Speech #980043353

And. they have found the jobs in almost every industry we have. At one time we could have accommodated this huge pool of labor. but that day has passed. and it will not come again. The United States is now faced with massive large scale unemployment due to our changing economic structure. and the arrival of massive numbers of illegal alien workers is intensifying the problem. A few years ago. full employment in this country meant an unemployment rate of 3 to 4 percent. The Presidents new economic report. issued a few months ago. now defines full employment at a level of 6 to 7 percent unemployment. In other words. we are told that we must accept 3 million more unemployed Americans each year as normal. However. I do not accept this as "normal" especially when we can reduce the level of unemployment by reducing illegal immigration. It is a question of whom we are more concerned about. U.S. workers or foreign workers. The bill makes other needed changes which will create a more effective immigration system. However. there is one particular change which I believe does not go far enough. S. 529 creates a partial ceiling for general immigrants. but I believe it should create a total ceiling. We have learned from experience that many more immigrants want to come into this country than we can reasonably be expected to accept. We have also learned from experience that there are many special interest groups who are actively working to secure admission of particular immigrants whom they have a special concern about. What this produces is a constant demand for unlimited admissions that may have no relationship to the best interests of the Nation. In other words. our system is one which determines the demand and then adjusts the supply of visas to accomodate that demand. A system which would be more logical and more fair is one which would establish a generous. but total. immigration ceiling based on the Nations best interest. and then distributing visas in a way which takes care of the most deserving first. As long as we have an openended immigration system that does not set a comprehensive ceiling. we will never have complete control over immigration. Instead. the system will continue to be manipulated by special interests. Nor will we have a fair system because only those groups that have the most political clout will be taken care of. while others who may be more deserving are ignored.