Speech #1100044394

Mr. President. in the coming weeks the Senate will again consider legislation to reform our broken immigration system. The Presiding Officer has been personally and deeply Involved in this issue since coming to the Senate. I thank him for his leadership. I think we all understand the challenge is substantial. If we want to solve the problem. we need a comprehensive approach that is tough but fair. We should improve border security by increasing manpower and deploying new technology. We should enforce the law against employers who are hiring millions of undocumented workers. And we need a realistic. honest approach to the 12 million undocumented immigrants who live and work in our country illegally. Most importantly. we must ensure that immigration reform legislation protects the American economy and American workers as well. I am concerned about the HlB visa program as it is currently structured. I am afraid it is being abused by foreign companies to deprive qualified Americans of good jobs. To address this problem. Senator GRASSLEY and I have introduced S. 1035. the H11B and I1 Visa Fraud Abuse Prevention Act of 2007. This is a bipartisan bill. It would overhaul the HlB3 and L1 visa programs to protect American workers and crack down on unscrupulous employers. The HlB1 visa program was designed to allow employers to attract and hire highskilled foreign workers with specialized knowledge. H113 visas are probably best known for their use in technology to import computer engineers and programmers. I cant tell you how many leaders in industry. including one this afternoon. come into my office and say: We absolutely need HlB3 visas. We cant find enough people with specialized education for our businesses. If you wont allow us to bring these workers in from overseas. we are going to be facing the possibility of taking our production facilities overseas where they live.