Speech #980005010

It would have to be presented only to verify eligibility to work in the United States This core bill also contains significant improvements in our exclusion and asylum adjudication procedures. It provides a summary exclusion proceeding without an appeal for those who enter the country without 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 independentoutside of the INSImmigration Board. The bill also 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 recognize the possibility that a substantial adverse economic impact might occur on certain employers who have quite lawfully become dependent on 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 will discuss momentarily. will legalize many currently 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 would be determined by subtracting the number of such immediate relatives admitted in the prior year from the figure 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 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 already 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 certain visas for immigration 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 extablish a pilot visa waiver program to waive the requirement of a visitors visa for the nationals of eight countries under certain conditions. In addition to these measures to reform the law with respect to legal and illegal immigration. the bill contains two other provisions which must be mentioned. First. the bill states the sense of Congress that the INS shall impose user fees on aliens who utilize INS entry and other facilities in an amount sufficient to assist in defraying actual costs. Second. the bill. in accordance with the wishes of a substantial majority of the Senate states that it is the sense of Congress that English is the sole official language of the United States.