Speech #1040267297

Mr. Speaker. this bill also rolls back three decades of civil rights policy by establishing an intent standard. It exacerbates the results and the effects of the welfare reform law but now it seems that we are castigating legal immigrants. This bill includes backdoor cuts in legal immigration by establishing a new income standard. It guts the American tradition we have always had to refugees by including summary exclusion provisions that are going to require instant return of any refugee. Perhaps. most importantly. what this bill does is it is tougher on legal immigrants and American workers than on illegal immigration. It makes life harder for American workers and easier for American businesses. Eliminated are provisions in the bill to increase the number of inspectors for the Department of Labor to enforce worker protections. the Barney Frank amendments that allowed us in the past to vote for this bill. This bill also strips authority from the courts with provisions that will eliminate the power of the courts to hold the INS accountable and eliminate protections against error and abuse. I want to return to the Barney Frank provisions that allowed many civil libertarians. those concerned with civil rights. when we passed very tough employer sanctions in the old immigration bill. to support this bill because we knew there would be recourse if there was discrimination. All of these inspectors. all of these that enforce civil rights provisions are eliminated from this bill. That is a key component that is going to hurt American workers. This bill eliminates also longstanding discretionary relief from deportation that will say to American family members of immigrants being deported that you get no second chance. I know there are enormous pressures for dealing with illegal immigration bill. There are political pressures that are very intense. But we should not allow the politics and the fact that this is a wedge issue to prevent us from doing the right thing. The right thing is that this bill needs more work. We do want to have strong measures against illegal immigration. There are a lot of provisions here in the bill that are good. that make sense. But the attack on legal immigrants. American workers. right now. is stronger than on illegal immigration. Therefore. I think that we should reject this bill.