Speech #1090139003

It made it explicit that humanitarian assistance includes. but is not limited to. housing. counseling. and victim services. It eliminated the provisions that limit the humanitarian assistance exception to emergency situations and to assistance that is rendered without compensation. My amendment also eliminated the provision that would have made it a crime to encourage or induce an undocumented immigrant to "remain in" this country. As a result. the law remains the same: it is not a crime to engage in activities like labor organizing with undocumented immigrants. which could conceivably be construed by an overzealous prosecutor to constitute encouraging someone to remain in the United States. Unfortunately. H.R. 4437. the immigration bill passed by the Republicancontrolled House of Representatives. still includes provisions that would criminalize hardworking immigrants and good Samaritans who provide humanitarian assistance to immigrants. This is an issue that I will monitor very closely. A conference report that criminalizes millions of undocumented immigrants and the innocent Americans who care for them will be unacceptable to me and many other Senators on both sides of the aisle. This bill includes an amendment I offered to address a critical international problem: the dire shortage of healthcare personnel in the least developed nations of the world. Shortages of healthcare personnel are a global problem. but the brain drain of doctors. nurses. and other health workers from the poorest countries in the world. to the richest is an urgent problem.