Speech #990278997

While they wait. they must remain continuously in the United States. keep a steady job. work to learn the English language and about our history and form of government. and stay out of trouble with the law. If they are granted permanent statusa difficult stepit will be another 5 years of exemplary citizenlike behavior before they can apply to become U.S. citizens. and they will become citizens only if they are eligible. So we are not granting citizenship to anyone under this bill. we are not giving green cards to anyone under this bill. The "road to U.S. citizenship" we are allowing these people to travel is a long and difficult one. as it should be. No one will reach the end of it until he or she has been in this country for at least 11 years and has satisfied all of the requirements of citizenship. By that time. we will be assured that these people. whatever method they originally used to enter this country. will be ready for the responsibilities of citizenship. We all know that the root cause of illegal immigration is the poor economic situation in the countries from which people come here illegally. Any effective immigration policy must ultimately address this root cause. I amended this bill to create a Commission for the Study of International Migration and Cooperative Economic Development. The Commission will study over a 3year period and report to Congress on the ways in which we can use our international trade. investment and development laws to best help improve the conditions which lead people to immigrate herewithout compromising in any way our own trade and investment policies. Every one of us can find. if we want. something in this bill to oppose. some excuse. if you will. to vote against it. But everyone who is concerned about the rising tide of illegal immigrationthe millions of jobs it has already taken from legal workers here. the cruel exploitation it has permitted of impoverished workers from other lands. the discrimination it has fostered among some of our fellow citizens. the tensions and misdirected passions it has created in almost every community of our Nationeveryone of us can and must find more in this legislation to support than to oppose. On balance. this is a carefully crafted. balanced. tough. effective. fair bill. deserving of our support. It is one which will once again give the United States a practical. enforceable immigration policy. I urge your vote for the conference committee report.