Speech #1090132567

Mr. President. the bill in the Senate is a massive piece of legislation creating a number of new programs within our immigration system. Obviously. we have talked a lot about border security and ways we can tighten our border to make sure we know who is coming into the country and why they are here. Second. we also need to make sure we have a successful worksite verification program to make sure people who present themselves for employment in the United States are. indeed. legally authorized to work in the United States. This is an enormously important comprehensive approach. While I hope it is clear that there are some segments of the approach I differ with and we are trying to improve. from my perspective. I do support the approach of comprehensive immigration reform because we need to deal with the security demands of this problem. and we also need to deal with the economic demands of the problem. One of the ways the underlying bill purports to do that is by creating what is called a guest worker program. One component of the guest worker program is as follows. For people who are not yet in the United States but who want to come in the future. this plan creates a guest worker program. but what it fails to do is to match up willing workers who want to qualify within this program with an actual job. In other words. what it does is creates a phenomenon whereby individuals who participate in the program can literally selfpetition without having an employer sponsor that petition for them to get a green cardin other words. to become a legal permanent resident and be put on a pathway to American citizenship. This amendment strikes that position of the underlying bill which would allow individuals participating in this guest worker program to selfpetition. that is. without an employer being there to sponsor them and acknowledge and attest that no American worker is willing or has indicated a willingness to perform that job. This is a fundamental worker protection provision which I hope my colleagues will support. If we dont agree to this amendment. it means individuals can come to the United States as a guest worker and then selfpetition without having an employer there to sponsor their application for legal permanent residency and can thereby be on a path to become an American citizen and end up competing with American workers for those jobs. We all understand America is a compassionate country. We want to make sure we do this immigration reform plan correctly. One of the things we do not want to do is actually hurt American workers. Unless we strike the selfpetition provision. we will be doing exactly that.