Speech #1090119669

Who stands with them and for them today? Well. we built a place that is quite extraordinary. and a lot of people want to come to this place. Now. if you fast forward to 2006. we see a strategy in this country with respect to trade. the outsourcing of American jobs. and now with respect to immigration. of insourcing cheap labor. I know this is a sensitive subject and a very difficult one for the Congress and the American people. There are two elements of what is being discussed by President Bush and by those in the Chamber of the Senate. One deals with those who have come to this country illegallythe 11 million or soand the second deals with an addon to that. offered in unlimited quantity by President Bush and in the quantity of 400.000 workers per year by the underlying bill discussed in the Senate. called guest workers. I will talk a little about this. This chart shows the illegal immigration over the past two decades. People dont like to use the term. but you have to use that term. We have processes for immigration here. Let me describe what that process is. We allow people. through H2A visas and H2B visasagriculture and nonagriculture workto come into this country legally. In addition. people immigrate to live here permanently. In 2004. 175.000 people immigrated here legally from Mexico. By comparison. last year. 1.1 million who attempted to come into this country illegally were stopped at the border. Last year. we understandalthough we dont have hard numbersin addition to the 1.1 million who were stopped at the border. another 400.000 to 700.000 came across illegally. to add to this growing number of illegal immigrants in this country. My colleagues sayand I understand the commentnobody is going to round up 11 million or 12 million people and prosecute them and deport them and all that. I understand that.