Chairman Smith, Congresswoman Jackson Lee and members of the Subcommittee, it is a privilege to have been invited to testify before you today regarding issues pertaining to illegal immigration.

My name is Selena Walsh, and I am Director of Policy and Communications for the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). Founded in 1929, LULAC is the nations oldest and largest civil rights organization for Hispanics. With several thousands of members and over 600 councils nationwide, LULAC works to promote the educational attainment, economic condition, political representation, and protection of civil rights for the Hispanic community.

Before I continue, I would like to take a moment to share with you a brief history of LULAC, and the reasons for its formation. As many of you may know, in the late 1800s, after the U.S. annexation of nearly half of Mexico, approximately 77,000 Mexican citizens found themselves living in a conquered land. Although the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo, signed in 1898, claimed this group as US citizens this treaties intentions, not unlike the many other treaties of that time, were not realized. Some Americans had a difficult time viewing the 'Mexican American' as an equal citizen rather than a foreigner. Despite the Treaty, their land and political power was stripped from them, when lynchings were as common as the signs posted stating "No Mexicans Allowed" courageous Mexican-Americans formed small organizations to end the inhumane treatment of Hispanic citizens.

The founders of LULAC were interested in claiming stake in full citizenship for all Hispanic-Americans and demanded that Hispanics be accorded all the same rights and privileges as other US citizens.

In Harlingen, TX in 1927, three small Hispanic organizations actively defending the inhumane treatment of Hispanics found the need to unite under one title, and one set of objectives. They were The Order of the Sons of America, the Knights of America, and the League of Latin American Citizens. In February of 1929 the three organizations united, agreeing to call this new organization the League of United Latin American Citizens. From this point on LULAC began to fight to preserve the principles under which our great country was found, that all individuals regardless of race or creed be treated as equals, as prescribed in our constitution. A position Hispanics have courageously lived up to as no other community in the US has received more medals of Honor for fighting in US foreign wars. Although some of these US soldiers were not full citizens, they were risking their lives for the sake of the country they believed in.

Among the many Hispanic heroes is Silvestre Herrera, who received the Medal of Honor for bravery in 1945, when he made a one-man frontal assault on an enemy strong point and captured eight enemy soldiers. As his platoon resumed its advance, Herrera disregarded the danger of exploding mines to attack another enemy emplacement. He stepped on a mine and had both feet severed; but despite intense pain and unchecked loss of blood, he pinned down the enemy with rifle fire until his unit skirted the minefield and destroyed the enemy, according to the citation. He was later quoted as saying, " I lost both legs, but I kept on fighting them on my stumps, I was more concerned about my men."

LULAC stands in opposition to any violation of federal law --including illegal immigration. LULAC supports the sovereign right of our country to carry out federal responsibilities and to protect our country from the ills that may befall it. LULAC opposes any legislation threatening the rights of legal immigrants, including measures limiting legal immigration. We stand against legislation that denies legal residents and naturalized citizens the same benefits due to native-born citizens. We are against any efforts to deny public education to the children of undocumented immigrants, and against harsh regulations that unfairly toughen the requirements for citizenship and expand the stipulations that bar admissibility to immigrants.

I would like to quote a report from the Urban Institute which reveals that "immigrants pay more taxes than they receive in public service; immigrants generate more jobs than they take; in the past decade immigrants have received less public assistance than native-born Americans; and immigration has no negative effect on African-American workers. A US Labor Department study reached similar conclusions, asserting that immigrants do not have a pronounced effect on the earnings and employment of the native born."

The percentage of foreign born in the US is half what it was in the early Twentieth century; Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Israel all have larger foreign born than the US. The US has accepted over a million Southeast Asians since 1975, and over 116 million Canadians enter the US every year. It has been established that 41% of the estimated 5 million illegal immigrants in the country are visa overstays. According to the 1997 Justice Department report, visa overstays represent a more ethnically diverse group, they are harder to identify as they are generally higher skilled, educated, and dispersed throughout the economy. Which would mean that as many as 820,000 of the estimated 2 million illegal immigrants in California are in this category.

Finally, public and political responses to immigration tend not to make the fine distinctions among migrant categories that is in essence the substance of the policy debate. US immigration law makes sharp distinctions between legal immigrants, illegal immigrants, refugees, asylees, non immigrants, and so on. The worry is that all the public concern stimulated by illegal immigration has extended to legal immigration. Further, we are concerned that this skewed image of immigration translates to the public as: legal means illegal, and illegal means Hispanic.

Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee by looking at me or listening to me you may not come to the conclusion that I was born and raised in Mexico and have a Mexican grandmother who doesn't speak English and has only visited us twice, but it is true. Now I have had the wonderful opportunity of traveling to now almost all of the 50 states, and during these travels I have met many friends and when I meet a new Hispanic friend I will innocently and curiously ask them where they are from. And I will consistently get a quick response, Ohio. "No" I implore where are you originally from, and the response may be something like: Kansas. After I share with them that I was raised in Mexico, I will then hear "well I am fourth generation American but my Mothers family is originally from Oaxaca."

Mr. Chairman it deeply saddens me that fourth generation Americans many of whom have lost family members fighting as US soldiers in foreign wars, individuals who do not speak one word of Spanish and many of whom have never visited their original country of origin cannot be as proud as I am of their individual heritage.

While the Subcommittee continues its important work on developing effective solutions to illegal immigration, it should focus on strategies that uphold the American principles of due process, and the fair and humane treatment of all individuals regardless of race or ethnicity. Diversity has is in fact been a blessing for this country and for me personally.