Speech #1040192213

Mr. Chairman. what is really at stake in the consideration of the ChryslerBerman amendment is whether we are going to do anything meaningful with regard to numbers in this whole debate. The fact of the matter is that legal immigration accounts for about 1 million people a year coming into the country. Illegal inunigration. which we all want to stop. accounts for about 300.000 a year. If Members are concerned. as I am. about the fact that in about 4 years we are going to have twice as many people in this country as we had at the end of World War II. and by the year 2050 we are going to have 400 million people. it is conservatively estimated to be that. and we do not want to see our country have that many people in it. and I do not. then we have to stand up and face the need to deal with the question of legal immigration. because that is where the numbers are. If we do not. we will have skipped that opportunity to really deal with the problem. and we will then have a situation where there will be a bunch of Members going around there beating their breasts. talking about how tough they got on illegal immigrants. but they avoided the tough question where the interest groups are putting the pressure on everybody. that is. the question of legal immigration. Mr. Chairman. I submit to the Members. that is not in the national interest. We will have made the decision. if we vote for the ChryslerBerman amendment. not to set priorities. not to set levels of immigration in the national interest. and not to address the problem of chain migration. all of which were addressed in the Jordan Commission. which recommended significant cuts. bringing us back below the 1991 levels of legal immigration. I would point out once again. from 1981 to 1985 we had about 2.8 million legal immigrants coming to the country. From 1991 to 1995. we had 5 million come into the country. We have to deal with the question of legal immigration. or admit to the country that we are afraid to act.