Speech #1090135526

And I am already hearing that we are moving in that direction: The debate is going to be limited. and we will have to curtail our legitimate amendments. I submit to you. the amendments I am offering here are legitimate amendments that go to real issues of national importance. not some technical thing. My amendment that deals with the total number of immigrants into the United States comports with the estimates of the Congressional Budget Office which has run these numbers. I thought they were low. but that is what they say. and the White House has jumped right on it and said: These are the numbers. and SESSIONS and the Heritage Foundation are all wrong. Their numbers are not good. These are good numbers. so lets just have a vote on it and lets make it law. They estimate that a total of 7 million illegal aliens and their dependents will be granted status under the bill. Of the 11 million. they say 7 million will be granted status. Additionally. the CBO and the White House estimate this bill will increase current immigration levelswhich are now about 1 million a year legallyby about 8 million over a 10year period. making total immigration into the United States over the next 10 years nearly 18 million instead of the currently expected 10 million. setting aside those who get amnesty. Under various provisions of current law. the United States issues just under 1 millionapproximately 950.000green cards every year to people coming through immigration channels legally. In 10 years. if this law remains the same as today. almost 10 million people will join the United States. Over 20 years. it would be about 18.9 million peoplejust under 20 millionunder current law. Under this bill that is on the floor today. we have been shocked to find the breadth of the numbers. Almost 2 weeks ago. my staff and the Heritage Foundation did separate extensive analyses to determine the total number of people who would be coming into America under this bill. if it passes. At a press conference last Mondaythe first time anybody had even discussed itRobert Rector. senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation. joined with me to reveal the results of our studies and to shed some light on the future immigration policy changes in the bill. According to my projections. the bill would have increased the legal immigration population by 78 million to 217 million over the course of the next 20 years. I would note. the current population of the United States today is less than 300 million. So 100 million would be a onethird increase in the population by immigration. 200 million. of course. would be twothirds of an increase in the population. Mr. Rectors estimate was within the range I projected--coming in at 100 million over the course of 20 years.