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.
[more from congressional record of 1996 congress]
CONFERENCE REPORT TO ACCOMPANY ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION REFORM AND IMMIGRANT RESPONSIBILITY ACT OF 1996 (Senate - September 27, 1996)
Immigration Politics
In an effort to salvage the illegal immigration reform bill, congressional Republicans finally backed off their plan to penalize the school children of illegal immigrants—and bucked Bob Dole, their presidential candidate, in the process. Unfortunately, the bill they struggled to save is still a severely flawed piece of work.
Though the proposal to allow states to deny public education to illegal immigrants was a cornerstone of the House-passed version, it faced a Senate filibuster and a presidential veto. Anxious to save both face and the remainder of the bill, Republicans agreed to uncouple the education proposal from the rest of the bill and vote separately on each.
Dole belatedly endorsed the move in a letter to conferees. But earlier this month, he tried to strong-arm his former colleagues into retaining the controversial amendment in an attempt to torpedo the immigration reform bill—one he had supported when he was in the Senate—to keep Clinton from scoring political points. That’s not just hard-ball. That’s irresponsible. Congressional Republicans deserve some credit for defying Dole, even if they acted out of political self-interest. The Republicans want to take an immigration bill, even a watered-down one, back home to their constituents before election time.
Though improved, the bill has other problems which still merit that presidential veto. The conference report gives virtually unchecked authority to the Immigration and Naturalization Service to turn away immigrants, with false papers or none, who seek asylum from genocide, political death squads or other forms of persecution. Though the conferees softened this summary exclusion procedure by inserting a meager administrative review, that is still not sufficient. Also included are restrictions on benefits to legal immigrants more onerous than those contained in the new welfare bill. These defects overshadow the bill’s constructive provisions, such as a doubling of the number of Border Patrol officers.
The Clinton administration has voiced tepid concern and has so far withheld its promise of support. But undoubtedly eager to claim victory himself, Clinton cannot be counted on to veto the bill even with these glaring problems. On illegal immigration reform , like welfare, he might not be that far behind Dole on the pander meter.
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Immigrant Bashing
Congress is waging its usual election-year war on immigrants. Although we suspect, in this case, the real target of the new immigration `reform’ bill making its way through Congress is Bill Clinton.
Yes, Republicans have stripped from the bill—in the face of a Clinton veto threat—a provision that would allow states to throw the children of illegal immigrants out of school, presumably to run wild and ignorant in the streets.
But the measure that remains is still far too punitive in its treatment of both legal and illegal immigrants, too lenient on U.S. employers who hire illegals and too willing to grant the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service chilling new authority.
This week, legal immigrants around the nation were being told that they are no longer eligible for food stamps, thanks to the recently enacted welfare reform bill. The anti-immigrant measure would continue that trend of denying legal immigrants public assistance when they are in trouble. These are people who have permission to be here, who hold down jobs when they can get them and who pay taxes and otherwise support the economy.
One particularly mean-spirited provision, for instance, would even deny legal immigrants Medicaid assistance for the treatment of AIDS or HIV-related illnesses. Let them suffer, chortle the bashers in Congress.
And what about unscrupulous employers who hire illegal immigrants for slave wages, thus encouraging still more undocumented aliens to flock to this country? Congress couldn’t be bothered to crack down too hard on such practices. Tougher penalties for such practices were deleted from the bill.
One of the most ominous provisions of the bill would grant an unprecedented degree of autonomy to the INS. Under the measure, no court, other than the U.S. Supreme Court, would be authorized to grant injunctions against that police agency when it acts in a legally questionable manner. That’s an immunity not afforded the IRS, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency or any other federal police force. Giving it to the INS would constitute a frightening precedent.
The bill isn’t all bad. It authorizes a much-needed increase in the size of the U.S. Border Patrol. It would establish new, more efficient procedures for verifying the status of legal immigrants. It would provide tougher penalties for document fraud and for those who smuggle aliens into the country.
But there are so many harsh, immigrant -bashing provisions in the bill that, on balance, it deserves a veto. This is an issue that cries out for resolution after the election—when lawmakers are less inclined to use the immigration issue as a political football.
If President Clinton vetoes the measure, Republicans are sure to paint him as `soft’ on illegal immigrants. Indeed, Bob Dole is already hitting on that very theme because of the president’s unwillingness to purge the classrooms of the children of illegal aliens.
But as a matter of principle, Clinton should stand up to the Republicans this time and refuse to participate in their immigrant -bashing.
This is another case where politics makes for bad public policy.
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