Mark Hatfield: “Today the Senate passed much needed legislation to restructure our Nation's laws with respect to illegal immigration. I…”

“Today the Senate passed much needed legislation to restructure our Nation's laws with respect to illegal immigration. I want to take this opportunity to commend my colleagues Senator Simpson and Senator Kennedy for their diligence and leadership in crafting legislation to address this issue. As this debate has shown, the highly emotional and diverse views on the issues surrounding both legal and illegal immigration makes it very difficult to get a consensus on legislation reforming our immigration laws. Despite previous efforts by Congress to control illegal immigration, the evidence shows that thousands of people cross the border illegally each year. Clearly, our Nation simply cannot continue to absorb this unregulated stream of illegal aliens. The costs to society of permitting a large group of people to live in an illegal, second-class status are enormous. It strains not only the financial resources of our local, State and Federal governments, but also the compassion of our people. The Immigration Control and Financial Responsibility Act will help ensure that the Federal Government meets its responsibility to enforce our Nation's illegal immigration policies.”