Speech #1040192268

Mr. Chairman. as he noted. I did practice immigration law. am proud of the fact I helped people from more than 70 countries immigrate to the United States during my career as an immigration lawyer. all lawabiding citizens and hard working. Many people here have noted how important it is that we maintain our Nation as a nation of Immigrants. Most of us can go back just a few generations and find family members who immigrated to this country. my grandfather. my wifes parents. Mr. Chairman. there is no question that with this bill. we are going to continue to do that. continue to be the most generous nation on earth in terms of our immigration policy. But if this amendment is passed. it does not simply split legal immigration reforms. which are needed. both to help the Immigration process and to limit it from illegal immigration. it will kill it outright. We have got to defeat this amendment because of the fact that our legal immigration process needs to be reformed. We need to help immediate family members be reunified more quickly. Young married couples with young children. they need to be able to come here more quickly when one member qualifies for a visa than to have that separation taking place for years. as it does now. How do we pay for that? By breaking immigration chains that have very remote connections. Now. my colleagues say. how can a brother or sister be a remote connection? The fact of the matter is it takes 20 years now for a member of a family to come to this country and go through the process it takes to petition for another member to come.