Speech #1010216555

Chairman. first of all I want to compliment my colleagues who have been instrumental in writing this legislation and who support it. I know they are well motivated. and I admire their humanitarian impulses. I want to say that the administration shares their desire to increase immigration. Where we part ways is on how to bring about that increase in immigration. The administration has different priorities. The administration would like to give greater priority to immediate families. They would like to see us have more immigrants come in who are mothers and fathers and children. They would like to give less priority to the extended family members. that Is. married brothers. sisters. for example. aunts. uncles. and cousins. The administration would like to give more priority to skilled workers and. perhaps as a result. less priority to unskilled workers. H.R. 4300 gives only 10 percent of Its numbers specifically to skilled immigrants. socalled employment based. H.R. 4300 is a radical departure from our current immigration laws. I would say that when we consider it today we need to remember several things. First of all. as we stand here today. we are going to be debating a bill that professes to. proposes to change our immigration policy for only the fifth time in Congress 203year history. The bill is going to have a dramatic impact on Americas population. its work force. and the quality of life for decades to come. I think we need to remember that America right now is already the most generous country in the world. We admit as many immigrants as the rest of the world combined. We should continue to be the most generous country. No doubt we will continue to admit all those immigrants. We are all very. very familiar with the successes of hundreds of thousands. if not millions. of immigrants. That is not the point here. The point is America simply cannot admit every single individual who wants to come to our shores. One of Americas most distinguished families. the Kennedy family. a member of that family wrote a book when he was a Senator. and I am referring to John F. Kennedy. He wrote a book in 1956 called "A Nation of Immigrants." At that point. he said that we do need a limitation upon Immigration: We not longer need settlers for virgin lands. Our economy is expanding more slowly than in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Mr. Chairman. when he wrote that. our immigration level was onehalf of what it is today. Unfortunately. because we cannot accommodate every individual who wants to come to this country. we are going to have to engage is some degree to some selectivity. We need to have individuals admitted to this country who can contribute to the productivity of America. who can help us better compete in the international workplace. I know there are those who say that history would disprove those who are opposed to this bill. but that is not the point. We do not support a decrease in the levels of immigration. we do not want a limit as to which countries can have immigrants come to America. We support an increase. The question again is on what priorities should we have as a country.