a person with his particular skills, and after he had worked there for a few months, he could then transfer over into agricultural employment.

Senator MONDALE. There is nothing in your requirements that prevents him from residing in Mexico, using the green card daily to come across, and after the first determination, to roam at will.

So it is really, in that regard, more or less a work permit, is it not, to permit him to work in the United States where he pleases?

Mr. HENNESSY. The green carder for all practical purposes, I would say, with the exception of his right to run for office or his right to vote, has all the rights of a U.S. citizen.

Senator MONDALE. I understand we do accord the right to serve in Vietnam to these people.

Mr. HENNESSY. We certainly do.

Senator MONDALE. Is there any provision in the green card regulations about labor disputes?

Mr. HENNESSY. Yes, I cover that.

Senator MONDALE. All right.

Mr. HENNESSY. The Mexican commuter immigrant is a Mexican national who, unlike the 3.5 million other immigrants in this country, maintains his home in Mexico and enters the United States for employment on an almost daily basis. This practice of commuting in its current form has continued, with the approval of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and with the knowledge of the Congress, since at least January 1, 1930, following the Supreme Court decision of Karnuth v. Albro, 279 U.S. 231.

The better to identify the "commuter," commencing early in November 1967, the Service arranged for and did, in fact, insert in the green card relating to these commuters a metal grommet and this has been a continuing check, and our figures up to April 1969, indicate there are 46,756 such traditional commuters, those living on the other side of the border, commuting on an almost daily basis into the United States. Now, a more responsive reply to your particular question, on the regulations of the Service

Senator MONDALE. Is there also a requirement that a holder of a green card cannot be unemployed?

Mr. HENNESSY. For more than 6 months. They are permitted to maintain that residence abroad. If they are out of employment for more than 6 months, they must abandon their status or move into the United States.

Senator MONDALE. Is that being checked?

Mr. HENNESSY. This is being checked by the grommet program.

Senator MONDALE. Would you submit for the record the number of green card commuters who have been so checked, the number who have been found, the number who have been found not to any longer qualify under the 6-month rule, and the percentage who have yet to be checked among those who hold the green cards?

Mr. HENNESSY. I will submit this for the record. I think we have identified all the commuters.

In response to your question about the adverse effect on the commuters, early in 1967 there were conversations between the Department of Labor and the Department of Justice concerning the possible ad

verse effect of the commuter, and the alleged strikebreaking potential of this reservoir of workers on the other side of the line.

It was determined that there is nothing in the statute that would relate this initial certification to subsequent entries of commuters.

There is, however, a provision in the statute that an immigrant has to obtain an immigrant visa on the occasion of each entry, except the Attorney General may substitute other documents.

The green card, as I indicated, has been substituted for the document. So we placed a limitation on the use of the green card, that it would not be valid as an entry document for a person coming to the United States primarily to engage in employment at a place where the Secretary of Labor had found that a labor dispute exists.

That regulation was initially proposed in May of 1967. It was finally published on June 10, 1967, and became effective on July 9 of

that year.

The Department of Labor has since that time issued various findings as to labor disputes. There are currently 61 such findings outstanding. There had earlier been 32 additional findings that had been withdrawn.

Senator MONDALE. Does the Immigration Service check the sites of these labor disputes to determine whether green carders are, in fact, being used?

Mr. HENNESSY. Yes, we have investigators and border patrolmen who are constantly alert for illegal aliens in the United States. These are in a new class.

Senator MONDALE. Do you go to the grower and check the fields? Mr. HENNESSY. Yes.

Senator MONDALE. How often do you do that?

Mr. HENNESSY. I would suggest in some of these fields we have been over those fields more often than the grapepickers have been over them.

Senator MONDALE. Would you give us a report on the number of enforcement officers you have checking that data in the fields, the method by which you in fact do check them.

Also, I believe I am correct that there is no responsibility, as there is in other industries, upon the grower to determine whether he is hiring illegally

Mr. HENNESSY. This is all too true.

Senator MONDALE. So that the grower can either decide not to check that fact, or he can ignore it, and freely use green carders or illegals without having a penalty?

Mr. GORDON. Except when he harbors them. If he harbors them, there is a penalty.

Senator MONDALE. There is an exemption in the present law with preference to the agriculture industry in this instance against almost any other kind of employer; am I correct?

Mr. HENNESSY. Correct.

Senator MONDALE. The present administrative regulations could be called inadequate in that commuters are prevented from being hired only after a Department of Labor certification that a labor dispute

exists.

Is this not limiting, because a person could be hired after a labor dispute exists and before a certification is made. And, an employer can circumvent the regulation by hiring just before a strike is called.

Mr. HENNESSY. This is true, but I think to penalize the individual, who hasn't received any knowledge from any agency of the Government that a strike is in progress or one has been found, and then retroactively to say that his employment with this organization is such that could make him deportable, I think that would be going

too far.

Senator MONDALE. Are you satisfied that we now have an adequate system for the implementation of the rule that green carders can't be used in the strike?

Mr. HENNESSY. I am never completely satisfied.

Senator MONDALE. Are you able to testify that there is not a substantial use of green carders in labor disputes today?

Mr. HENNESSY. I can state that within the 61 places that have been certified our unremitting effort to try to locate individuals who are in the United States in violation of this regulation has been much like the mountain laboring to produce a mouse.

Senator MONDALE. We have had testimony here that at a Giumarra farm the workers were called out on strike and the next morning they were replaced by workers brought up from the border, and we hear this repeatedly in those areas.

Do you think that is not accurate?

Mr. HENNESSY. I think that there could possibly be a situation where both statements could be correct. There could be green carders brought up from the border in substantial numbers, not necessarily those in violation of the regulations.

They could have been persons who had previously worked there. They could have been persons who were not primarily coming in for that purpose at the time they crossed the border. This is one of the difficulties.

Senator MONDALE. In other words, they say, "I am here working, but that isn't the primary reason I came," and they are OK?

Suppose 600 people leave a field, and the grower goes down to Calexico and picks up 600 Mexican green carders, or those holding baptismal certificates and so on, and takes them up to his farm, and the next morning replaces those on strike.

Assuming you send your inspectors up there, is it adequate for the workers to say, "We are working, but that was not our reason?" Mr. HENNESSY. No; if they were working and had no home in the United States.

Ten cases appeared to fall within the ban that we have found, and we issued orders to show cause why those persons should not be deported from the United States on the grounds that they basically had a home in Mexico; they had entered the United States subsequent to the Secretary of Labor's determination; and they were working di rectly on that farm.

The case went in for action in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the Cermeno-Cerna, et al. v. Farrell case, in which the court found the regulations--and it was explained in an affidavit by our general counsel that this regulation related to those persons who had a home in Mexico and not to the general run of the green carders-was a proper exercise of the attorney general's authority with respect to controlling that particular class.

But he found that the 10 individuals were not within the scope of the regulation because on the occasion-they had previously worked at

these farms of their departure back to Mexico, they had left various indicia, clothing, tools, et cetera, in a rented facility, or in a bunkhouse or dormitory maintained there, such as to find that they were, in fact, returning residents and not the class of person who had a home in Mexico and would be subject to the regulation.

That case is now on appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court.

With respect to another class of individual, the nonimmigrant who arrives from Mexico, usually in a visitor classification: In recent years we have taken over the documentation from the State Department of issuing cards to persons coming into the United States temporarily to visit and there are currently in excess of 2 million cards outstanding. Holders of cards are limited to an area 25 miles from the border for a period not exceeding 72 hours of entry.

Senator MONDALE. Is this the so-called 72-hour pass you are talking about?

Mr. HENNESSY. Yes.

Senator MONDALE. Does that pass disclose the time of entry, so you know when it expires?

Mr. HENNESSY. Not within the border area, and formerly it did not beyond the 25 miles. Now when a person indicates he wants to go beyond the 25-mile border area or stay here more than 72 hours, he is issued another card or paper on safety paper, indicating the date of his admission, and thus if he is found beyond the 25-mile area solely with the card, he is illegally in the United States, having gone beyond.

If he presents the other piece of paper with it, this will establish when he entered and whether he is beyond the 15-day period that has been authorized.

Senator MONDALE. You have figures of how many of these 72-hour pass holders that go across the border and actually have employment and do so on a regular basis, or who go over on a 72-hour pass and stay for much longer periods of time?

Mr. HENNESSY. It would almost seem there has been collaboration by way of the statement and your question, because in the next paragraph I discuss that.

A second function of the Immigration and Naturalization Service is the location, apprehension, and expulsion of aliens illegally in the United States. During the same fiscal year 212,057 aliens were located illegally in the United States. Of this number 151,705 were Mexican nationals. Of these, 117,184 acknowledged entry without inspection and 25,943 acknowledged that after admission as visitors they had either remained for a longer period of time than permitted or had accepted unauthorized employment.

Senator MONDALE. Does that mean that none of them were caught in 6 months for a violation? In other words, according to your figures, none of those come within the 6-month unemployment provision.

Mr. HENNESSY. No, these are visitors to the United States, for whom employment in the United States is prohibited.

I am not talking about the green carder. The green carder is a person who has a right to remain permanently or indefinitely. The 72-hour pass is a visitor, but a visitor comes into the United States frequently. I would suggest, Senator, that in the subject in which you are interested, the illegal alien who crosses the border as a wetback, or the one who comes in, in the guise of a visitor, and remains

longer can probably have as great or a greater impact upon the conditions of the domestic migrant worker as can the 40,000 green card

reservoir.

In fact, one of the greatest difficulties in our enforcement of this law, and I am not in any sense criticizing the practice, but any individual may obtain a social security card. Any person may obtain a social security card.

It is popularly believed that a social security card is a license to work; popularly, but erroneously. But I think the average person who stopped to think of it would believe it was.

These visitors can come in, apply for a social security card, obtain one, and present that to their prospective employer. Lord knows the immigration laws are technical enough, even for the alleged expert, and for the employer to attempt to gage these various clauses is well nigh impossible.

The presentation of the social security card is usually enough to satisfy the employer he is going to comply with the social security laws, income tax withholding, and so forth. This has been one of our greatest obstacles.

Senator MONDALE. You have certain tables that you might put in the record?

Mr. HENNESSY. Yes; tables 19, 27-B, and 35 of the annual report, and, of course, any such tables in that annual report as would further support the inquiry of the committee, but these, at least, are amplifying the statements that I made earlier and may be found printed as an attachment to my prepared statement.

(See tables at the close of the testimony.)

Senator MONDALE. Is a commuter supposed to have employment before he is permitted to come across?

Mr. HENNESSY. No, because by definition he can be out of employment for a period of less than 6 months.

Senator MONDALE. Is a green carder supposed to have employment when he comes across the border?

Mr. HENNESSY. I am sorry. A green carder commuter?

Senator MONDALE. Yes. Is he supposed to have employment when he comes across?

Mr. HENNESSY. He usually has employment, but he may stay out of employment for a period not exceeding 6 months.

Senator MONDALE. I think you indicated that it is very difficult to determine the employment history for that 6 months, and that point is not checked.

Mr. HENNESSY. We are naturally, in line with so many of the other agencies, expanding, and studying the possibilities of various things under automatic data processing and other things that will enable a quicker return of this information when you are dealing with some thing up in the hundred million range.

The manual operation of these various cards does create problems, and we are canvassing various ways of using electronic data equipment to better control the various classes of persons who would cross. Senator MONDALE. How many new green cards were issued last year?

Mr. HENNESSY. In the last fiscal year, there were 454,448 persons admitted to the United States as immigrants. That, incidentally, was