Speech #1050075075

Mr. President. I am honored to join Senator ABRAHAM. the chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee. in introducing legislation to extend the Visa Waiver Program for 5 additional years. The program serves the Nation well. and deserves to be extended. I am particularly pleased that the bill we introduce today would create a pilot program to expand the number of countries able to participate in the Visa Waiver Program. I am optimistic that Portugal. for example. will qualify for the waiver program under the legislation which Senator ABRAHAM and I propose today. I have advocated Portugals inclusion in this program for several years because of the close ties between the people of Massachusetts and that country. Its Inclusion in this program will allow Portuguese citizens to come to the United States to visit relatives or conduct trade and business without facing the often timeconsuming task of obtaining a visa. This Visa Waiver Program started as a pilot program in 1988 with only one country. the United Kingdom. Today. it has grown into an important part of overall U.S. immigration policy. Twentyfive countries now qualify for the program. and it brings significant benefits to the United States as well as to visitors from those nations. Almost half of those who visit the United States for business or tourism now enter under this program. Billions of dollars in international transactions are facilitated by the ease of travel that it makes available. According to the Travel Industry Association of America. tourists coming to this country under the program contribute $84 billion to the economy and help support 947.000 American jobs in the tourist industry. The Visa Waiver Program also strengthens immigration enforcement. Rather than spending tax dollars to conduct needless visa interviews. the program enables us to concentrate scarce resources on the serious immigration problems of keeping criminals and terrorists out and dealing more effectively with visa fraud. As a result of the program. millions of dollars and hundreds of consular personnel have been reallocated to target the most serious immigration threats. Countries must meet strict criteria before they are eligible to participate in the waiver program. in order to prevent illegal immigration to the United States. The Attorney General may cancel a countrys participation at any time if she believes a waiver compromises law enforcement or national security. Travelers from participating countries may come to the United States without visas. but they still must be interviewed by U.S. immigration officials at the airport or other points of entry before they are admitted to this country. According to INS statistics. few travelers abuse the program to enter the United States illegally. INS has turned away less than 1 percent of those seeking entry under the Visa Waiver Program. The bill we introduce today makes a good waiver program even better. It builds on the success of the current waivers by establishing a small pilot program to enable certain countries that do not currently qualify to participate if they meet certain strict requirements. A precondition for the pilot program is for INS to develop and implement an automated entryexit control system. Today. we know who comes to America. but we do not always know who leaves. We need this information in order to track down visitors who remain in this country illegally after their visas expire. and to ensure that countries are abiding by the requirements of the program. and are not contributing to illegal immi-. gration. In order to participate in the new pilot program. a country must have a low visa refusal rate at our consulates abroad. Under the normal Visa Waiver Program. qualifying countries must have a refusal rate of less than 2 percent over the past 2 years. The AbrahamKennedy pilot program would set the requirement at 3 percent for countries to enter the program on a pilot basis. In recent times.