Mr. President. I believe the pending legislation takes a major step away from our Nations historic commitment to the reunification of families as the fundamental objective of our immigration laws. For the first time in our history. this bill places an annual ceiling on all legal immigrationexcept for refugees. The spouses and children of American citizens will not come under a ceiling. Although they are given the highest priority and are assured of admission. their admission could come at the expense of other family reunification preferences. Unless my amendment is adopted. we will seriously penalize the admission of families under the established preferences. creating backlogs where none exist. and making existing backlogs even longer. Mr.
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family reunification immigration immigrationexcept refugees