Speech #1040192432

Mr. Chairman. this amendment Is a big paradox. The main purpose of the Immigration in the National Interest Act of 1995 Is to reduce. specifically. illegal Immigration and secure jobs for Americans. Yet. the Pombo/Chambliss amendment does exactly the opposite. It exacerbates the very problems that this bill is trying to correct. This amendment would modify the current temporary agriculture worker program known as H2A to make it easier for agricultural companies to bring in hundreds of thousands of new. exploitable workers to harvest the Nations crops. This will increase illegal immigration. will Increase unemployment of American workers and will exploit guestworkers. According to immigration experts. past guestworker programs. like the bracero program. led to todays illegal Immigration problems since it permitted the socalled braceros to establish networks that allowed them to continue their employment after the termination of their contract. Furthermore. this amendment does not protect American farmworkers from the stagnation and decline in prevailing wages caused by the presence of foreign workers. In addition. this amendment does not ensure that American workers are recruited before employers seek foreign help. Instead. it removes the statutory regulation to locate qualified U.S. workers before employers are allowed to hire foreign workers. The amendment would also hurt foreign farmworkers since it has no requirement for growers to provide transportation. housing. and written contracts to the guestworkers. In short. there is absolutely no reason to support this amendment which would increase illegal immigration. deny lobs to U.S. farmworkers. degrade working conditions and allow abusive treatment of foreign workers.