Statement of Administration Policy: S. 1200 - The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1985

(Final - Revision)
(Senate)
(Simpson (R) Wyoming)

The Administration supports the enactment of S. 1200 with the adoption of amendments to:

— establish a self-financed limited seasonal worker program which would provide field harvest labor for perishable commodities. (The Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act would apply to any field harvest laborers admitted under the program, with regard to job disclosure, working conditions, housing, transportation, and wage determination.);

— provide authority to the Secretary of Labor to issue regulations, after consultation with the Departments of Justice and Agriculture, to implement the Temporary Agricultural Worker (H-2) Program (section 122);

— eliminate the provision in section 203 authorizing Federal reimbursement of State and local costs for imprisoning illegal aliens (such costs are appropriately borne by State and local governments in connection with maintaining jurisdiction over and enforcing local laws); and

— change the increase in the "colonial quota" (i.e., the ceiling which limits the number of persons who may annually immigrate to the United States from the "dependent" areas) to 5,000 persons, instead of 3,000 persons as proposed in section 301.

The Administration would also strongly oppose any amendment

(1) establishing a new bureaucracy in the Department of Justice to adjudicate "unfair immigration related employment practices" and establishing a new cause of action for "alienage";

(2) expanding the categories of public assistance for which the Federal government reimburses State and local governments; and

(3) requiring officials to obtain a search warrant before conducting open field investigations concerning immigration law enforcement.