Speech #1010042969

So I think that the Senator from Arizona and the Senator from Utah are. indeed. on the right track. I think that we do. indeed. have to support this amendment. My concern about the bill is really related to this area of family preference immigration. The Senator from Wyoming talks about limitations on the fifth preference. that there are too many years of waiting under this category. I will. therefore. offer amendments either tonight or tomorrow. as time permits. to increase the fifth preference so that we can have more brothers and sisters come into this country. The Senator from Wyoming is correct that the mail runs against the idea of bringing in new immigrants. that many people think that jobs are going to be taken by these immigrants. and they feel threatened by that. I think the entire experience of the United States has been that immigrants create jobs. that immigrants by and large come to this country with nothing and they come as the greatest consumers of all. For that reason they do. indeed. create jobs. Again. Mr. President. during the time when we had the greatest job growth as a percentage of population. when we had the fastest economic growththe industrial revolutionthis country experienced its heaviest immigrant flow. I would suspect that most of the grandfathers. great grandfathers and grandmothers of the Members of this body came during that period of time. That is what we are trying to recreate with this bill. to open the shores of this country because this country alone is a country of immigrants. So I say to my good friend from Wyoming that we are not talking about unlimited immigration. Not at all. We are talking about guaranteeing that 216.000 people. in addition to immediate family members of American citizens. can be reunited with their family in the United States. This is an amendment that does not necessarily increase. but might increase immigrant flow into this country by as much as 216.000 people a year. I will have more to say about it later. but I hope that the Senate will consider this amendment and act favorably on this amendment as it should. I yield the floor.