Speech #1040190407

As an American. I feel extremely proud to live in a society that serves as such a beacon of light to the world that millions of people are willing to risk everything to come and live here. But. as a society. we cannot have an immigration policy geared solely to the desires of those who wish to come here to better their lives. We must also take into account the needs and desires of the people who live here already. and develop an Immigration policy that is geared toward what is best for America. After all. the number of people around the world who would like to move to America if they could. probably numbers In the hundreds of millions. We obviously cant let them all In. In the last 30 years since the passage of the 1965 Immigration Act. more than 18 million legal immigrants have come to this country. This Is 30 percent of all the immigration to the United States since the settlement of Jamestown in 1607. This great wave of immigration has occurred not when there was a vast. unoccupied continent to populate. but when our country was already the fourth (and now the third) most populated country In the world. China Is No. 1. and India Is No. 2. The Soviet Union. when it existed was No. 3. There is a legitimate debate about what the Nations needs are concerning immigration. However. there can be no doubt about what the desires of the American people are. An overwhelming majoritybetween 74 and 82 percent according to pollsof the American people want to see Immigration significantly reduced. As elected leaders in a representative democracy. we have the obligation to take that degree of sentiment into account when forming policy. So wtat are our Nations needs concerning irinigraticn? Is immigration really necessary? America certainly doesnt have the same need for immigration that it did in the 19th century. that of rolling back the frontier and supplying the labor force for a rapidly industrializing economy. For the United States. immigration is not a necessity. Some say that they do the tough. less desirable jobs that Americans wont. But if the Immigrants werent here. does anyone really think we would simply let those jobs go undone? Then there Is the argument that we need foreign scientists and technicians to make up for the lack of Americans who have the necessary skills. Now one thing that comes immediately to mind is that Japan doesnt appear to have a lack of skilled engineers and scientists. despite no immigration. How much of this supposed shortfall could be fixed by tracking more American students into technical fields and fixing our educational system so that our students are actually taught science and math rather than selfesteem and multiculturalism? Finally. there are recent studies that indicate that there is actually an oversupply of engineers and scientists in the United States caused by immigration. and that computer professionals laidoff from defense contractors cant get new jobs because companies would rather hire immigrants for less. We must recognize that our current immigration law is not geared toward skilled immigrants but rather toward what is called family reunification. Less than onefifth of legal immigrants are admitted to this country for employment purposes. and the immigration reform legislation pending would not reduce employmentrelated immigration significantly. Under current law. an immigrants chances of coming to America are much more likely to be based on who he knows rather than what he knows. Spouses. adult children. and siblings of immigrants all get preference over immigrants with skills and no relatives. There are some countries where the family preference backlog is 16 years. or more. In those countries. its virtually impossible for an employmentbased immigrant to get a visa. In fact. our family reunification policy allows a sibling to immigrate. go back to the old country to marry. and bring that spouse to this country. reunifying a family that was never disunited. In closing. I would like to say that our decision on Immigration should be based on what is likely to cause the least harm to our Nation If the decision we make turns out to be wrong. and how easy or difficult the mistake would be to correct. If we cut back on immigration too sharply. we would eventually discover that we were starting to experience a labor shortage. We would see that wages for certain kinds of jobs were increasing. And we could Improve our educational facilities so that enough nativeborn Americans acquire the needed skills to fill the important ones. Besides. its easy to let a few more Immigrants in if we have to. But. if It turns out we are letting in too many immigrants. how will we deal with exploding public assistance rolls. ethnic strife. and environmental degradation? It wont be quite as easy to make people leave. Please join me in supporting H.R. 2202. I would like to congratulate Mr. SMITH who has worked with everyone to develop a workable bill. and also Mr. GALLEGLY who has been working consistently during his 10 years in the House and is Chair of the task force on Immigration.