Jane Harman: “earlier today, I saluted the bipartisan leadership of my California colleague, Elton Gallegly, and joined a majority of…”

“earlier today, I saluted the bipartisan leadership of my California colleague, Elton Gallegly, and joined a majority of my colleagues in voting for tough measures to combat illegal immigration. We voted to increase control of our borders by doubling the size of the Border Patrol, to remove employment opportunities for undocumented workers, and to strengthen anticounterfeiting laws so employers can conduct fair and even-handed checks of legal status. Mr. Speaker, the bill before us now, to allow the States to deny public education to the children of illegal immigrants, is bad public policy. As the Torrance Daily Breeze editorializes: . . . the Gallegly amendment is plainly abhorrent. To begin with, it would do absolutely nothing to counter illegal immigration. Far worse, it would create by deliberate design a growing underclass of illiterate young people denied the opportunity to learn English, much less acquire the basic education required to get a job one day and support themselves. Nearly every major law enforcement organization opposes this bill. They know its enactment will worsen our crime rate. Chief Tim Grimmond of the El Segundo Police told me that kicking kids out of school "doesn't mean the families will pack up and leave * * * it will leave us with kids who have nothing to do except get into trouble." Mr. Speaker, illegal immigration violates one of our fundamental values: that all of us have to live and work by the same set of rules.”