Speech #1040267203

It is headed for another doubling by the year 2050. just 53 or 54 years from now. when it will probably exceed half a billion people. Half a billion people in this country. Immigration is the engine driving this unprecedented growth. Natives of other lands who have settled here since the 1970s and their offspring account for more than half the population increase we have experienced in the last 25 years. The effects of immigration will be even more dramatic. however. in the future. By the year 2050. more than 90 percent of our annual growth will be attributable to immigrants who have settled here since the early 1990s. not prior immigration. but just the immigration that is occurring now and will continue to occur if this bill is allowed to pass. As recently as 1990. the Census Bureau predicted that U.S. population would peak and then level off a few decades from now at about 300.000 people. In 1994. however. just 4 years later. because of unexpectedly high rates of immigration. the bureau changed its predictions and now sees our population growing unabated into the next century. into the late 21st century. when it will reach 800 million. or perhaps I billion Americans. in the coming century. Now. a year ago. there was a near consensus among Members and others working closely on immigration reform that we needed to reduce the number of legal as well as illegal immigrants entering this country. The Clinton administration has proposed such reductions. and both the House and Senate Judiciary Committee versions of the immigration reform legislation also contained those reductions. All three proposals were based on the recommendations of the immigration reform commission. headed by the late Barbara Jordan. which proposed a decrease in legal immigration of about a quarter million people a year. The commissions recommended reduction would still. of course. have left the United States in a position of being by far the most generous nation in the world in terms of the number of immigrants we accept legally. We would continue to be a country which accepts more legal immigrants than all of the other countries of the world combined. But. unfortunately. Mr. Speaker. after intensive lobbying by business interests and by proimmigration organizations. both the House and the Senate stripped the legal immigration reduction from this legislation entirely. and did so with the Clinton administrations blessing. Now. unless the Congress defeats this legislation today. reductions in legal immigration. are unlikely for the foreseeable future. Our failure to reduce legal immigration will only be to our Nations great detriment. The rapid population growth that will result from immigration will make it that much more difficult to solve our most pervasive and environment problems such as air and water pollution. trash and sewage disposal. loss of agriculture lands. and many others. just to name some of the major ones. More serious environmental threats are not all that we will face when our communities. especially those in large coastal urban areas. speaking mainly. of course. at the amount. of California and Texas and Florida and New York and New Jersey. but there are others that are already being affected and more that will be in the future. areas that are magnets for immigrants. whether legal or illegal. are already straining to meet the needs of the people here right now. There could be no doubt that our ability in the future to provide a sufficient number of jobs or adequate housing and enough water. food. education. especially health care and public safety. is certain to be tested in ways that we cannot now even imagine. However we look at it. Mr. Speaker. however we look at it. failing to reduce the current rate of immigration. legal and illegal. clearly means that our children and our grandchildren cannot possibly have the quality of life that we ourselves have been fortunate to have enjoyed. With twice as many people here in this country. and then more than twice as many. we can expect to have at least twice as much crime. twice as much congestion. twice as much congestion. twice as much poverty. twice as many problems in educating our children. providing health care and everything else. In terms of both process and outcome. this conference report is a grave disappointment. It is notable more for what it is not than for what it is. Instead of a conference report that reflects only the views of the majority party. this measure could have been a bipartisan product as immigration bills traditionally are. but it is not. Instead of a measure developed in someones office. this continuing resolution could have been the result of a conference committee. but it is not. Instead of legislation that is lax or lenient on employers who hire illegal immigrants. this could have been a measure that finally established a workable system that enforced penalties against those who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. but it is not. Instead of a bill that fails to slow the tide of legal immigrants. except by singling them out for unfair treatment. as it does. this could have been a bill that reduces the rate at which immigrants settle here and thus help solve many problems which confront us as a society already. but it is not. Mr. Speaker. the bill this rule makes in order. does not. to be frank about it. deserve our support. I urge our colleagues to vote it down. both the rule and/or the conference report. so that Congress and the President. and the administration. which did not do its duty. it seems to this Member by these issues. both the Congress and the President will be forced to return to this issue next year and to produce the kind of immigration reform legislation that the American people want and that our country badly needs. Mr. Speaker.