The clip from March 19, 19961, shows then-Representative Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaking on the House floor during debate on H.R. 2202, the Immigration Control and Financial Responsibility Act of 1996 (also referred to in some contexts as the Immigration in the National Interest Act).
Full video
Representative Charles E. Schumer
Remarks on H.R. 2202 (104th Congress, 1995–1996)
U.S. House of Representatives
March 19, 1996
Transcript
00:00:00 Speaker 1
Mr. Schumer, the gentleman from New York is recognized for one and one half minutes.
00:00:03 Chuck Schumer
Thank the gentleman, salute him for his work on this, rise in support of the amendment.
First of all, Social Security card is used from one end of America to the other as an identification card right now. Who are we kidding? If you want to pass a law and says it shouldn’t be, I would ask the chairman and the distinguished minority member of the Social Security meeting committee to pass that law.
But let’s let’s admit the truth. Everywhere people go, they’re asked for a social security card. In fact, One way to prove you’re a bona fide person who can have a job is to ask for a driver’s license and a social security card.
This is an anti-fraud amendment.
All over where we go, people say, well why can’t you stop illegal immigrants or others from coming here? And, the number one answer we give our constituents is when they come here, they can get jobs, get benefits against the law because of fraud.
And here, the gentleman from Florida has put together the most effective anti-fraud measure we can find without it, changing the actions of the government one bit.
And we find all this opposition. Ladies and gentlemen of this chamber, what I worry about is that this bill which started out with good intentions, whether you agree with it or disagree with it, is going to end up being the same kind of thing that the public gets angry with us on. We say we’re doing something and we do nothing.
Because every time someone makes a rational and small proposal to get something done, people say, well, what about this hypothetical, that hypothetical, et cetera.
I urge support of this amendment. If you believe you want to stop fraud in immigration, you have no choice but to support this amendment.
00:01:53 Speaker 1
Gentleman’s time has expired. The gentleman from Indiana. Yield my time, such times I may consume. Uh yeah, do nothing. Now which would you rather do? Do nothing for nothing or do nothing for three.
The Main Bill
Bill: H.R. 2202 (104th Congress, 1995–1996)
Official short title (as introduced and during early debate): Immigration Control and Financial Responsibility Act of 1996
Purpose: A broad immigration reform bill aimed at deterring illegal immigration through measures like:
Increasing border patrol and enforcement resources
Higher penalties for alien smuggling and document fraud
Reforming deportation/exclusion procedures
Addressing employment verification
Restricting public benefits for certain non-citizens
Status on March 19, 1996: The House was actively debating and amending the bill in the Committee of the Whole House. This was part of several days of floor consideration (March 19–21, 1996). The House ultimately passed a version of the bill on March 21, 1996.
Final fate: H.R. 2202 was later merged into the larger immigration provisions that became Division C of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), enacted as part of the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 1997 (Public Law 104-208), signed into law on September 30, 1996.
The Specific Amendment Schumer Was Supporting
Schumer was speaking in favor of an amendment (commonly described in the clip and contemporary references as the “anti-fraud amendment”) that focused on strengthening Social Security cards to make them harder to counterfeit or misuse.
Core goal of the amendment: Enhance security features on Social Security cards to reduce fraud in identification documents, which Schumer argued was a major driver of illegal immigration (by enabling unauthorized work and access to benefits like Social Security).
Key quotes from the clip (longer variant):
Calls it explicitly an “anti-fraud amendment”.
States: “The number one reason people come to the US illegally is to defraud systems like Social Security and I want to stop it.”
Emphasizes: “If you believe you want to stop fraud in immigration, you have no choice but to support this amendment.”
References constituent concerns about why illegal immigration couldn’t be stopped and ties it to weak document security.
Context: In 1996, Social Security cards were still relatively easy to forge, and fake or misused SSNs were commonly used by undocumented immigrants to work and sometimes access benefits fraudulently. The amendment aimed to make the cards more secure (e.g., better anti-counterfeiting features) without turning them into a full national ID card or changing government operations dramatically.
Outcome of this specific amendment: While the exact amendment text isn’t quoted verbatim in the clip, provisions to combat document fraud and improve verification systems (including related to Social Security numbers) were included in the broader bill that passed and eventually became part of IIRIRA in 1996.
Summary
Bill → H.R. 2202 (Immigration Control and Financial Responsibility Act of 1996), which became a core part of the 1996 IIRIRA law.
Amendment → An “anti-fraud amendment” to improve the security of Social Security cards and reduce document fraud as a means of deterring illegal immigration and benefit misuse.
The historical outcome of the bill and the specific amendment discussed in the March 19, 1996, clip (the “anti-fraud amendment” supported by then-Rep. Chuck Schumer) is as follows:
The Bill (H.R. 2202)
Passed the House on March 21, 1996 (shortly after the debate in which Schumer spoke), by a vote of 333–87.
Passed the Senate on May 2, 1996, by a strong bipartisan vote of 97–3 (after the Senate substituted its own version, based on S. 1664, with amendments).
Conference report (reconciling House and Senate versions) was adopted by the House on September 25, 1996.
However, the standalone bill did not become law on its own. Instead, its core provisions were incorporated into a much larger omnibus appropriations bill (H.R. 3610, the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act, 1997).
President Bill Clinton signed that omnibus bill into law on September 30, 1996, as Public Law 104-208.
The immigration-related portions became known as Division C: Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) — one of the most significant overhauls of U.S. immigration enforcement in modern history.
IIRIRA strengthened border enforcement, increased penalties for alien smuggling and document fraud, expedited deportations, expanded mandatory detention in many cases, restricted judicial review of certain removal orders, imposed bars on reentry for those with unlawful presence, and limited public benefits for non-citizens (including restrictions on Social Security benefits for those not lawfully present).
The Specific Amendment (Schumer’s “Anti-Fraud Amendment”)
This was an amendment offered during House floor debate on H.R. 2202, seeking to authorize funding and require the Social Security Administration (SSA) to improve the design, materials, and security features of Social Security cards to make them more resistant to counterfeiting and fraud (e.g., better tamper-resistant materials, technologies like magnetic stripes).
It directly tied into Schumer’s floor remarks about fraud in systems like Social Security being a major driver of illegal immigration.
While the exact amendment text (as offered) may not have passed verbatim in isolation, similar provisions on combating document fraud—including directives for the SSA to develop a prototype of a counterfeit-resistant Social Security card—were included in the final enacted law (IIRIRA, Division C).
Specifically, Section 656 of IIRIRA required the SSA Commissioner to develop and study a prototype counterfeit-resistant card (made of durable, tamper-resistant material with security features) and report to Congress within one year of enactment.
Broader anti-fraud measures in the bill increased penalties for immigration-related document fraud and aimed to deter misuse of identification documents for employment or benefits.
In practice, full implementation of a highly secure, universal Social Security card as a national ID-like tool faced resistance (due to privacy concerns and opposition to anything resembling a “national ID”), so the card’s security was incrementally improved over time but never transformed into the forgery-proof system some reformers envisioned in 1996.
Overall, the 1996 effort succeeded in significantly toughening immigration enforcement and anti-fraud measures (elements Schumer supported at the time), though many critics later argued it went too far in restricting due process and asylum access. The clip’s context highlights a notable shift in political rhetoric on these issues over the decades.
