Speech #1010050467

Mr. President. last week. the Senate passed S. 358. legislation that institutes major reforms in our system of legalized immigration. Writing legislation that apportions visas among the residents of disparate countries who wish to emigrate to the United States was not an easy exercise. I commend Senators KENNEDY. SIMPSON and SIMONthe immigration bills prime architectsfor their diligence and skill in negotiating it through the Judiciary Committee and the Senate. While I do not serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee. I followed the development of this legislation closely because of my interest in reconciling our Nations historic compassion for refugees and other immigrants with a growing grassroots preoccupation with the effect of illegal immiration on our Nations Job market. The Senate immigration bill. in my view. addresses both of these priorities. One objective of S. 358 Is to permit the immigration of more people who. because of the current systems criteria strongly favoring relatives of newly arrived ethnic groups. have been all but shut out of our country for years. Western Europeans are a prime case in point. As the grandson of German immigrants. I understand the desire to correct this imbalance. At the same time. however. I was concerned about the Judiciary Coinmittee bills retreat from the immigra. tion systems emphasis on family reunification. In fact. earlier this year I joined my colleagues. Senators SIMON and CRANSTON. in sponsoring a bill that sought to buttress the family reunification standards. rather than to weaken them. This issue was fully debated on the Senate floor. and the immigration bill that the Senate ultimately passed last week was a compromise between those who wished to strengthen the familyoriented system we currently have and those who desired a legal immigration policy favoring other bases for entry into our country. The heart of that compromise Is the HatchDeConcini amendment. which I strongly support. that sets a floor of 216.000 on the number of people who can be admitted under the "family preference" categories. This amendment provides a guarantee that offsetting the unlimited "Immediate family" entrants against the family preference categories would not threaten the latter. which include the fifth preference category for brothers and sisters. As with any successful compromise. I do not find the final immigration bill ideal. For example. I still have a lingering concern about the way the cap is structured in the bill. I feel it may threaten family reunification principles in the long term. Should this provision remain in any final legislation that is enacted that is enacted Into law. its impact must be monitored closely. Immigration has been a dynamic element in American history and will be an Important factor in our future growth. As such. polieymakers will be called on periodically to evaluate and regulate the flow of Immigrants Into our country. Three years ago. Congress addressed the problem of illegal immigration by enacting the Immigration Reform and Control Act. Now we are focusing on inequities and backlogs in our legal immigration system. which was last overhauled over 24 years ago. Mr. President. I understand the need to review and amend the current visa allocation system. I only hope that. in passing such legislation. more inequities are not created. and I urge my colleagues to keep this concern in mind when a conference is appointed to reconcile the differences between the Senate and Housepassed legal immigration reform bills.*