Speech #1010216591

Chairman. throughout the incumbency which I had been so honored to serve. I have received as many other Members have received. a deluge of letters and calls and expressions of opinion on a thousand different issues. I can say to Members. and I can vouch for a substantial majority of the House of Representatives. that we have not received such deluges on the need. as people would see it. to increase immigration at this time in our history. We have just undergone. very recently. an immigration act in the form of the amnesty that we granted to illegal aliens. that could have resulted in estimates between 10 and 20 million people becoming eligible for citizenship all in one fell swoop. We just did that in a recent session of the Congress of the United States. A substantial majority of the people of my district and of your district. and if interpolated into the public opinion polls nationwide. would show 75 percent or more of our people do not think it is an American societal need to increase immigration quotas. Likewise. almost the same number. perhaps fewer than that. opened to those who collect these opinions that immigration quotas ought to be reduced. Now. I am not here to advocate reduction of the immigration quotas. I am the son of immigrants who benefited from the quota that existed at that time that permitted them to come to this country. It would be unfair to their successors in line on the established system that we had to open up other kinds of capabilities of immigration that would deny the right to X or Y or Z elsewhere in the world waiting with anxiety as my parents did to come to the United States. Mr. Chairman. I cannot support this bill in its present form. I can help and cast my vote and support any measure that will foster unification of families. but that wiil not require. notwithstanding the nods and glances of my fellow Members. that will not require opening the floodgates of immigration. We can do it ad hoc case by case and with sophisticated methodology that we can put into the immigration laws as they now exist. I have had many occasions. as you have had. to be able to solve a family reunification situation out of the prestige of ones own office working with the State Department in many. many instances. so the law is not that much lacking today that would permit us to work on family reunification without opening. as I said. those floodgates. We will debate this issue. Let us listen to the amendments.