Speech #1090135516

My understanding of the bill language is that a person who falls into this second tier. who has been here for 2 to 5 years. may remain in the United States legally for up to 3 years and then they must leave the country and find a legal program through which they may reenter the United States. This is the critical flaw in HagelMartinez. People will not risk leaving their families or their jobs in the hopes that once they leave the United States they will be able to reenter through a visa program. whether that be the new H2C guest worker program or another visa program. To compound this problem but ostensibly to make it possible. HagelMartinez waives the 200.000 visa cap that we just reduced from 325.000 in the BingamanFeinstein amendment on the H2C program. In doing that. this would create a larger bureaucratic hurdle. a difficult standard of proof. and a complete decimation of the limits on the guest worker program. Instead of a new guest worker programH2Cthat will bring in 200.000 people a year. we would be. in effect. creating a guest worker program that is supposed to accommodate 2.8 million people. plus another 200.000 people annually. So through this deferred mandatory departure. the Congress creates a guest worker program that will need to accommodate over 3 million people. But putting all that aside. assuming this was actually doable. there are other problems. For instance. the H2C guest worker visa only lasts a maximum of 6 years. So every person will quickly see that this is not an automatic path to earn their legalization. and they will be forced out of the country at the end of the 6 years. Will they go? I doubt it. I think you will have a new illegal immigrant problem. The path to legalization has been modified through the amendment process on this floor. and now an H2C worker will likely need their employer to petition for a green card on their behalf. An employer has to petition for it. meaning that. for 2 million people. their only hope to continue to live in the United States is through the grace of an employer. I think this places an undue burden on an employer. and it leaves workers vulnerable to exploitation from bad employers. Also. H2C workers. their spouses. and their children are not allowed to remain in the United States if the worker fails to work for an approved employer for more than 60 consecutive at any time during the 6 years. with no exception for health problems or injuries. This will mean that if an individual does become injured or ill. they become deportable. In addition. all rights to administrative or judicial review of any future removal actions. are eliminated. Combined. in my view. these provisions are illadvised.