Speech #1040190318

Chairman. may I turn the Members attention now to the part that has caused quite a bit of attention In this bill. and that is how we would deal with the welfare provisions of people who come in to the country. what the requirements might be to become sponsors. In one part of this bill. there is a requirement that a sponsor earn more than 200percent of the Federal poverty income guideline to be able to execute an affidavit for a family member. The 200percent income requirement is discriminatory class action and would announce that immigration is only for those that can afford immigration. It would require a sponsor with a family of four to maintain an income in excess of 535.000 to qualify as a sponsor. That means that 91 million people in America would not be able to be a sponsor of a family member for immigration. We may want to consider that a little bit more carefully. Mr. Chairman. I would also like Members to know about the verification system again. The employee verification system was discussed by the Social Security and the Immigration and Naturalization Service representatives who conceded that their computers do not have the capacity to read each others data. which would completely foil their worthwhile objective. A recent study by the Immigration Service found a 28percent error rate in the Social Security Administrations database. This verification requirement. therefore. creates huge possibilities for flawed information reaching employers. which would then deny American citizens and lawful permanent residents the opportunity to work. I hope that we examine this in the course of the time allotted us for this important program. Mr. Chairman. there is another provision that I should bring to Members minds. It is known as immigration for the rich. I do not know if Malcolm Forbes had anything to do with this or not. but it reserves 10.000 spots for those who are rich enough to spend. to start a multimilliondollar business in the United States. In other words. if someone is rich enough. they would be able to get a place in line ahead of other immigrants who are waiting. that may not be able to cough up that kind of money. There is a problem that we will need to go into about what about drug pushers and cartel kingpins. people escaping prosecution for their home country. in other words. overseas criminals who might have a million bucks and would like the idea of getting out of wherever it is they are coming from. I think we need to think through this very. very carefully.