Speech #1040192316

Chairman. I rise today to offer an amendment that I believe accomplishes two very important goals. First. and most important. my amendment creating a pilot guest worker program makes H.R. 2202 a better billa more effective billthat will strengthen our ability to curb illegal immigration. Second. my amendment will ensure that should H.R. 2202 create shortages in the availability of seasonal. agricultural labor. that nonAmericans can be usedon a temporary basis--to pick the crops and manage the herds. This is in everyones best interest. Contrary to some of the rhetoric on this issue. my amendment supports and enhances immigration control. The increased employer sanctions already in H.R. 2202 for hiring illegalscoupled with strong incentives to leave this country when the growing season ends--creates a vast improvement over current law. Added to that is the mandatory withholding of 25 percent of the workers salary to be returned to his country of origin and collected when he returns. Even now. without the sanctions in H.R. 2202 or the incentives to leave in my amendment. very few alien agricultural workers overstay their visas. We can expect even this small number to drop under my proposal. This pilot program represents a substantial improvement over current law and provides numerous sanctions and incentives to stem the tide of illegals coming to America.