Speech #1040190315

I yield myself such time as I might consume. Mr. Chairman. on the other side of the aisle from me is the ranking minority member of the Subcommittee on Immigration. my friend and colleague. the gentleman from Texas. . He has been an equal partner in this effort to reform our immigration laws. and I want to thank him as well. Mr. Chairman. we now begin consideration of immigration legislation that reduces crime. unites families. protects jobs. and eases the burden on taxpayers. A sovereign country has a profound responsibility to secure its borders. to know who enters for how long and why. Citizens rightfully expect Congress to put the national interest first. In approving the Immigration in the National Interest Act. Congress will provide a better future for millions of Americans and for millions of others who live in foreign lands and have yet to come to America. This profamily. proworker. protaxpayer bill reaffirms the dreams of a nation of immigrants that has chosen to govern itself by law. Immigration reform of this scope has been enacted by only three Congresses this century. The consideration of this bill is a momentous time for us all. As the debate goes forward. my hope is that the discussion on the House floor will mirror the high level of debate evident when the Committee on the Judiciary considered this legislation earlier this year. Even though there were disagreements over many issues. the complex and sensitive subJect of immigration reform was dealt with rationally and with mutual respect for each others positions. This is not to say that feelings about immigration do not run high. But it would be Just as unfair. for example. to call someone who wanted to reform immigration laws antiimmigrant as it would be to call someone who opposed immigration reform antiAmerican. The Immigration in the National Interest Act addresses both illegal and legal immigration. As a bipartisan Commission on Immigration Reform and the administration also have concluded. both are broken and both must be fixed. To wait any longer would put us on the wrong side of the strong feelings of the American people. on the wrong side of common sense. and on the wrong side of our responsibility as legislators. Illegal immigration forces us to confront the understandable desire of people to improve their economic situation. Illegal aliens are not the enemy. I have talked with them in detention facilities along our southern border. Most have good intentions. But we cannot allow the human faces to mask the very real crisis in illegal immigration. For example. illegal aliens account for 40 percent of the births in the public hospitals of our largest State. California. These families then are eligible to plug into our very generous government benefit system. Hospitals around the country report more and more births to illegal aliens at greater and greater cost to the taxpayer. I would like to refer now to a chart and draw my colleagues attention to the one that is being put on the easel right now. Over onequarter of all Federal prisoners are foreign born. up from Just 4 percent in 1980. Most are illegal aliens that have been convicted of drug trafficking. Others. like those who bombed the World Trade Center in New York City or murdered the CIA employees in Virginia. have committed particularly heinous acts of violence. Illegal aliens are 10 times more likely than Americans as a whole to have been convicted of a Federal crime. Think about the cost to the criminal justice system. including incarceration. But most of all. think about the cost in pain and suffering to the innocent victims and their families. Every 3 years enough illegal aliens currently enter the United States to populate a city the size of Dallas or Boston or San Francisco. Yet less than 1 percent of all illegal aliens are deported each year. Fraudulent documents that enable illegal aliens to become citizens can be bought for as little as $30. Half of the four million illegal aliens in the country today use fraudulent documents to wrongly obtain jobs and government benefits. To remedy these problems. this legislation doubles the number of border patrol agents. increases interior enforcement. expedites the deportation of illegal aliens. and strengthens penalties. The goal is to reduce illegal immigration by at least half in 5 years. As for legal immigration. the crisis is no less real. In its report to Congress. the Commission on Immigration Reform said. "Our current immigration system must undergo major reform to ensure that admission continue to serve our national interest." Before c4ting why major reform is needed. let me acknowledge the obvious. Immigrants have helped make our country great. Most immigrants come to work. to produce. to contribute to our communities. My home State of Texas has thousands of legal immigrants from Mexico. The service station where I pump gas is operated by a couple originally from Iran. The cleaners where I take my shirts is owned by immigrants from Korea. My daughters college roommate is from Israel. These are wonderful people and the kind of immigrants we want. To know them is to appreciate them. As for those individuals in other countries who desire to come to our land of hope and opportunity. how could our hearts not go out to them? Still. America cannot absorb everyone who wants to journey here as much as our humanitarian instincts might argue otherwise. Immigration Is not an entitlement. It is a distinct privilege to be conferred. keepi.ag the interests of American families. workers. and taxpayers in mind. Unfortunately. that is not the case with our immigration policy today. The huge backlogs and long waits for legal immigrants drive illegal immigration. When a brother or sister from the Philippines. for example. is told they have to wait 40 years to be admitted. it does not take long for them to find another way. Almost half of the illegal aliens in the country came in on a tourist visa. overstayed their visa. and then failed to return home. This flagrant abuse of the immigration system destroys its credibility. Husbands and wives who are legal immigrants must wait up to 10 years to be united with their spouses and little children. This is inhumane and contrary to what we know is good for families. A record high 20 percent of all legal immigrants now are receiving cash and noncash welfare benefits. The chart I refer to now shows that the number of immigrants applying for supplemental security income. which is a form of welfare. has increased 580 percent over 12 years. The cost of immigrants using just this one program plus Medicaid is $14 billion a year. It is sometimes said that immigrants pay more in taxes than they get in welfare benefits. However. taxes go for more then just welfare. They go toward defense. highways. the national debt. and so on. Allocating their taxes to all Government programs. legal immigrants cost taxpayers a net $25 billion a year. according to economist George BorJas. His study also found that unlike a generation ago. today immigrant households are more likely to receive welfare than native households. Onehalf of the decline in real wages among unskilled Americans results from competition with unskilled immigrants. according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most adversely impacted are those in urban areas. particularly minorities. As the Urban Institute says. "Immigration reduces the weekly earnings of lowskilled AfricanAmerican workers." Significantly. wage levels in high immigration States. like California. Texas. New York. Florida. and Arizona. have declined compared to wages in other States. the Economic Policy Institute reports. Over half of all immigrants have few skills and little education. They often depress wages. take jobs away from the most vulnerable among us. and end up living off the taxpayer. Admitting so many lowskilled immigrants makes absolutely no sense. Those who favor neverending record levels of immigration simply are living in the abstract. But most Americans live in the real world. They know their childrens classrooms are bulging. They see the crowded hospital emergency rooms. They sense the adverse impact of millions of unskilled immigrants on wages. They feel the strain of trying to pay more taxes and still make ends meet. The Immigration in the National Interest Act fixes a broken immigration system. With millions of immigrants backlogged. priorities must be set. I would like to point to the chart that shows to my colleagues that under this bill the number of extended family members is reduced in order to double the number of spouses and minor children admitted. which will cut their rate in half. Greater priority is also given to admitting skilled immigrants. while the number of unskilled immigrants is decreased. Current law. which holds the sponsors of immigrants financially responsible for the new arrivals. is better enforced. This should reverse the trend toward increased welfare participation. In short. this legislation implements the recommendations of the Commission on Immigration Reform. chaired by the late Baroara Jordan. Professor Jordan. if she was here tonight sitting in the gallery. I know she would be cheering us on. She also would approve of Americas continuod generosity toward immigrants. Under this bill an average of 700.000 immigrants will be admitted each year for the next 5 years. This is a higher level than at least 65 of the last 70 years. Our approach to reducing illegal immigration and reforming legal immigration has attracted widespread support. Organizations as diverse as the National Federation of Independent Business. United We Stand America. the Washington Post. the Hispanic Business Round Table. and the Traditional Values Coalition all have endorsed our efforts. Most importantly. the American people are demanding immigration reform. I would like to point out to my colleagues on this chart that the vast majority of Americans. including a majority of AfricanAmericans and Hispanics. want us to better control immigration. As we begin to consider immigration reform now. remember the hardworking families across America who worry about overcrowded schools. stagnant wages. drugrelated crime. and heavier taxes. They are the ones who will bear the brunt if we do not fix a broken immigration system. Congress must act now to put the national interest first and secure our borders. protect lives. unite families. save jobs. and lighten the load on lawabiding taxpayers. Mr. Chairman. I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from California who served so ably as the chairman of the House Task Force on Immigration Reform.