Political Quotes

“One would think that the law would already provide that if somebody is illegally in this country, they would not be entitled to receive Government benefits; that they would, instead, once known, be required to depart from the country. Unfortunately, we have a court decision that makes it necessary to enact this amendment to make very clear the will of the Congress that when someone is unlawfully in the United States, they are not entitled to Government benefits except under certain emergency circumstances that this bill provides for; for example, with regard to emergency medical care. Mr. Chairman, this is a situation where we have already put into this bill a very fine amendment offered by the gentleman from California [Mr. Cox] that enables local law enforcement authorities to be designated by the Attorney General of the United States to assist in the apprehension and the deportation process of removing people who have entered this country illegally, or have entered this country legally and have overstayed their legal admission period, and therefore are not entitled to be in the country any longer.”