Speech #980214526

I and others on this side have spoken several times earlier during this debate for positions that were not always easy. Supporting a tough sanctions program. knowing that that has got some potential problems. is a difficult decision for many of us. We did it in the context of a view which says not that immigrants are bad. not that we want to restrict immigration further because somehow there is something improper about people coming in. but because we felt the problem of illegal immigration. people coming here outside of a legal status. causes problems. We have crafted. I believe. and the House has been working. and in some cases improving and in others perhaps detracting. but in a serious way legislating on this overall balanced proposal dealing with illegal immigration. To attach on to this bill aimed at dealing with illegal immigration a provision which will have the effect very soon of limiting legal immigration and particularly of interfering with family reunification will undercut the kind of coalition we need for legislation and I think is a mistake from the standpoint of the legislative process. but it is also a mistake substantively. We do not have a problem of too many legal immigrants. We do not have a problem caused by peoples brothers or sisters or other relatives coming over here under the preferences. I suppose people could take the argument that things began to go downhill when this country began to encounter largescale immigration. and all of the Navajos and all of the Apaches and all of the Creoles can come in here and say that. For the rest of us. I think it would be a mistakeit is certainly contrary to the evidenceto suggest that there is somehow something adverse to our society about legal immigrants. We are talking now about the people whose right of passage would be restricted by the amendment. not immediately. but as it began to work out. These would be the relatives of American citizens. those particularly who are from groups where there continues to be immigration. ItalianAmericans. PortugueseAmericans. ChineseAmericans. Those groups would begin to feel some pain because it would begin to make their family reunification competitive with other forms of immigration. We have here a bill in which a number of Members have been trying hard in a spirit of compromise. sometimes opposing some very good friends. sometimes confounding. perhaps. people who expect us to behave in one way or another. We have tried to come together in this spirit to produce a bill that will deal with illegal immigration. To attach on to it an amendment which restricts purely legal immigration is I think to penalize people for a problem that does not exist. I have been on the Immigration Subcommittee since 1981and I have not seen any argument that says that the people who come over here legally. who apply. who come through the preferences. have in any way. shape or form caused a problem. Immigrants tend to be the more innovative. the more energetic. the more industrious people in any society. The decision to pick up and go to a country where you do not necessarily speak the language. do not have any great ties. I think that shows a certain type of initiative. I think it would be a mistake for us to suggest that in this bill we are somehow trying to deal with a problem that does not exist. because legal immigrants. people who come over here in the proper way. have not been a problem. 0l 2120