Speech #990033961

President. I rise today to cosponsor S. 1108. introduced by my distinguished colleague from Arizona. Senator DECONCINI. to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act with respect to the definition of immigrant. This bill will expand an existing category of persons considered nonimmigrant aliens because of the brief duration and limited transportation purpose of their entry into the United States. Under current law. alien crewmembers serving in good faith on board a vessel or an aircraft who intend to land temporarily and solely in pursuit of their calling as crewmembers and to depart from the United States with the vessel or aircraft on which they arrived or some other vessel or aircraft are considered nonimmigrant aliens. rather than immigrants. The legislation which I am cosponsoring will broaden this exception to include the operators of motor carriers of passengers. This legislation is necessary to correct a gap in existing law and to terminate an inequitable situation regarding the entry into the United States of passenger busses driven by nonU.S. citizens. As an example. I would like to discuss the present Immigration and Naturalization Service policy for classification of Canadian Greyhound bus drivers engaged in transporting passengers between Montreal and New York City. Pointtopoint pickup and delivery of passenges in upstate New York is part of that service. For the past several years. INS and the Department of Labor have been considering the proper classification of the drivers who have been permitted to hold parole visas while operating buses on this route. The bus company and the drivers argued that the route from Montreal to New York City is international travel and that the pointtopoint service in the United States is merely incidental to the primary purpose of international trade. Their goal was to secure proper nonimmigrant visas and labor documentation for those Canadian drivers who needed them. INS determined that the transportation of passengers across international borders is clearly international trade. However. INS also indicated that pointtopoint pickup and delivery within the United States is not a necessary incident to the transportation. Because of this finding. INS would not grant nonimmigrant visas to the drivers who needed them or agree to indefinitely extend the parole visas currently held by some of the drivers. At the same time. U.S. employees of Greyhound. Inc.. have worked in Canada without any visa requirement on a daytoday basis. I have been assured by both the bus company and by the drivers union that. if Canadian citizens were able to obtain nonimmigrant visas in order to operate buses on the MontrealtoNew York City route. they would in no way deprive the resident labor force of employment opportunities since Greyhounds Americanbased employees would continue to enjoy the privileges of working in Canada and added coaches required to properly service the public demand. I believe this bill. which is extremely narrow in scope. will help to correct an anomalous situation. while enabling the continuation of bus service to many upstate New York communities which depend upon it. This bill is designed simply to restore balance and fair play regarding international passenger motor carrier service.