Speech #1040267321

Mr. Speaker. I rise today to express my strong opposition to the conference agreement on the Immigration and Nationality Act. This conference report goes far beyond efforts to curb illegal immigration in this country by unfairly targeting legal immigrants and promoting discrimination among U.S. citizens as well. Once again the proponents of the antiimmigration sentiment in this country are using the banner of illegal immigration to impose injustice on those immigrants legally in this countryimmigrants who pay taxes. contribute millions of dollars into our economy. abide by the same laws we do. and are even eligible to be drafted into the military. Yet this conference report. like the welfare bill before it. singles out legal immigrants by effectively denying them access to Federal programs. Specifically the conference report subjects legal immigrants to deportation if they use any meanstested Federal assistanceFederal assistance in which eligibility is based on incomefor more than 1 year in the aggregate. Practically speaking this provision bans legal immigrants from any Federal assistance program based on income levelstudent financial aid. federally funded English classes. job training. health and assistance under Medicaid. or other Federal programs. It just escapes me why we would want to punish a legal immigrant for pursuing education or job training and making an effort to become an even more productive participant in our economy and society. The proponents of todays measure are the same people screaming for English only legislation. They state that people in this country should learn English. people cant succeed in this country if they dont know English. yet on the other hand they support this conference report which could cause the deportation of legal immigrants because they utilize a year of federally funded English classes. One can only surmise that the intention here is not to help legal immigrants assimilate into American society but to keep them out of our country altogether. The conference report limits legal immigration by putting a new arbitrary income barrier to family immigration into this country. It establishes a new income requirement of 200 percent of the poverty level for anyone who seeks to sponsor a parent. sibling. or adult child. and 140 percent for those sponsoring a spouse or minor child. This provision goes against the very principle of family reunification and would deny lowincome families from reuniting with their own minor children and other family members. This is an egregious example of discrimination against the poor. It says that we only care about reuniting families of a certain income level. and that because you are poor you do not deserve to be reunited with your family. I can think of nothing that is more antiAmerican and antifamily. It is not only legal immigrants who are hurt under this conference report. but also U.S. citizens who will be subject to more discrimination with limited remedies for violations of their rights. This conference report makes it more difficult for prospective employees to bring discrimination cases against an employer. A job applicant must now prove that the refusal of a job is a result of intentional discrimination. a higher legal standard than is currently required. This provision will affect U.S. citizens who look Asian or Hispanic. who will no doubt be singled out for greater scrutiny and discrimination. with very limited remedies available to them. It gets even worse. because the conference report does not include language in the Housepassed bill which would have allowed American workers who lose their jobs because of government computer errors concerning their immigration status to seek compensation. This means if someone is mistakenly discriminated against. loses their job because of a computer error. they have no way to seek just compensation. This is not a theoretical argument. because it is already happening in our education system.