Speech #1010249385

Speaker. I thank the chairman of committee for yielding me this time. and. more importantly. I thank the gentleman from showing such tremendous skill and patience in helping us to move this measure in our first and final opportunity to pass a major comprehensive reform of legal immigration. In that vein. I turn to my friend. the gentleman from California . a member who is sincerely concerned about the investor provisions. and say that if he thinks defeating this bill will cause the Committee on the Judiciary and the chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary to turn their attention to this legislation next year. I suggest a personal conversation with our distinguished chairman. the gentleman from Texas. on that subject. and the gentleman might reevaluate his position. This bill. which came within a last gasp of disappearing from the scene last night. does very many things that I do not think anyone might have imagined we could have accomplished when the 101st Congress started. We have increased the visas for the second preference spouses and children from 70.000 to 148.200. We have provided that 75 percent of those second preference visas for spouses and minor children are not subject to country limits. This is an issue my colleague. the gentleman from Los Angeles. California . has been working on for years. He has been working to remove the country limit on Mexico and some of the other oversubscribed countries. We have now accomplished that in this legislation. We have permanently increased familybased immigration in the face of an initial effort on the other side to replace familybased immigration with skilled immigration. We have managed to find a way to deal with both. Mr. Speaker. we have increased country ceilings effectively from 20.000 to approximately 25.000. We have included a provision in this bill which we were neglectful of including when we passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act. which finally provides codified stays of deportation and work authorization for spouses and minor children of newly legalized aliens. not to mention the 8year effort of the chairman of the Rules Committee to provide EVD status. temporary protected status for the Salvadorans. and a massive reform of the horrible McCarranWalter immigration legislation many years ago. This is something that the gentleman from Massachussetta organized. Mr.