Speech #1010043846

And so we are here with this amendment which is nothing sinister. It simply restores the language which was passed in this body by a vote of 88 to 4 last year and which was in the original KennedySimpson bill. Also. the English language as the official language resolution. when it was adopted on the illegal immigration bill. was in the original SimpsonMazzoli bill. I do not care one whit if the English skill immigrant is from Nigeria. Jamaica. India. the Philippines or Belize. All are. interestingly enough. independent countries where English is commonly spoken. incidentally. I do not care at all where the immigrant is from. I am merely interested in seeing that he or she has the language skill which will assist his or her economic performance in a very limited category of persons under a very limited visa category under this bill. However. I think if we recognize English language skills only in the point system. and that is what we do. affecting only 9 percent of the people under the bill. that will be good for public policy and it will not be a departure from the immigration laws of the past 40 years. I will conclude. and reserve the remainder of my time. to share an incident with you that occurred during the debate on the illegal immigration bill. James Michener. the author. who I am proud to consider a lovely friendhe and Marl are special peoplewhen he was writing his book. "Centennial." he visited with me in Cody. WY.