Speech #1000124354

Finally. Mr. President. it is important now to go on to reform our legal immigration laws in order to more adequately meet the current needs and conditions in the United States. because the last major change in our legal immigration laws occurred more than 20 years agothe Senator from Massachusetts was instrumental in thatwhen we repealed the national origin quotas in an effort to make immigration to the United States a possibility to people from all nations. a very worthy goal we would all embrace. While our intentions were inherently good and indeed proper. the changes have had the unexpected effect of denying legal immigration opportunities to most people in the world who do not have family connections in the United States. We must make some reasonable changes in the law to open immigration to independent immigrants who now have little hope or opportunity to seek a new life in America. as so many have in the past. Congressman SCHuMz of the House is working on that. a superb ally in illegal immigration reform. He refers to that as a classic immigrant. a return to the view of the classic immigrant. Father Hesburgh. who is my great friend from Notre Dame. referred to it as the seed immigrant. We want to pursue that and we will do that on the basis which is not at all discriminatory of others but takes into a new view family reunification and classic immigration in this country. So I shall be there to try to help make the changes to open immigration to those who have this new hope. and we will give them that. I look forward to working with my friend and colleague and chairman of the subcommittee. Senator KENNEDY. and with the interested members of the House subcommittee and the full committee. a splendid group. who are completely pleasant to work with. When I say the "chairman" in the House we speak only for PETER RODINO. a superb ally and great friend. and RON MAZZOLI. my sidekick from Kentucky. and the new ranking member of the subcommittee. the Republican PAT SWINDALL. whom I am looking forward to coming to know better. His predecessor. DAN LUNGREN. was a superb compatriot and HAM FISH. the ranking member of the full Judiciary Committee. and CHUcK ScHuMxE who. indeed. being a congressional Representative from Brooklyn had no possible stake in anything but the turmoil of immigration reform and did so with remarkable ability and skill. So I look forward to working with them as we make needed changes now in our legal immigration laws during this Congress. We will present you. I think. with a very thoughtful package and hope you will look at it carefully and we will still continue our responsible oversight of the implementation of the 1986 immigration control bill. It was a great pleasure to be part of that legislation and we must see that it works properly. with compassion and reason and in a very humane way. I thank the Chair.