nomination signals my efforts to ensure that we meet the immigration 
challenges facing our Nation and the world.
    Before I call Doris up here, I also want to announce that I have 
today approved a plan of action to combat the problem of organized crime 
syndicates trafficking in alien smuggling. The plan involves the 
coordinated efforts of 12 departments and agencies of the United States 
Government working in coordination with the White House Domestic Policy 
Council and the National Security Council. It responds to a major crime 
problem which has existed for almost 2 years but to date has been dealt 
with only on an ad hoc basis.
    Alien smuggling is a shameful practice of unspeakable degradation 
and unspeakable exploitation. Migrants and their families must

[[Page 1111]]

pledge up to $30,000 to come to the United States. Criminal syndicates 
load these immigrants on ships under conditions that run the gamut from 
deplorable to life-threatening. The gangs then place arriving immigrants 
in slave-like conditions of indentured servitude to pay off their debts. 
Deterring this transport in human cargo and traffic in human misery is a 
priority for our administration.
    The plan I have approved addresses this smuggling in multiple ways. 
We will strengthen law enforcement efforts in the United States by 
expanding our investigative efforts and broadening prosecution 
strategies. We will go after smugglers and their operations at the 
source. We will take measures to interdict and redirect smuggling ships 
when they are in transit. We will expedite procedures for processing 
entry claims and for returning economic migrants smuggled into the 
United States. And we will ask Congress to pass legislation to expedite 
this process further. We will also ask the Congress to increase 
penalties for alien smuggling to allow us to use the Racketeer 
Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act to go after these smugglers and 
to permit us expanded authority to seize their assets.
    With this plan, the United States signals its abhorrence of the 
trafficking in human beings for profit and its determination to combat 
this illegal activity. At the same time, we reaffirm our commitment to 
protect bona fide refugees under our law. This is a good beginning, but 
there is much more to do.
    I'd like now to invite Doris Meissner to say a few words. But before 
I do, I'd like to ask her husband, Charles, and her daughter, Christine, 
to stand and be recognized. It's nice to have you with us today.
    Chairman Brooks, I want to thank you and all the Members of Congress 
who are here. And I'd like to now introduce our designate to run the 
Immigration and Naturalization Service, Ms. Doris Meissner.

[At this point, Ms. Meissner made brief remarks.]

    The President. If you have any questions of Ms. Meissner or me, 
we'll take a couple.

Chinese Immigrants

    Q. Mr. President, you mentioned that this problem began or has been 
going on for 2 years. Was there some event that precipitated it?
    The President. I just wanted to make it clear that we were aware of 
this problem before the ship came. And I don't know what event 
precipitated it. There have been a lot of speculation about the Chinese 
immigrants themselves and the irony that--it may be that the increasing 
prosperity in China may have something to do with this because more 
people at least have the ability to move into the coastal cities and to 
have a little bit of money to make that first step. No one knows exactly 
why this happened. We've heard that it may be because certain ships have 
been diverted from other things, because they couldn't do what they were 
doing before and now are more available to bring immigrants here. There 
are all kinds of speculations about what caused it, but that's not 
important. What's important is that we try to do something about it and 
bring it to an end.
    Q. Mr. President, the Chinese problem is a----
    The President. The House Members have to have a vote.
    Q. ----Mexican border. What are you going to do about that?
    The President. The House Members have to be excused to go to vote.
    Go ahead, Sarah [Sarah McClendon, McClendon News], I'm sorry. You're 
next.

Mexico

    Q. Sir, I want to point out to you that for generation after 
generation, Democrats and Republicans have refused to face the problems 
of immigration on the Mexican border. And that's where people come 
through, not only from Mexico. A thousand a night at least get by at one 
place south of San Diego alone. And that's got to be faced up to. But 
people come from all over the world to Mexico to come in here. And they 
don't have to pay $30,000, they just pay the--[inaudible]--about $500.
    Ms. Meissner. Well, obviously we have a--between the United States 
and Mexico is a border between countries with the largest income 
differential of any countries that have a single border. So there's 
going to be an effort for people to come to the United States. We 
obviously need to do border con- 

[[Page 1112]]

trol, but we also need to be thinking about development to our south. 
And the NAFTA that is going to be debated in the next couple of months 
is a very, very important step in that direction, and I hope that we can 
support it.
    The President. We did not rehearse this, but let me, if I might 
reinforce that. We have asked for more border guards. I asked for 
several hundred more in the jobs package that I asked the Congress to 
pass earlier. And we can do a better job. I think that's clear. We can 
do a better job if we have more people. But in the end, I think what Ms. 
Meissner said has to be looked at, the pure economic realities.
    One of the arguments for having the right kind of trade agreement 
with Mexico is to raise incomes in Mexico and create more jobs there. 
They'll not only buy more of our products, but the incentive to leave 
home to make a decent living for one's family will go down dramatically. 
So that's another one of the very important benefits of NAFTA. And I 
swear we did not coordinate our responses. I didn't know she was going 
to say that.

Employer Sanctions

    Q. Do you think that employer sanctions should be made in order to 
control better this kind of problem in the United States?
    Ms. Meissner. I believe that employer sanctions is an important 
enforcement tool. I think when the Congress passed employer sanctions in 
1986, it realized, and everybody else who was involved in the debate 
realized, that it was simply a first step at the kind of workplace 
enforcement that we would need. We may need to look at ways to perfect 
the law. We certainly need to look at whether we're enforcing it as 
effectively as we can.

Cost of Enforcement

    Q. Mr. President, a couple of questions. How much is this going to 
cost, if you know? And on your list of priorities, and I know you have a 
lot, where do you place this? Is this close to the top or in the middle 
or someplace else?
    The President. Keep in mind we have a large budget already, and we 
have a wonderful resource in the United States Coast Guard and a lot of 
other people who are working in the Immigration and Naturalization 
Service. So I don't have a price tag for what else it might cost. But 
let me say that this basically relates to everything else we're working 
on. What our immigration policy is will affect our ability to create 
jobs for our people, will affect our ability to provide health care to 
our people, may affect our ability even to pass a health care program in 
the United States Congress. This issue will be a priority because it is 
so integrally a part of so many of the other things that we're dealing 
with in our effort to revive the American economy and strengthen the 
lives and the security of the people who live here.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 10:49 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White 
House.