Mr. Chairman. as the House of Representatives considered overhauling our nations immigration policies. members had an opportunity to separate legal immigration from illegal immigration issues. I supported efforts to delete the legal immigration provisions from H.R. 2002. the "Immigration in the National Interest Act." Some might question my motivation for doing this. however. it Is my contention that just as the problems relating to legal and illegal immigration are different. so too are the solutions. You could argue that the work of a brain surgeon and a barber both involve the human head. yet no one would think of going to a barber for brain surgery or a brain surgeon for a haircut. This is precisely the type of illconceived logic we employ if we attempt to lump illegal and legal Immigration into one reform package. The two issues deserve separate consideration. and that Is why I supported the measure to give each reform vehicle the attention it deserves. The U.S. Senate has already seen fit to separate legal from illegal immigration. again with the belief that our proposed reformsof legal immigration go too far. The legal immigration provisions contained in H.R. 2002 would drastically reduce legal Immigrationup to 40 percent by some estimates. It also would reduce the potential for families to be reunited and would decimate the intake of refugees. History has not been kind to us as a nation when we have followed similar paths before. During the 104th Congress.
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Immigrationup Immigration refugees immigration illegal immigration