Speech #1040192380

I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me. Mr. Chairman. this amendment will have a devastating impact on immigration policy. It will lead to increased illegal immigration. It would lawfully admit a quarter of a million individuals who otherwise would be called illegal aliens. If Congress is serious about reducing illegal immigration.we will reject this amendment. The legitimate and understandable needs of American fruit and vegetable growers will be met by the Goodlatte amendment. which we will consider in just a few minutes. This amendment would worsen our illegal immigration crisis by letting in 250.000 unskilled guest workers in the first year alone. Guest workers are not going to leave when their work ends. This is a lesson to be learned from guest worker programs around the world. The lure of American jobs at significantly higher pay than in the homelands is just too great. There will be no labor shortage in the future. Some growers are concerned that the employment eligibility quickcheck system in this bill will reveal their farm workers to be illegal aliens. but we have made the verification system voluntary. If growers do not want to use it. they do not have to use it. Under a voluntary system. any rationale for a new guest worker program simply vanishes. Even if part of the seasonal agricultural labor force that is presently illegal were to disappear. there would still be no shortage. The bill contains a backlog reduction program that will add substantial numbers of new permanent residents who are likely to go into agricultural work. The program will provide approximately 500.000 visas for spouses and children of permanent residents. to eliminate the current 1 millionplus backlog. Supporters of the amendment seem to forget that we already have an agricultural guest worker program. It is called the H2A program. I know that growers have had concern about the workability of the program. but the Goodlatte amendment will address every concern the growers raised at hearings we have had on the H2A program. The current guest worker program does not provide a grower with foreign guest workers unless he or she has shown that there are no available American workers. The amendment that we are considering requires no recruitment on the part of the growers. One of the most fundamental principles of immigration law is that foreign workers should not displace qualified American workers. That would be violated by this amendment. The current guest worker program should be improved.