Speech #1090057343

Well. Mr. Speaker. what that means is that we have a reasonable response to immigration because in order to have that cultural exchange. certainly those individuals from India would have to utilize visas to come to this country. for example. the J1 visa which helps bring physicians to the United States to serve in rural and underserved areas. So I say to this body. we cannot hide in the sand on the question of immigration. And I believe the American people are reasonable people. The ranking member on the Subcommittee on Immigration on the House Committee on the Judiciary. I have called for a full hearing on all of the bills that have been offered by my colleagues. the KennedyMcCain bill which I support. and of course many others. Today and yesterday. two bills were offered by our friends. the gentleman from Colorado and Senator CORZINE. I would say that all of those bills need to be heard. but I would caution. you cannot have an immigration bill that is only about enforcement. because so many of us come from immigrant backgrounds and we understand the value of reuniting those who are here legally with their family members. Because our system of immigration is broken. we have not been able to do that. That creates illegal immigration. Even In a document that talks about Americas views on immigration. it says in terms of protecting us against terrorism. Americans do want to have closed. secure borders and they want the borders to be protected. Twenty percent say that. But in terms of be careful about those who enter this country and pay attention to immigration. it is not overwhelming. though it is certainly 13 percent of Americans say pay attention to immigration. That does not say close the doors to immigration. That is why I offer a commonsense answer to immigration reform. I] 1845 My bill is called H.R. 2092. Save America Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2005. We cannot solve immigration by putting military on the border. We cannot solve it by the Minutemen. We cannot solve it by a bill that says deport everybody. that you do not want to have anyone to be a guest worker other than those who are already here legally. We can solve it by protecting our borders and adding more resources to border protection. We can solve It by giving more dollars to Immigration. Customs and Enforcement. providing us with more than 800 of those so that we can have internal immigration reform or protection. We can do it by doubling the amount of family visas. so that those individuals who are here. taxpaying immigrants who want to bring a mother. a daughter. or a husband will have the visas which will allow them to do so. We can do what we call earned access to legalization. That is not amnesty. What it says is. if you are undocumented and here in the United States. get in line. Let us provide you with a method of earning access to legalization. no criminal record. be here 5 years. do community service and petition to be a citizen. Mr.