Speech #1090120085

But in this billthis enormously complex and important billdetails matter. Another example is I reviewed the committee bill over the weekend. and I have some concern that the bill text does not reflect how the bill is actually being described by its proponents. For example. section 602 of the bill states that illegal aliens must comply with the employment requirements. Yet there are no specific requirements for them to meet. Future temporary workers must be continuously employed. but no such requirement exists for illegal aliens. The alien could potentially be employed for one day and still end up qualifying for a green card and then put on a path to citizenship. I urge my colleagues to look very carefully at this bill and to study it because here we found at least two examples of where the bill does not meet the description offered by its proponents. and. No. 2. that those who say that what this bill does for those who are currently here in violation of our immigration laws is not an amnesty. we find that it bears remarkable resemblance to what everyone acknowledged to be an amnesty in 1986 and what everyone pretty much universally acknowledges was a complete and total failure. Illegal immigration has had a dramatic effect on many aspects of our society. It affects our schools. hospitals. and prisons. Dr. Donald Huddle. a Rice University economics professor. published a systematic analysis of those costs as of 1996 and concluded the estimated net cost to the American taxpayer was about $20 billion each year. The population in our country that has stayed here in violation of our immigration laws has doubled since that study was done. So the financial impact picked up not by the Federal Government but by local school districts and local hospital districts and State and other local governments may be as high as $40 billion to $50 billion. Last week. we heard a lot of debate about whether immigration reform needs to address the 12 million aliens already here who have come here or stayed here in violation of our laws and to create a new visa category that would allow future workers to enter our country legally. As I said then. and I will say again now. I support comprehensive immigration reform and I believe our national security requires us to know who is in our country and what their intentions are once here. But I fear that a critical distinction in the debate is being glossed over. and that is whether work visas should be truly temporary or whether we should allow all migrant workers to remain here permanently. First. let me say that there is obviously an important role for permanent immigrants. and I support legal immigration. I noted. as so many others have. that we are a nation of immigrants. and we are the better for it. I support. for example. moderate increases in legal permanent immigration. but I dont support a socalled temporary worker program which is neither temporary nor is it a worker program. but it is rather an alternative path to legal permanent residency and citizenship. More than 23 million immigrants have been issued green cards since 1973. an average of about threequarters of a million new green card holders each year. But there is also a role for temporary workers in addition to those people who want to immigrate here permanently. I feel strongly that we ought to distinguish between legal immigration. illegal immigration. and we ought to distinguish between people who want to come here temporarily and work but not give up their identity or their citizenship with their country of origin and those who want to be Americans. For those who are permanently going to be immigratilg to the United States. I sincerely want all of them to become Americans. and I joined in cosponsoring the amendment with the Senator from Tennessee to help them do that. so they can be assimilated. they can learn English. they can gain access to the kind of education that will allow them to become not only legal immigrants. but to become permanently assimilated into our society and productive citizens. I think we owe that to them and we owe that to ourselves. But there is also a role for those who want to come here for a time and work and then return to their country of origin. people who have no intention of giving up their ties with their country or their culture or their family but who want to come and work for a time and then return with the savings and skills they acquired working in the United States.