ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION REFORM AND IMMIGRANT RESPONSIBILITY ACT OF 1996—CONFERENCE REPORT (Senate - September 26, 1996)
[Page: S11450]Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now turn to the consideration of the conference report accompanying the immigration bill, H.R. 2202.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The report will be stated.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
The committee on conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the amendment of the Senate to the bill (H.R. 2202) to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to improve deterrence of illegal immigration to the United States by increasing border patrol and investigative personnel, by increasing penalties for alien smuggling and for document fraud, by reforming exclusion and deportation law and procedures, by improving the verification system for eligibility for employment, and through other measures, to reform the legal immigration system and facilitate legal entries into the United States, and for other purposes, having met, after full and free conference, have agreed to recommend and do recommend to their respective Houses this report, signed by a majority of the conferees.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the Senate will proceed to the consideration of the conference report.
(The conference report is printed in the House proceedings of the Record of September 24, 1996.)
Cloture Motion
[Page: S11451]Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
Cloture Motion
We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate the conference report to accompany H.R. 2202, the illegal immigration reform bill.
Trent Lott, Richard Shelby, Jon Kyl, Craig Thomas, Bob Bennett, Slade Gorton, Mark O. Hatfield, Sheila Frahm, Orrin Hatch, Hank Brown, Dan Coats, Judd Gregg, Rod Grams, Frank H. Murkowski, Al Simpson, and Don Nickles.
Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the cloture vote occur on Monday, September 30, at a time to be determined by the majority leader, after consultation with the Democratic leader, and that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, in view of this agreement that has been worked out, I would like to announce there will be no further votes tonight. I know that there are a number of very important events occurring. I wanted to give that notice to the Senators as early as possible.
I have worked with Senator Daschle and Senator Kennedy to get an agreement to get this illegal immigration conference report considered. This will guarantee that we will get to a cloture vote on Monday, if necessary, and to final passage at a time after that, either Monday night or certainly not later than next Tuesday.
In the meantime, we continue to hope, and, I believe, maybe agreement can be reached to work out a compromise so that the illegal immigration legislation can be included in the continuing resolution which will be connected to the Department of Defense conference report.
There will be a meeting tonight, I think, at 9:30 of the Senators and Congressmen and administration officials who are interested in this area. We hope they can get it worked out and maybe it can be included in an agreed-to package tomorrow night just in case that doesn’t happen. Illegal immigration is such an important issue in this country and people expect us to act on it.
After the effort was made and agreement was reached to take out one provision that had been objected to by the President and others, we thought this legislation would move forward. It should. But there are some problems that are being expressed by the administration. We will work on those. If we don’t get it worked out, we will have a cloture vote on Monday.
END
The following was placed in the Congressional Record by Senator Lott.
The official public record of the business of the US Government.
CONFERENCE REPORT TO ACCOMPANY ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION REFORM AND IMMIGRANT RESPONSIBILITY ACT OF 1996 (Senate - September 27, 1996)
A Dangerous Immigration Bill
(NEW YORK TIMES, EDITORIAL)
As the White House and members of Congress make final decisions this week about a severely flawed immigration bill, they seem more concerned with protecting their political interests than the national interest. The bill should be killed.
Debate over the bill has concentrated on whether it should contain a punitive amendment that would close school doors to illegal -immigrant children. But even without that provision, it is filled with measures that would harm American workers and legal immigrants, and deny basic legal protections to all kinds of immigrants. At the same time, the bill contains no serious steps to prevent illegal immigrants from taking American jobs.
Its most dangerous provisions would block Federal courts from reviewing many Immigration and Naturalization Service actions. This would remove the only meaningful check on the I.N.S., an agency with a history of abuse. Under the bill, every court short of the Supreme Court would be effectively stripped of the power to issue injunctions against the I.N.S. when its decisions may violate the law or the Constitution.
Injunctions have proven the only way to correct system-wide illegalities. A court injunction, for instance, forced the I.N.S. to drop its discriminatory policy of denying Haitian refugees the chance to seek political asylum.
On an individual level, legal immigrants convicted of minor crimes would be deported with no judicial review. If they apply for naturalization, they would be deported with no judicial review. If they apply for naturalization, they would be deported for such crimes committed in the past. The I.N.S. would gain the power to pick up people it believes are illegal aliens anywhere, and deport them without a court review if they have been here for less than two years.
The bill would also diminish America’s tradition of providing asylum to the persecuted. Illegal immigrants entering the country, who may not speak English or be familiar with American law, would be summarily deported if they do not immediately request asylum or express fear of persecution. Those who do would have to prove that their fear was credible—a tougher standard than is internationally accepted—to an I.N.S. official on the spot, with no right to an interpreter or attorney.
Scam artists with concocted stories would be more likely to pass the test than the genuinely persecuted, who are often afraid of authority and so traumatized they cannot recount their experiences. Applicants would have a week to appeal to a Justice Department administrative judge but no access to real courts before deportation.
The bill would also go further than the recently adopted welfare law in attacking legal immigrants. Under the immigration bill they could be deported for using almost any form of public assistance for a year, including English classes. It would make family reunification more difficult by requiring high incomes for sponsors of new immigrants. The bill would also require workers who claim job discrimination to prove that an employer intended to discriminate, which is nearly impossible.
A bill that grants so many unrestricted powers to the Government should alarm Republicans as well as Democrats. This is not an immigration bill but an immigrant -bashing bill. It deserves a quick demise.
Mr. LOTT addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.