Speech #970147913

The core bill also contains significant improvements in our exclusion and asylum adjudication procedures. It provides a summary exclusion pro. ceeding without an appeal for those who enter the country withovit documents and who are not claiming asylum. For asylum cases. the bill provides for a hearing before a specially trained administrative law Judge and one administrative appeal to an independent immigration board outside of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The bill streamlines the adjudication procedure for both deportation and exclusion. The bill further provides that it is a criminal offense knowingly to transport an alien to the United States other than in accordance with prior authority. We fully realize and recognize the possibility that a substantial adverse economic impact might occur on certain employers who have quite lawfully become dependent upon illegal foreign workers. We have attempted to deal with this problem in several ways. First. the employer sanctions program would not apply to Illegal aliens hired before the bill is enacted. Second. the legalization program. which I discussed and will discuss later when my complete remarks are entered into the REcoRD. will legalize many current illegal workers. Third. the existing labor certification. which must be obtained for certain Jobrelated immigrant visa categories. will be modified to allow a more efficient and accurate determination of when a foreign worker is needed. Finally. the bill streamlines the H2 program in order that employers who demonstrate a genuine need for a foreign worker for temporary services or labor will receive an approval within a reasonable period of time. In addition to reducing Illegal immigration. the bill is intended to bring legal Immigration under control. as well. Although immediate relatives of U.S. citizens would continue to be exempt from numerical limitations. the number available for other family reunification categories could be determined by subtracting the number of such immediate relatives admitted in a prior year from the figure of 325.000. A similar approach is provided for immigrants admitted under the economically related categories. using a base figure of 100.000. The effect of these changes Is that for the next decade. at least. the total of all new immigrants. excluding refugees. will not exceed 425.000. which I remind you is approximately the current level. The bill makes changes in the current system of allocating immigrant visas: The family preference categories will not include what Is now referred to as the fifth preference. that Is the brothers and sisters of adult U.S. citizensalthough those who have alrealy received fifth preference status and are in the pipeline will be protected. the second preference will be narrowed somewhat to cover spouses and minor children of permanent residents. The independent categories will include as one additional category investors creating jobs in high unemployment areas. The bill also will provide special immigrant visas for certain children of American servicemenAmerican childrenin Korea and Indochina. and for certain children and widowed spouses of employees of international organizations such as the U.N. and the World Bank. if they have resided in the United States for a certain number of years. Finally. the bill allows the Attorney General and the Secretary of State to establish a pilot visa waiver program to waive the requirement of a visitors visa in a certain country. It will allow for user fees on aliens who utilize the entry system. It will reform the law completely in regard to legal and illegal Immigration. Last. but not leastcertainly not least in the controversy departmentwe come to the subject of legalization or amnesty. We seek three major goals there: The first is to avoid wasteful use of INSs limited enforcement resources.