Date: 1984-06-11
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

The gentleman is eminently correct in saying that we do not need employer sanctions to keep undocumented out and from being exploited. if we just enforced the laws we have on the books now. I agree with my colleague. the gentleman from California. that this is not immigration reform. I do not know what it Is. but it is not reform. Another area of concern to me is that they have made this a Hispanic issue. Hispanic. Hispanic. I get interviewed by the Washington Post. by the Wall Street Journal. by the New York Times. not that I do not feel honored that they would do that. but this is not a Hispanic issue. There are several million Europeans illegally here. There arc goodness knows how many Africans and others from the Middle East here illegally. heaven knows how many Asians. but yet they have made it a Hispanic issue and aiming only at Mexico. One of the interviewers asked me. Would you not react if a foreigner from Mexico came to take away jobs from your area? I said. We have a different perspective about foreigners from Mexico. It could be my cousin Juan. I just read an article that someone in Chicago was bringing Yugoslavians in foi $500 and exploiting them. But this has been made into a Hispanic issue solely. and it is not. and I resent it. because by an accident of history. we in the Southwestbeginning. I think. in Washington and Oregon and all through the Southwestwe came into this great country of ours by an accident of history. After the war with Mexico in 1848. there was the Treaty of GuadalupeLidalgo. and were it not for that. many of us. including the gentleman in the well. would have been citizens of another country. But you won us in a war. That is what happened. What is a foreigner to someone is not necessarily a foreigner to someone else. But I am concerned about this legislation because I heard from proponents of this legislation that we must control our borders. we must secure our borders for national defense purposes. From whom? Prom some peon from El Salvador? A little Indian from Guanajuato. Mexico. some Vietnamese that left on a boat. an African student that came on a student visa from Nigeria and stayed afterward. some Czech or Slovak or Croat who came and stayed? Look at who is selling military secrets. Look at who is trying to undermine the fiber of this country. It is not these poor workers who came looking for a better life. We in this country are the last beacon of democracy. liberty. and justice. That is why they want to come. We know the Government of Mexico does not want a bracero program. so that should not be discussed any more because the Government of Mexico is not going to go along with it. It takes two to enter into this kind of an agreement and they will not. The President of Mexico just recently stated in this chamber that a guest worker program. properly administered. would be considered in a favorable light by Mexico. But the basic intent of this legislation is not reform. It is a pervasive attempt by someone to keep foreigners out. I asked someone this afternoon. "What does a foreignlooking person look like?" I did not get an answer. But can you Imagine on this floor its being mentioned that what we are going to have to protect is that foreignlooking individual? Well. I have a basic human right as a creature of God. and I have a basic right assured me by our Constitution that many of us have fought for and many of our people have died for. that I do not have to identify myself beyond the norm to ask for a job. And this is what the SimpsonMazzoli bill is going to do. I do not care how you slice it. I do not care how you explain it. If someone looks like me. I have got to show them social security or some document. a passport or drivers license. I have a basic right. and every American has a basic right. Too much blood has been shed to yield on that basic right that to get a job. as lousy as it may be. a citizen of this country has to identify himself beyond the norm. Why? To secure our borders. To secure our borders? There has to be a better way to secure our borders. We need sonic novel and innovative ways. if we can use the words of the Great Society. not employer sanctions. This is ironic. and it also has some degree of hypocrisy. They are saying how these employers abuse. how they are not reliable. and how they do everything possible to subjugate the undocumented. but then they are going to trust them to document that they are here legally. They are going to trust them for that. yet they say they are abusing now. So I say to my dear friends that we should not be considering this legislation now because this has not been thought out. The reason that many of our workers. domestic workers. and citizens do not go on the migrant trek now is because they have made it almost impossible. And for an employer in the agricultural sector. the grape has to be picked right at that moment so that it can travel to where it is going so we can have good. healthy. quality food at the lowest price possible. The market demands a price. Employers come to me and say. "What do I do? The Labor Department doesnt let me work. I am harassed by OSHA. I am harassed by Food and Drug. What do I do? Give me some help." I say. "Hire my domestic workers. Hire my friends from Texas." "We would like to if we could get them over here." But we have made it almost impossible for them to travel. We have made it almost impossible. This goodintentioned. wellintentioned Congress has done this. and with the regulations. we find ourselves in a very traumatic situation. But the basic. inherent problem now is that you are not going to solve the problem. If you put a marine every 10 yards on our North and South and on the coasts. east and west. you are not going to stop them. We have to begin working over there. We are building a dam where the river hits the ocean. The dam should be where the river comes out of the mountain. We need to go and work in Central America. We need to go and work in Mexico. Only the Roybal proposition provides that our two Presidents should meet and discuss this issue. Why do they leave? We know why they leave. They do not have a Job. they do not have medicine. they do not have schools. They are not able to provide for their families. and in this hemisphere they are not going to go south from Mexico. They are not going to go to Guatemala. they are all going to come north. So where do you attack the cause of the cancer? At the beginning. You have to go and keep them over there. You have to work with their government. We have not done that yet. I am told that the President of Mexico and the President of the United States did not discuss problems that would be controversial. I do not know if that is fact or not. but if it is. then we are in a very bad situation. But we need to go there. Why did that .poor Indian leave Peru? Why did this person leave El Salvador? Why did the person leave inner Mexico? They were looking for a job. They were looking for a better job. and we ought to be proud and happy that they think that we have it. although we have deprivation and we have prob lems in our country. But they are coming here looking for that. So if we do not want them here bil we want to assist them. we have to go and make the job there where he live! and make it more attractive for him to stay there. Do not try and place the blame on an employer in Chicago or Kentucky or Delaware or Indiana or Michigan or North Dakota. Do not j place the burden on him. It is too late. He has already traveled across the United States. That is not the place to cure the ailment. The place to cure the ailment is back there. That has not been done. So this legislation is premature. We are working at it and putting the dam where the water is hitting the ocean. and that is too late. It has gained too much momentum. and it is going to knock that dam down and it is going to go right into the ocean. You cannot stop it where it has all its momentum. It has all of the force that it gathered for thousands of miles. That is the flow of the undocumented. You cannot stop it on the border. You are not going to stop it there. You can put every employer in jail. you can penalize them. and that is not going to stop him. You have to find him a job where he came from. This has not been done. We need to study this more. We need to do more work. But then those who say. "We dont want no more of them foreigners" also say. "Dont vote for foreign aid." They tell us not to vote for foreign aid. Well. we may have to if we want to stop the flow from its source. We may have to go and do it over there. I resent the fact that somehow they are pointing the finger at the Hispanic. and it is like this: "When are you Mexicans going to be satisfied?" Well. I will tell you when we are going to be satisfied. I come from a little neighborhood called El barrio de la Escuela Catolica. "the Catholic school neighborhood." It is one square block. that is the Catholic school. and we lived around it. My parents live there now. On the corner was Joaquin Castro. He was never found. he was lost in action in the Pacific Theater in World War II. Next door lived Roberto Gonzales. After he came back from World War II. after some 60 missions as a gunner. he was killed in a training accident. with the Air Force. Around the corner lived Ricardo Alaniz. he was killed in the Battle of the Bulge before he had been 60 days in Europe. Daniel Garcia. my neighbor down on the corner. sank with a ship in the Pacific. Around the corner. my mothers youngest brotherand I count him as in our neighborhood because he lived with us for a timethe same thing. 50 some missions in Europe as a gunner. He died in the service of his country. SAround the corner lived. Merced Salinas. he was killed in Vietnam after having served 25 years in the Army. Every house in my neighborhood served. including myself. but those of my neighbors are the ones where the Purple Heart is on the wall of the familys house. They come into my mind when someone says. "You have to identify yourself beyond the norm to get a job." no sir. not after the supreme sacrifice of Joaquin Castro. Roberto Gonzales. Ricardo Alaniz. Daniel Garcia. Roberto Villarreal. and Merced Sallnas. Not after I look at their Purple Hearts on the wall am I going to ever yield that they died so that I would have and their children would have to identify themselves beyond the norm to get a job. This is not good legislation. as well intentioned as it is. Father Hesburgh and the Commission and the committee have done the best they could. I am sure that they have. but not when you are going to force me to do something contrary to their sacrifice. because we cannot control the flow of undocumented aliens and we are looking for another way. It is not the right way. It is not the American way.