Speech #1030086957

One of the great strengths of this country has been the ability of us to absorb people from all parts of the worldand I still think we should do that. I think 300.000 people is a generous amount. and that is at historic levels. and that is the level we should maintain. Three hundred thousand. even though It is consistent with our historic tradition. is higher than other nations currently allowing immigration. Canada. Germany. and Australia. often recognized as having generous immigration policies. have set their annual ceilings well below the 300.000 level. Moreover. at levels of 300.000 annually. the United States could reverse our dangerous trend toward explosive population growth while preserving our ability to admit immigrants that will benefit the Nation as well as upholding the tradition of protecting people fleeing legitimate political prosecution in their homelands. I have spoken on this floor last week about some of the problems that we are facing as a result of our not enforcing our immigration laws. the illegal immigration which is significant and destructive. But today I am only going to talk as relates to thisamendment. this senseoftheSenate resolution. about legal immigration. Immigration levels of 300.000 a year. which. I repeat. was our historic average from 1820 until the late sixties. would ensure that we can leave our children and grandchildren the sort of legacy all of us want for them. We can avoid the kind of social and environmental destructiveness that results from unbridled population growth but only if we are prepared to set responsible limits on immigration. The second question then that we must address is who. among the countless millions who would like to immigrate to the United States. will be allowed to come here. There are no easy answers to this problem. but we must. nevertheless. establish the fairest and most rational selection criteria possible. Prior to 1965. I think to our discredit. this country discriminated for and against potential immigrants based on national origin. However. since 1965 we have put the selection process on automatic pilot. allowing endless and growing chains of extended family members to immigrate regardless of the impact on our society. The Immigration Stabilization Act of 1993 would. for the first time. establish a commonsense approach process for selecting immigrants to come to this country. It is premised on three basic principles: First. that immigration to our country should be based on the individual merits of the applicants and what they are likely to be able to contribute to our country. Second. that the nuclear familyspouses and unmarried minor childrenshould be kept intact. but beyond that. no special consideration can or should be given to extended family members. and Third. that true refugees should be given priority. S. 1351 would place all applicants for an immigration visa to the United States on an equal footing. No one would benefit by continual discrimination for certain nations based on arbitrary. extended preference for nonimmediate relatives. No longer would a handful of nations dominate our immigration flow. Once again. the American people would have a say in the selection process. More immigrants would be selected based on what they can do for the Nation. and. finally. those extended and unwieldy backlogs would be eliminated. These are the broadest parameters for a workable immigration policy for the United States in the coming decades. Having addressed the fundamental questions on how many immigrants and how they should be selected. I will in the coming weeks talk more about Immigration and I will every chance I have when something like this very worthwhile amendment is presented. I am going to come and talk about another problem we have in this country that would allow us to do many of these things that we need to do if we had a more rational immigration process. The cost to our criminal justice system. 25 percent of the people in our prisons are illegal immigrants. 67 percent of the people born in L.A. County last year were children of illegal immigrants. These are problems that are significant in nature that will allow us to do the things that the Senator from Vermont says we should do. and I agree with him. Immigration is a problem. We cannot ignore it. We have ignored it too long. Every year we allow into this country more people than are in the State of Nevada every year. We cannot continue to go like we have been going. We have to be morerational and more fair in our approach to immigration. So. again. I congratulate the sponsors of this amendment. They are headed in the right direction but like many things. we have to find a way to pay for it. and we are not going to find a way to pay for it as long as the illegal immigrants are coming into this country and. frankly. legal immigrants causing us to run up bills that we have to pay dealing with criminal justice. education. and on and on. with other problems we have.