The Issue Is whether we are going to lower out standards and expand the program. knowing tha. much an ixpansioe is going to Increase illeg.tl hinnigratton In America. Mr. Chairman. a conple of people here today iave tried to nmake the point that this is a soeallod tulaitrary process whereby we decide what countries are In the visa waiver program or not. First of all. I will refer my colleagues to the statements by the Attorney General Itrself. its well as by the State DepartioinL. as well as by the administration. all saying that we do have objective critoria. I am a little surpril..ed aboul. I.hat. arbitrary charge. boecause that is. quite frankly. an Insult to the consular officials who are career professionals. who have a lot of technical training and many years of experience. They are the Individuals who. as I Bald. are on the front liles of trying to determine. when someone applies for a visa. whether they are likely to overstay their visa in the United States and. therefore. contribute to the growing illegal immigration population in Amerlea. Mr. Chairman. the point is that these consulate officers are not flipping a coin to determine who gets in. who does not got in. They have this list of criteria that includes such things as whether they have family members in their home country that would help them be assured that they are going to return home. what the economy is like. whether individuals might be fleeing the home country economy that has gone sour because there In a better economy in the United States. and so Oi. These are objective standards that are consistently and fairly applied to every country in the world. And I think It is regrettable that many of our allies today are not visa waiver countries. There are a lot of other countries that are just a notch away from Portugal and Greece. countries and allies like lsraol. And I wonder why we have not included them if we are going to expand the program just a tiny bit.
Keywords matched
visa illegal immigration