Speech #1100051678

Until we have some very good economic data that shows this country needs a lot more than 200.000. we ought not to be doing it because. remember. the 12 million people we see out here today who are here illegally and those who are here legally are not going to be made to leave America under the amnesty we have here. If someone came in December 31 of last year. they would be able to stay in this country. So now we are talking about. on top of all of that. on top of the 1 million people who come into the country with green cards that we give each year. that permanent track. we are talking about another track for temporary workers which is In addition to AgJOBS. the agricultural and seasonal workers. So this is a big number. This bill could be two times plus the current rate of legal immigration into America. I dont think the average American would believe. when we are supposed to reform this broken immigration system. that we would be creating a system that would double the number of people legally coming into the country because even though we certainly hope any legislation that passes would reduce somewhat the number of illegal entries. we know we will still have illegal entries on top of that. This probably is a very easy vote for colleagues to vote for the Bingaman amendment. 1 dont see a reason not to do so. I am not aware of any economic study or objective analysis that says we need these kinds of large numbers of immigrants. Professor Chiswick at the University of Illinois in Chicago testified before the Judiciary Committee. of which I am a member. when we brought up this issue last year. He cautioned strongly that a large flow of lowskilled workers will pull down the wages of American workers.