Speech #980214500

Mr. Chairman. my amendment addresses a weakness in this legislation that needs to be corrected. This bill. unlike the Senate bill. does not reform legal immigration. There is no ceiling on legal immigration in this bill and I am offering an amendment to create such a ceiling. This ceiling is needed because the category of numerically unlimited immediate relatives entering our country is increasing steadily. The rate of immediate relative immigration has grown from 114.000 in 1976 to over 170.000 today. Although I support continued opportunities for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens to enter our country without any numerical limits. I believe some adjustments must be made in the numerically limited preference categories to take into account increases in immigration of immediate relatives in the years to come. This problem will become especially important in view of the millions of aliens who will be given anmesty under this bill. During Judiciary Committee consideration of this bill. many members voted for my amendment. but it failed after a close vote. I offer this amendment again on the floor because it clearly deserves the attention of the whole House. My proposal creates a flexible cap on legal immigrant admissions at a level of 450.000 per year. Refugees are not included in this cap. Refugees. however. remain subject to annual ceilings72.000 in fiscal year 1984set by the President following congressional consultations. My amendment also will not limit the number of special immigrants or persons seeking asylum nor will my amendment change the existing preference system. Under my proposal. the number of immediate relatives of citizens issued visasor otherwise acquiring permanent resident statusin any one year will be subtracted from 450.000 to determine the number of preference visas available the following year. When immediate relative immigration exceeds 180.000. it will trigger reductions below the current 270.000 limit in admissions of less close and nonrelative categories covered by the preference system. This 450.000 level is 25.000 higher than the Senate version. I chose that level so that we would retain the current level of immigration. The 450.000 cap provides a reasonable mechanism for controlling large future increases in persons coming to this country. Immigration nearly doubles our population growth rate. The problems which may be caused by excessive population growth are wellknown. We are no longer the frontier America we once were. with vast undeveloped resources and wide open spaces.