Date: 1982-12-17
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman. I appear here tonight in a dual capacity. as chairman of the Agriculture Committee to bring to the membership the concern which has been expressed to us individually and collectively throughout the United States in the agricultural sector. both farmworkers and producers or farmers. I also would like at the end to speak as an individual Member representing the 15th District of Texas. part of which lies on the border with Mexico. and where my family came to some 250 or more years ago. Mr. Chairman. first let me say that the concerns which I bring to the membership will in no way diminish my admiration and respect for the distinguished chairman of the committee or the distinguished chairman of the subcommittee or the respective minority members. nor for the enormous work done by the Commission. which was the initial work that eventually brought us to where we are today. I regret also that some of the concerns which I bring. you might ask. "Why bring them now?" Well. the fact is that in the process. in the legislative process. the concerns became apparent or were brought to our attention after the legislation was formulated. This is the only opportunity. besides individually speaking with Members. that we Would have to. on the record. voice those concerns. Let me say first. and this is very dif. ficult to understand. that in the agricultural sector there is tremendous opposition which I have personally discovered from farmworkers as to what this legislation could do to them in several areas of concern. The same opposition appears perhaps for different reasons from farmers or producers. but in this case both objecting sometimes to the same specific provision. For example. let me state that the question on sanctions is of great concern among many of the people that I had an opportunity to visit with from California to Texas to New York. across our Nation. One comes from the people who are producers. from the farmers. some of whom to this day claim that there is discriminatory. at times enforcement of the law by the law enforcement agencies. I have not delved personally Into all those complaints. but by listening to the people on the border from California to Texas there is a great concern that many times there is highhanded handling either of the illegal alien or of the farmer or the owner of the farm or ranch. They then feel that with a sanctions law such as this. it will be easier and more prejudicial to them when they. in fact. have not infringed any law. I would be really sacrificing my integrity to my oa.. of office if I were to say that you should not prosecute those that are guilty under the law. That is not what I am saying. but that when there is a rampant or widespread coverage in an area or in a specific factory or in a specific part of the city. legal. and illegal aliens are all brought in and the managers or the owners of these establishments have great concern. Then on the other side there is great concern that you may be establishing something that would. in fact and in law. make citizens of a secondclass nature because I know that it Is very easy for some Members. and I know that many would support the proposition. that. well. it is very simple. let us have a national ID card. This is personally abhorrent to me and I think it would be contrary to the Constitution and to the concepts and precepts on which this Nation was founded that we should revert. as some totalitarian nations do. where you cannot move from one street to another unless you have an identification card. So I hear great concern and objection to being forced to have to identify yourself as a legal citizen. I know some say. "Well. you have to have a drivers license. That is a privilege. You have to have social security. That is a privilege which you have." But when you have to identify yourself incountry. not as you are leaving or as you are coming. then I think this is an insult. Also. there is great concern which. if my colleagues will bear with me. I share very. very seriously that in our area of the country. or perhaps from New York into the South and into California. if the employer is concerned that he might be brought into a court of justice or that criminal sanctions or civil sanctions would be brought against him. he is going to be very careful. My concern is that if you start at Oregon. Washington. California. through to the Mexican coast to the South and then into the Northeast. anyone who looks like me is going to have to identify himself every time he asks for a job. This is an imposition which I think our Constitution would classify as an imposition on the individual liberty of a person or of a citizen. I share with them this concern because they sometimes have trouble pronouncing my name in the realms of Capitol Hill. Can you imagine if I showed up in Alabama looking for a job. or in west Texas. or Kentucky someplace? This is the concern that I bring to you. my dear friends. who handled this legislation. Second. in this area also there is great concern that there are areas where you have infringement of the law unintentionally. We have throughout the border those who have what they call a bordercrossing permit by which they can come across the border without having a visa or passport. but they are not supposed to work. They can only come for 48 hours or 72 hours. Many of these are women who are retained as houseworkers by many people on the border. and I am concerned that if they would be covered under the sanctions. it would be catastrophic. On the border. you would have many dear housewives who had no other intention but to get some help for their households. who would have to be doing the same thing and asking. "Do you have papers? Can you identify yourself?" The housewife with three or four children that might need to go to work. for example. you are imposing a duty on her above and beyond the norm that you would on any ordinary citizen. and you are imposing on her a responsibility for enforcement of the law that should belong to an enforcement agency. Also. I would like to mention the fact that great concern has been mentioned to me in relation to amnesty. and this is a paradox because people who themselves have come as aliens and legalized their status tell me that they do not feel we should legalize someone who came infringing the law. someone who came. unlike they did. waiting in line. getting the papers. paying the lawyer. It is very difficult to come into this country legally. That is why. as I tell the gentleman from Florida. that is why we have so many illegals. that someone who wishes to come to this country has to wait months and years to unite himself with his family. They have to get all kinds of requirements. that they served in the Army. that they did not serve in the Army. be k to the village where they lives. the chief of police. a multiplicity of documents which cost hundreds of dollars at times for people who cannot afford them. to come to this country. So. you are making it more difficult for those people who want to come legally. and yet you are giving those that came illegally the ability to legalize themselves. I think. and this is just a personal theory on my part. that because it is the easiest thing to donot because it is the right thing or the proper thing. but the easiest to do. You will hear. "What are we going to do with them? We cant get them all together. We cant ship them back to wherever they came from. Lets just legalize them and start from here." That would be fine if the process by which others who come legally were simplified. I am not one of those who feel that we have reached the point where we can have no more people come from other parts of the world. We have terrible problems in this country now. The farm sector has terrible problems. but we still are the greatest country in the world. We still are able to produce. We have economic problems because it is a world situation as far as economics is concerned. but saying that we should put a cap on the number of people from other countries. eventually you might not have other DE LA GARZAS or COELHOS serving in this Chamber with such illustrious company if we were to shut it down. and let no more come in. Can you imagine. had they done that 250 years ago. you would not have been listening to me tonight. That is part of the concern. that out there someplace there are some who can contribute yet to this great Nation of ours. Out there in some little country or some little village is yet someone who could come and make a valiant contribution in many fields to this great country of ours. and for us to change the direction and to say. "No. you cant come. we dont want you to drag us down into your poverty level." "Aint nobody poor because he wants to." if we use the vernacular. This I am concerned about. Another area of concern. and here I now revert to the personal. on the border from Tijuana to Brownsvilleand I have an amendment posted that will address this issueon the border from Tijuana to Brownsville we did not have it before. but now the first thing you see as you are coming into the country. or the last thing you see as you are going out. is this serpentine wire that can cut your hand if you touch it. It is this huge fence with barbed wire. It looks like the Berlin Wall. It really looks like the Berlin Wall if you look at it as you are going out or coming in. So. I asked one of the bridge owners. "Why do you do it?" He said. "Because we are forced to do it." There is a section in the law which says that any person with a vessel who harbors or brings in any alien is guilty and the Customs who supervise. or Immigration. I do not know which handles the operation of the border bridges. say that these bridges are like vessels. and that if an alien comes illegally over the bridge or under the bridge or around the bridge. the bridge owner is liable criminally and civilly. and they are forced then to have this ugly looking barbed wire and serpentine wire which is the first thing you see on the border. and I abhor and detest it. If we could handle it in this legislation or maybe through some appropriation process. that would be good. but it is something. Mr. Chairman. that should be addressed because I have gone around the world saying how we do not have the Army between us and Mexico. how we do not have guns aimed across the river. and yet you see that uarbed wire like the one I saw in Berlin between East and West. I think that issue should be addressed. Now. let me revert to the personal before I conclude. I live in an area that was once the New World when the Spaniards first discovered this hemisphere. It was New Spain. So. my family was Spanish. living in New Spain. Then. following the concept developed here in Philadelphia. in Virginia. and in Jamestown. the great cry for independence and the ringing of the bell declaring this part of the then hemisphere independent from Oreat Britain. not t )o long after that the same cry was heard. and oddity of all oddities. they also rang a bell in the little village called Dolores Hidalgo declaring their independence from Spain. So. then my family became Mexican. because that part of the country. almost everything west of the Mississippi and through the Southwest. was then a part of Mexico. So. without any movement on our part. history changed it and we became Mexicans. Later. Texas declared its independence from Mexico. and we became Texans. We still had not moved. Later. the United States had a conflict as to where the boundary would be. the Nueces or the Rio Orande River. Had it been the Nueces. I would probably be making this talk in the Congress of Mexico. But when they set the Rio Orande as the boundary. then we became genuine citizens of the United States of America. of which we are proud and whose traditions we follow. and whose Founding Fathers we claim as our Founding Fathers. But we were not a part of the initial process of independence in Philadelphia. The areas of Texas. Arizona. New Mexico. Colorado. and California were a part of the independence process of Father Hidalgo and Dolores Hidalgo after Washington and Jefferson. Having mentioned this. I then feel that. for families like mine. history or fate said if you are south of the river you are Mexican. and if you are north of the river you are genuine U.S. citizens. American citizens. and families could go and come. But now there are those in our area who say that we should have no infringement. that if you are a member of one family. that river should not mean anything. they should have the privilege to come and go. And there are many who espouse the proposition that there should be no immigration process at all. that if you can prove that you live in the area and fate made the river a juridical boundary. that should not apply to you. Many who cross that river still feel that way. Now. there is also concernand I have seen it in my area in letters to the editorthat maybe we should not allow anyone to cross. that maybe we should put the Army out there or put the Marines out there or someone from one border to the other to keep everyone out. But we are Integrated to such an extent economically and familywise that when Mexico now. for example. is suffering tremendous economic upheavaland they have tremendous problemssince Mexico is such an integral part of not only our area. but of the United States. their security and their economic stability is an Integral part of ours. Members may ask. why do you bring all of this out in this immigration reform law that we discuss? Because it impacts on the economic stability that we have. It impacts on the economic on both sides of the river. It impacts also on the schools. The Supreme Court of the United States now says that we have to educate children regardless of whether their parents are here legally or not. and this impacts tremendously on us and is an economic burden. This bill has some relief for that. So let me say that I have found as chairman of the committee and individuallyand I say this with all sincerity and respect for my colleagues on this committee and the CommissionI have found no oae who has told me to go and vote far that good bill that they have on immigration. Rather. all of the concern has been from the employer or from the employee. And on the asylum question. as the distinguished chairman of the subcommittee mentioned. there is great concern in my area because through there come many of the people from Central America. Some unfortunates who were coming from El Salvador. for example. got lost in the desert. and many died. Recently in my area some were being brought in illegally and something happened to the truck. The truckdrivers ran off. and some Salvadoran children died