Speech #970224028

Mr. President. there is only a limited number of visas available for family reunification for permanent residents. Therefore. it is the feeling of the subcommittee and the full committee that visas should be reserved for reuniting the very closest family membersthose who are most likely to live together in the United States. The legalization program will bring additional heavy pressures for visas in the second preferencealiens who will be legalized if this bill should pass within the permanent resident statusthat type of legalization. They will petition. then. for family members under this second preference. Indeed they will. By limiting this preference to spouses and children. there is some assurance that permanent residents will be able to bring in their immediate families. An expansion of this preference under this amendment would simply mean that children of permanent residents may have to wait in line for many years. That may result in new illegal immigration. since the immediate family is always most unlikely to stay separated. We have tried to avoid those periods of separation and here. as with the fifth preference. aliens on the second preference waiting list as of March 1. 1982. who do not fit the new definitionthe old group includes the adult or married sons and daughters of permanent residentswould retain their preference under a savings clause. That would be as of the date of the approval of their visas. So. again. it was one of those choices which one finds painful at the time. But if we are going to put a cap onand. as the Senator from Massachusetts has said also. there is a cap coming. we know that. we knew that in the Select Commission.