Speech #1100052794

This is simply a light version of the amendment we defeated a couple days ago that would have eliminated the temporary worker program. The problem here is twofold. First. there has been a basic agreement that even though Republicans generally did not want to allow illegal immigrants to remain in the United States and. in some situations. be permitted to stay here for the rest of their lives. if that is their desire. and even get a green card and ultimately become citizens. there was an understanding that certain tradeoffs had to occur if we were going to get legislation. Part of the legislation does enable some 12 to 15 million people to have that right. as well as immigrants whose applications are pending. many of whom have no reasonable expectation of being able to naturalize. to actually be able to come here and get green cards and naturalize. perhaps some 4 million people. If we have a temporary worker program. which is part of what Senators such as myself were proposing to relieve our labor shortages. if that program is only in existence temporarily but these other benefits are conferred permanently. you can see that you have a significant imbalance in the legislation. Somebody said: What is mine is mine. and what is yours is up for grabs. In other words. one side pockets the ability of all the illegal immigrants to stay here. to get citizenship rights if they go through all of the process that enables them to do that. but the temporary worker program. which is desired by many in the business community and many foreign nationals who want the opportunity to come here and work. is only going to be temporary. and that might go away. That is not a fair way to proceed to the legislation. to have what you like is permanent. what I like is only temporary. But there is a deeper problem. The whole point of having a temporary worker program is to ensure we are going to meet our labor needs in the future. We dont know exactly what those labor needs are. but they are going to be substantial. If you cannot plan with certainty that you know you can expand your business. you can make the capital investment in whatever the business islets say a meatpacking plantthat you are going to need some foreign nationals to come here on a temporary basis with a temporary visa to meet the employment needs because you found in the past that there are not sufficient Americans who have applied for that kind of work in the past. so you know you are going to need the temporary worker program. but you dont know whether that program is going to be in existence in 5 years. are you going to make the capital investment necessary? Are you going to be able to provide more tax base. more employment opportunities for Americans. as well as others. provide for more consumer choice in the country if you dont know you are going to have the labor force necessary to meet your needs? Having a temporary worker program is not going to meet our longterm needs.