Speech #1040203011

Barbara Jordan suggested it. Barbara Jordan suggested we deal with the backlog of family members. but that has not been Included in the amendment of the Senator from Wyoming. On the issues of chain migration. which we address in our amendment and which we will continue to address. we have to put this in some proportion. Senator SIMPSON solves it. all right. but is hitting a tack with a sledgehammer. How much of a problem is this? Here is the GAO: "64 percent of petitioners who were exemptimmediaterelative Immigrants * * * were nativeborn United States citizens. Among the remaining 36 percent of petitioners who were once immigrants. the average time between their arrival and the arrival of their exemptimmediaterelatives was about 12 years." Twelve years. The way this was presented is they come In the morning and they bring everybody else in in the afternoon12 years. Let us look at how much of a problem this really is. "Only about 10 percent of former immigrant petitioners were admitted under the numerically restricted fifth preference category. brothers and sisters." Ten percent. total numbers. 12 years. We ought to address it. We did address it in our program. We will address it when we have the opportunity to deal with the legal immigration. This amendment. as I mentioned. Is basically about families. It is important that we not lose sight of that particular Issue. What this amendment does to American families is exactly why we should separate legal and illegal. The key difference between the proposals of Senator SIMPSON and what Senator ABRAIIAM and I propose in the committee is that Senator SIMPSONs amendment does not allow for fluctuation in family immigration. We have heard about the changes that have taken place as a result of the 1986 act. where we provided a period of amnesty in order to clear up the problems with illegal that we had in this country at that time. and then we put In the employer sanctions provisions to try to start with a clean slate. Now. what we have here in the United States as a result of that amnesty of 1986. we have some bump because of that one particular action. That will mean. over the next 5 years. some increase beyond what we expected and beyond what was testified to by Doris Meissner. although Doris Meissner did Indicate. In September of last year. that there would be further naturalizations and was unable to detect exactly at that time what that increase might be. As a matter of fact. Barbara Jordan did not know what that increase would be.