Speech #990081474

It would permit the admission of foreign workers with a license to look for work without any determination by the Government that there are in fact specific job vacancies for them to fill and without any Government determination that there is any avail. able Americans to do the job. It weakens standards of wages and working conditions. without any Government test of U.S. worker availability. and without any guarantee that the aliens admitted under the program will actually find any employment. or even earn enough to feed and house themselves. or pay for their transportation home. This proposal would not only undermine the central principal of our immigration laws that U.S. citizens and permanent resident aliens should be protected from unfair competition from foreign labor. but there has been very little discussion here on the floor this afternoon about what its impact will be on American workers. on their wages and working conditions. And clearly. that is something that hopefully all of us in this body are concerned about. The fact that we have some 7.3 percent unemployment. 8 million American men and women who are unemployed today in this country. and we have a very considerable number of unemployed even in the agricultural and farm areas. yet for the first time in U.S. history we are being asked to sanction the admission of foreign nationals whose rights to reside in this country would be restricted possibly to a single geographical area. I refer to page 12 of the Senators amendment. "Establishment of numerical limitations by agricultural employment region." It points out here "For the purposes of the administration of the program the Attorney General"-not the Secretary of Labor or the Secretary of Agriculture-"shall designate not more than 10 agricultural employment regions within the United States. The entire United States shall be encompassed by the area of all such regions." Then over on page 20. "a nonimmigrant visa issued under the program shall not limit the geographical area (other than by agricultural employment region) within which a seasonal agricultural worker may be employed or limit the type of seasonal agricultural employment * * 1." What this is saying is that the Attorney General will designate 10 geographical areas and the worker who comes in with that visa will be permitted to go to one area. or two or maybe even three. But he cannot go to any other area. The Attorney General is going to enforce it.