Mr. President. I regret that I must oppose the Specter amendment. because I agree with his objectives. which is to increase business visas. However. the SpecterDeConcini amendment increases the level of immigration by an additional 30.000. The underlying bill. as amended. increases the level of immigration to 816.000. I do not think Senators are fully aware of this fact. Mr. President. let me explain. Yesterday. the Hatch amendment was approved by the Senate. The Hatch amendment has the effect of increasing the level of immigration by an additional 216.000. I daresay if you asked four Senators. they would not realize that with one simple amendment by the Senator from Utah the number of immigrants coming into this country was increased by onethird. Mr. President. we are all compassionate. We are all descendants of immigrants. But we have to make up our minds where our immigration policy is going. As I said yesterday. our immigration policy should be based on Americas best interest and what is right for America. As a matter of fact. based on what I hear as I go around the country and around my State. I do not think that the American people will stand for such increases. There are many polls available to all of us and the ones I have seen indicate that the majority of Americans oppose any increase in immigration. Mr. President. I support an increase in the number of business visas as long as we do not increase the overall level of immigration. Therefore. my amendment provides 34.400 more business visas without increasing the national level. Yesterday. I explained why we need more skilled workers coming into this country.
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immigrants immigration visas