Speech #1090137854

Congress would undertake an additional budgetary commitment of this magnitude to foreign workers our economy may not even need. Finally. I oppose the bill because It does very little to fix the current legal immigration system. The great irony of this whole debate is that it has focused largely on the wrong problem. If we want to help the economy and provide justice to immigrants. we should concentrate first on making our current programs at least minimally workable. As Senators are probably aware. there are significant backlogs in our current system due to the sheer volume of aliens eligible to legally immigrate to the United States. As of December 31. 2003. the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service. that is the USCIS. reported 5.3 million immigrant petitions pending. USCIS decreased the number of immigrant petitions by 24 percent by the end of fiscal year 2004that is a pretty good jobbut they still had 4.1 million petitions pending. Every new applicant who is not an immediate relative of a U.S. citizen must go to the end of lines that vary in length according to country. the prospective immigrants relationship to their American sponsor. and profession. According to the State Department. experienced laborers from India face a 5year wait for a visa. while Filipino siblings of Americans wait more than 22 years. In my office. we live with this problem with the current immigration system every day. I have five caseworkers who spend parts of each day in response to constituent requests. assisting those who actually claim a legal right to enter our country. These prospective immigrants have respected our laws. They and their Missouri sponsors spend large amounts of time and money trying to navigate the existing system. We have almost 200 pending cases in our office alone. They include Missourians who want to adopt children from abroad. foreign doctors who want to work in rural areas where they are desperately needed. and world renowned researchers who. want to bring their knowledge to the United States. These people have a right to immigrate under the current laws. Yet the bill does nothing for them. In fact. the bill makes their situation worse because it puts them at the back of the line. The bill inevitably means that the time and attention of the Immigration Service will be spent processing the applications of undocumented workers and administering a vague new guest worker program for 70 million to 90 million people. rather than on the cases of legal immigrants which. in some cases. have been pending for years. What I have just said is the answer to those who claim this bill is necessary because it is the only practical solution to our current situation. Mr. President. anybody even marginally familiar with our current legal immigration system knows that it is in disarray. I honor the work of our border agents. but the reality is that our existing border security system is In every respect inadequate. I recognize that many diligent government workers are trying to process the claims of legal immigrants. but here again. they and the system are overwhelmed. even in trying to administer the current complicated visa system. The idea that our current immigration infrastructure can take on the real job of border security. process a multitiered amnesty program for 10 million to 12 million illegal aliens. and administer the claims of 70 million to 90 million new immigrants. in addition to its current responsibilities. is sheer fantasy. And to argue in favor of this bill on the grounds that it is a practical solution to anything shows how far from reality the proponents of this legislation have really traveled. Mr.