Speech #1040189528

I would like to alert my Senate colleagues to todays editorial by the Wall Street Journal on why the Congress should think twice before cutting legal immigration. As currently written. the legal immigration reform measures. H.R. 2202 and S. 1394. would slash legal immigration by nearly half. largely through the elimination of whole categories of familysponsored immigration by U.S. citizens. In my judgment. the drastic cuts in legal immigration contemplated in these bills would hurt U.S. economic growth. job creation. and competitiveness. The fact is that many immigrants contribute to our economic wellbeing by inventing new products. starting new entrepreneurial businesses. and creating jobs for Americans: A new study by immigration policy analyst Philip Peters found that one in four patents in this country is created by immigrants alone or by immigrants collaborating with U.S. born coinventors. Four of the immigrants surveyed in Mr. Peters study started their own businesses. generating over 1.600 jobs here in America. Mr. President. it is also important to point out that not all these talented immigrants and entrepreneurs came to America through the employmentbased immigration system. some of them. like the Intel Corp.s founder Andrew Grove. arrived through the refugee system. Others came through the familysponsored system as minor children. adult children. and siblings. The bottom line is that restrictions on Immigration categories not labeled as "economic" will end up hurting our economy and our competitiveness. Both the academic literature and empirical evidence strongly suggest that legal immigrants make important positive contributions to American society. I would hope that my colleagues would keep this fact in mind as we debate the merits of the pending legal immigration reform bill. I ask that the Wall Street Journal article and the study by Mr. Peters be printed in the RECORD. (From the Wall Street Journal.