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President Bill Clinton -- May 7, 1997

CLINTON: Now, more than 12 million strong, they have helped to make the United States the fifth largest Hispanic nation in the world. Mexican-Americans are contributing to every dimension of American life.

In Congress, they have written the laws of our land. Just yesterday, Ambassador Bill Richardson, whose mother came from this city, was working to bring peace in Central Africa.

And every day, he is America's voice at the United Nations.

Our administration draws strength from many other remarkable Mexican-Americans, including several who are here with me -- our energy secretary, Federico Pena; my director of public liaison, Maria Echaveste; my congressional liaison, Janet Mergia (ph).

I am also pleased to have in our party two distinguished members of Congress who are Mexican-Americans -- Javier Becerra of California and Sylvestre Reyes of Texas -- and four other distinguished elected officials who represent large numbers of Mexican Americans and who care deeply about our partnership -- Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Representative Jim Kolbe of Arizona, and Governor Robert Miller of Nevada.

Last year, nearly 160,000 Mexicans emigrated legally to America bringing their talents, their energies, their aspirations.

They played by the rules, and we, for our part, must make sure that the system treats them fairly and gives them the chance to live up to their hopes and dreams.

But to maintain an immigration policy that is generous, fair, safe and orderly, we must also take effective action to stop illegal immigration. We are a nation of immigrants and of laws. Just as those who obey our laws are welcome, those who break them must face the consequences.

Our new immigration law will help us to achieve these goals. In applying it, and in our overall approach to immigration, we will balance control with commonsense and compassion.

I am very pleased that the balanced budget agreement I reached with our Congress last week includes a significant restoration of welfare benefits to legal immigrants.

(APPLAUSE)

I will continue to work with Congress to correct some aspects of our immigration law. We will ensure respect for human rights and seek to apply the law humanely with special concern for children and families.

There will be no mass deportations or no discrimination. And we will continue to support Mexico's efforts to create new opportunities here so that no one feels compelled to leave home just to earn a living for his or her family.

In the end, that is the answer, but I ask you to remember and work with us on the central premise. We have a generous immigration policy, perhaps the most generous in the world. But to make it work, we must be a nation of laws.

This moment of great promise for us is, frankly, also one of peril. The great irony of this time is that the forces of global integration have also unleashed powerful sources of disintegration that use open borders and technology and modern communications to strike at the very heart of civilized societies -- our families, our institutions, our very lives.

For us, the greatest of these scourges is that of illegal drug trafficking. The cost to both of us of illegal drugs are staggering. In America every year, drugs kill 14,000 people, and cost our country almost $70 billion for crime, prisons, lost work, wounded bodies and ruined lives.

Every year, our law enforcement officials arrest one million people on drug charges. In Mexico, President Zedillo has called narcotics trafficking the greatest threat to national security, the biggest hazard to social health and the bloodiest source of violence.

Throughout our hemisphere, we see how drug cartels threaten the fabric of entire societies. They corrupt or murder law enforcement officials in the judiciary, take over legitimate businesses and banks, spread violence to offices and homes, to streets and to playgrounds.

Drugs are not simply a Mexican problem or an American problem. They are our common problem. The enormous demand for drugs in America must be stemmed. We have just a little less than 5 percent of the world's population; yet, we consume one third of the world's cocaine, most of which comes from Mexico.

The money we spend on illegal drugs fuels narcotraffickers, who in turn attack your police and prosecutors and prey on your institutions. We must face this curse together, because we cannot defeat it alone.

My friends, the battle against drugs must unite our people, not divide them.

(APPLAUSE)

We must fight back together, and we must prevail. In the United States, we have begun the largest anti-drug effort in our history. More than two thirds of its $16 billion budget will go to attacking our domestic drug problem.

We've cut casual drug use by 50 percent in America, but tragically, among young people under 18, drug use has doubled. We are reaching out to young people with an unprecedented effort, a public education campaign to teach them that drugs are wrong, illegal and deadly. We are supporting successful neighborhood strategies like community policing that are making our streets and schools safer and more drug-free.

Copyright © 1997 Federal Document Clearing House

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