Speech #1090135651

I would say for anyone here as of the first of the year. we should provide this orange card process which I will describe in a moment. The problem doing it the HagelMartinez way is that it opens the door for fraud and for manipulation because you essentially have 4.4 million people here less than 5 years who would come forward and produce. in all likelihood. fraudulent documents. or simply remain in a clandestine status because they are working and they have families here. The 2.8 million who have been here 2 to 5 years are then subject to leave the country. to touch back and enter into the country through a visa program. most likely the H2C worker program which has 200.000. We lowered the cap for the H2C program from 325.000 to 200.000 in an earlier amendment offered by Senator BINGAMAN and myself. But what people havent realized is that the cap would be waived for individuals coming in from this tier. which would raise the guest worker program to 3 million people. And then here is the rub with the guest worker program: they would have to return after a period of time to their country. Therefore. there is no automatic path to earned legalization for these people. unless they can get an employer to petition for them for a green card. I think that is an unusual responsibility placed on an employer for so many people. and I think it is not fair for the employee. either. Therefore. we have put forward a threestep process under the orange card amendment. which has received the support of 115 organizations and groups. Under this amendment. all undocumented aliens who are in the United States as of January 1 would immediately register a preliminary application with the Department of Homeland Security. At the time of the registration. they would submit fingerprints to the Customs and Immigration Services facility so that criminal and national security background checks could commence. It would create a more precise registration that would allow this to proceed electronically. That is a major keyproceed electronically so that DHS would have time to do the necessary processing and vet the application in an orderly manner. Then they would submit a full application for their orange card. Once they have passed the security background check. they have paid their back taxes. they have paid the $2.000 fine. then they would be issued the orange card. The orange card would have biometric identifiers. would have the history of the individual. and would have a number. and this number would be designed so that those who have been here the longest would be first in the line for the green card at the end of the work period. As everyone recalls. there are 3.3 million people back in their own countries waiting for green cards. None of this goes into play until that green card list is expunged. It is estimated that could take anywhere from 6 to 11 years. So during that period of time. individuals in this country would have an identifier: the orange card.