Speech #1040168790

America will not be able to attract the "best and the brightest" from around the world if we impose barriers that prevent people from reuniting with their parents and siblings. Mr. President. in my view S. 1394s provisions restricting legal immigration are misconceived. they are misconceived because they are based on misconceptions: first. that immigrants take jobs away from Americans who need them. second. that immigrants are a drain on our governments and third. that immigrants are a danger to our culture. Contrary to popular myth. immigrants do not increase the rate of unemployment among American workers. There is a great deal of empirical evidence to support this position. First. the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution studied immigration patterns over the long term in America. They found that. historically. periods of heavy immigration have not been associated with subsequent higher than normal unemployment. Second. the Manhattan Institute compared the ten states with the highest immigrant presence with the ten states with the lowest immigrant presence and found that the highimmigrant states actually had lower unemployment rates. in the aggregate. than did the lowimmigrant states. The median unemployment rate in States with large immigrant populations was 5.1 percent while that for the 10 States with low immigrant populations was 6.6 percenta full 1.5 percent difference. I could go on. Mr. President. but there is no need. Let me instead quote Julian Simon. This University of Maiyland professor and author of the seminal work on "The Economic Consequences of Immigration" recently finished an immigration report for the Cato Institute. In that report he states unequivocally: "The studies uniformly show that immigrants do not increase the rate of native unemployment." Its as simple as that. Immigrants do not increase unemployment. In fact. Mr. President. immigrants do not take jobs. they crate jobs. By advancing our technology. by developing better products. by starting new businesses and by themselves consuming goods. immigrants expand and create whole new areas of production employing thousands of nativeborn Americans. This brings us to the second mistaken assumption underlying attempts to restrict immigration: that legal immigrants are a drain on the public coffers. Mr. President. when total government expcnditures per capita are considered. the government spends about one third less per immigrant than it does per native. This is because immigrants are more likely than natives to be of working age. They pay into the tax system without taking out. for example. Social Security payments. Further. refugees fleeing persecution automatically qualify for government benefits when they are admitted into the United States. If we factor out the use of welfare among refugees. immigrants or working age are less likely to use welfare than are the native born. As Julian Simon of the University of Maryland reported recently in the Wall Street Journal. "the immigrant family contributes yearly about $2.500 more in taxes to public coffers than it obtains in services." And those who still fear the costs of immigration should remember a policy option which we already have substantially put in place: "immigration yes. welfare no." Current law already forbids almost all immigrants from receiving welfare for their first three years in this country. We can legitimately toughen these standards. And our welfare reform bill does so by denying noncash benefits such as supplemental security income and food stamps to immigrants. But we should recognize that the vast majority of immigrants are working hard. in real jobs that add to the wellbeing of our people and our country. There is one final misconception underlying S. 1394s provisions restricting immigration. It has been said that America needs a reduction in immigration for the sake of our culture. Some Americans have expressed concern about a new wave of immigrants. bringing new customs and ways of life to our shores. Despite the scare tactics we sometimes hear. however. immigrants are not breaking down our culture. First. Mr. President. immigrants are not coming to America in unprecedented numbers. Professor Simons cautious estimate. based on census data. is that as of 1990. immigrants made up only 8.5 percent of our population. That compares with averages over 13 percent between 1860 and 1920. As a proportion of the total population. then. immigrant numbers have dropped by more than a third. What is more. the Manhattan Institutes "Index of Leading Immigration Indicators" shows that. compared with the native born. immigrants are more likely to have intact families. more likely to have college degrees. more likely to be working. and no more likely to commit crimes than native born Americans. . We are not being swamped by unmanageable numbers of immigrants. Further. Mr. President. immigrants are like the rest of us in all the ways that matter. They are hardworking. familyoriented people who come here to make a better life for themselves and their children. They are. in fact. the kind of people each and every one of us would and should be happy and proud to have as neighbors. It seems clear to me. Mr. President. that legal immigration is a boon to our Nations economy and society. Unfortunately. S. 1394 tends to obscure the benefits of legal immigration because it contains provisions addressing illegal immigration as well. Indeed. much of the driving force behind S. 1394 is directed. not at those who legally come to this country. but at those who come here illegally. We can address the illegal immigration problem through better border policing and better and swifter methods of deportation. particularly in regard to criminal illegal aliens. And as I mentioned earlier. we have addressed the welfare magnet problem in our welfare reform bill. Thats why I think we should split S. 1394 and move on illegal immigration reform separately from legal immigration reform. But even some of the illegal immigration components of S. 1394 go much farther than is necessary. Illegal immigrants now constitute 1.5 percent of our population. That is too high a percentage. but we need to examine more effectiveand less intrusive waysto control illegal immigration. This legislation proposes to end illegal immigration by requiring a national Identification system for all employees. In order to get a new job. every American will have to prove his or her citizenship by showing that he or she is listed on a specific. national computer registry. Before an employer can hire a new worker that employer will have to contact the Federal Government for verification of the wouldbe employees citizenship.