Speech #1040203068

What it reflects overwhelmingly is a group of people who. because of the 1986 act which gave amnesty to those in the country illegally and a subsequent action by the Congress in 1990 which gave quasilegal status to the spouses of minor children of those who gained amnesty. these people are largely overwhelmingly already in the United States. Consequently. the increase that has been alluded to is not an increase in people coming to the country. it is a shifting of people already in the country from one category to another. from a quasilegal status category to a legal status category. It does not mean a lot more people coming as immigrants to the United States. That said and aoknowledgedI might add. by everybody who has spoken here todaylet us think about the ramifications of the Simpson amendment before us. What that amendment will do is basically preclude others who are not already here from coming in huge numbers and in what I consider to be appropriate priorities. as I said in my last statement. In other words. people who are noncitizens will be able to bring their children to this country and people who are citizens will not be able to bring their children if their children are either married or adults. That will be the ramification. because the use of these 480.000 visas that are part of this amendment will be exhausted by the first categories of the relatives. that is. spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens and permanent resident noncitizens. In short. we will be placing priorities. in my judgment. in the wrong bay. We will be giving the children of citizens a lower priority than the children of noncitizens. We will be giving the children of citizens a lower priority than the children of people who came here as illegal immigrants. We will be giving children of U.S. citizens a lower priority simply because of making a paper transaction in the status of folks who are already in the country. That. in my judgment. is not the way we should be dealing with legal immigration issues. I also point out that the impact of this Is really quite profound. We are talking about. I think. turning away from in many ways. really. the historic basis on which this country was built. Legal immigrants. the children of U.S. citizens. have been great contributors to this country. They have come here and made contributions. Literally hundreds of this Nations Medal of Honor winners were legal immigrants. Hundreds of people who make contributions in the sciences. hightech industries. and so on. and built our great cities are the children of legal immigrants. This amendment will basically shut the door on themthose children of legal immigrants who are not minors. Much has been made of this distinction between minors and socalled adult or married children. that somehow they are no longer part of the nuclear family. Maybe that is true for some families in this world. but it is certainly not the case in my mind.