Speech #980043360

I support the legalization provisions of S. 529 as a necessary part of this reform measure. Legalization has three major goals. The first is to avoid the wasteful use of the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) limited enforcement resources by attempting to locate and deport those who have come to this country illegally. The second is to allow currently economically dependent employers to continue lawfully hiring from this pool of labor. And the third. and most important. is to eliminate the illegal subclass of persons now present in our society. The costs to society of permitting a large group of persons to live in illegal. secondclass status are enormous. And mass deportations are not reasonable or realistic both for legal and humanitarian reasons. I opposed an amendment to strike the legalization program from the bill for these reasons. The third major component of the bill addresses reform of our legal immigration system by setting an overall ceiling. including immediate relatives of U.S. citizens. of 425.000 per year. although immediate relatives continue to be exempt from numerical limitations. The number available for other family reunification preference categories would be determined by subtracting the number of immediate relatives admitted in the prior year from the cap of 350.000. the total for family reunification. A cap of 75.000 is placed on independent preference categories for a total of 425.000.