Speech #970105485

Speaker. the Committee on the Judiciary has given unanimous bipartisan support to a bill that provides lawful permanent resident status to certain people who have lived continuously in the Virgin Islands of the United States since June 30. 1975. This is important remedial legislation that focuses on the plight of individuals who have enriched the life and economy of the Virgin Islands through participation in the H2 temporary worker program. These workers and their families presently live lives of uncertaintyunder a cloud of possible deportation. The unique history of the Virgin Islands temporary worker program documents the special circumstances that have made these people de facto permanent members of their community. The Immigration Service. in 1956. adopted special procedures designed to facilitate the admission into the U.S. Virgin Islands of temporary workers from the British Virgin Islands. The program expanded in the years that followed to include workers from other Caribbean Islands and embrace a wide variety of jobs. In 1970. Congress enacted legislation that permitted spouses and minor children of temporary workers to enter the United States under a new H4 classification. A special House Immigration Subcommittee study noted that "(p)robably the most significant impact of the H4 provision was on the Virgin Islands. where its effect was to promote family reunification on a massive scale." That same year. the Labor Department adopted new procedures essentially inthe bill would lead to a finding of unconstitutionality. tegrating alien workers into the permanent labor force. Nonimmigrant Virgin Island workers became eligible for labor certification of indefinite durationwith freedom to change from one Labor Department approved job to another. The Immigration Subcommittee study found that "the May 1970 program appears to have had the desired effect of integrating the nonimmigrant aliens into the permanent work force. particularly considering the unfavorable economic conditions on the Islands." H.R. 3517 provides a humane response to the predicament of longterm residents of the Virgin Islands who came to that territory in compliance with the provisions of U.S. law. The Immigration Subcommittee study. published in 1975. found general agreement that "there is a moral obligation to those H2 workers and their families who have established substantial equities while working and residing in the U.S. Virgin Islands over the years." The effort to provide an appropriate legislative solution. however. has been frustrated by concerns over the impact on a small insular territory of the future migration of potentially large numbers of relatives. The unique feature about the present legislation is its effort to consider both the needs of aliens living today in limbo status in the Virgin Islands and the limitations on the territorys capacity to absorb substantial new flows.