Speech #1040192209

I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman. there are many reasons why over 80 percent of the American people want legal immigration reform. and there are many reasons why this legislation has attracted such widespread support. such as from organizations like the National Federation of Independent Business. the Hispanic Business Roundtable. the Traditional Values Coalition. United We Stand America. and. as of today. our endorsement by the United States Chamber of Commerce. The reasons to support immigration reform and oppose this killer amendment are these: First. now is the time to reform legal immigration. Four times in the past 30 years Congress has acted to substantially increase legal immigration. There was the Immigration Act of 1965. the Refugee Act of 1980. the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. and the Immigration Act of 1990. The Commission on Immigration Reform has recommended a permanent legal immigration system of 550 admissions per year plus an additional 150.000 per year for 5 years to reunify close families. This bill is very close to those recommendations. In fact. it actually exceeds those recommendations and. for that reason. is very generous. Second. this amendment hurts American families and workers. A fundamental problem in our current immigration system is that more than 80 percent of all illegal immigrants are now admitted without reference to their skills or education. Thirtyseven percent of recent immigrants lack a high school education. compared to just 11 percent of those who are native born. Experts agree that this surplus of unskilled immigrants hurts those Americans who can least afford it. those at the lowest end of the economic ladder. The Commission on Immigration Reform said. "Immigrants with relatively low education skills compete directly for jobs and public benefits with the most vulnerable of Americans particularly those who are unemployed and under employed. and they total 17 million today." C 1430 The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that lowskilled immigration accounted for up to 50 percent of the decline in real wages among those Americans who dropped out of high school. The bill addresses this problem by reducing the primary source of unskilled immigration. eliminating the unskilled worker category in employmentbased immigration. but the bill actually increases the number of visas available for highskilled and educated immigrants. Mr. Chairman. this amendment eliminates these reforms. This is the last thing we need to do. hurt Americans who work with their hands and are struggling in todays economy. Third. this amendment will continue the crisis in illegal immigration. This status quo amendment will continue to drive illegal immigration. The myth is that millions of people are waiting patiently for their visas outside of the United States. The reality is very different. Large numbers of aliens waiting in line for visas are actually present in the United States illegally. This amendment will do absolutely nothing to solve this problem. The backlogs will increase. as will the numbers of those backlogged applicants who decide not to wait and instead choose to enter the United States illegally. Meanwhile. we can expect the backlogs to continue to grow. Setting priorities means making choices. The elimination of the category for siblings was proposed as early as 1981 by the Hessburgh Commission on Immigration Policy. and the elimination of all categories for adult children and siblings was recommended by the Jordan Commission. Today. a 3yearold little girl and her mother could be separated. a continent away. from the father living in the United States as a legal immigrant. Meanwhile. in the same city. in the same country. we would be admitting a 50yearold adult brother of a U.S. citizen. The amendment is immigration policy as usual. It is a decision not to make a decision. not to set priorities. and not to have a real debate over what level of immigration is in the national interest. These extended family members. more than any other. contribute to the phenomenon of chain migration. under which the admission of a single immigrant over time can result in the admissions of dozens of increasingly distant family members. Without reform of the immigration system. chain migration of relatives who are distantly related to the original immigrant will continue on and on and on. We need to remember that immigration is not an entitlement. it is a privilege. An adult immigrant who decides to leave his or her homeland to migrate to the United States is the one who has made a decision to separate from their family. It is not the obligation of U.S. immigration policy to lessen the consequences of that decision by giving the immigrants adult family members an entitlement to immigrate to the United States. One point raised by the gentleman from Michigan I want to respond to. That is in regard to the question. Does the bill favor the families of former illegal aliens over the families of citizens. The answer is no. The backlog clearance provisions of the bill give first preference to those who are not relatives of legalized aliens. These will be the first family members under the backlog clearance. Last. this amendment allows continued abuse of the diversity program. Currently. diversity visas are often given to illegal aliens. those who deliberately have chosen not to wait in line. but to break our immigration law. The diversity program has turned into a permanent form of amnesty for illegal aliens. The bill eliminates the eligibility for illegal aliens and reserves diversity visas to those who have obeyed our laws. It also raises the educational and skills standards for diversity immigrants so we are not admitting still more unskilled and uneducated immigrants. Mr. Chairman.