Speech #1100052978

Madam President. I will begin by quoting from an article today in Congress Daily by Bruce Stokes. He sets up in one paragraph pretty much what we are going to talk about in this amendment: The immigration deal under consideration in the Senate raises the number of IllB visas. a longsought boon for the hightech industry that will provide Silicon Valley firms with skilled workers at rockbottom salaries. who will bolster company profits. This amendment I am offering now is supported by the AFLCIO. I will read the few paragraphs of the letter they sent today: Dear Senator SANDERS: On behalf of the AFLCIO. I am writing to offer strong support for your amendment to the Secure Borders. Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act. Your amendment would provide scholarships in math. science. engineering. and nursing for our domestic workforce by increasing fees on HlB employers. The last paragraph. signed by William Samuel. director of the Department of Legislation for the AFICIO. writes this: It is completely irresponsible for Congress to increase yet again the total annual number of available H11B visas without addressing the myriad welldocumented problems associated with the H lB program. or considering longterm solutions involving access to training and educational opportunities for domestic workers. That is William Samuel. director of the Department of Legislation for the AFLCIO. The amendment I am offering today also has the support of the Teamsters. the Programmers Guild. and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act is a long and complicated bill. It touches on a number of very important issues. and some of those issues I strongly agree with. no question. The time is long overdue that we control our borders. No question. the time is long overdue that we begin to hold employersthose people who are hiring illegal immigrantsaccountable. Those items are long overdue. and we have to deal with them. This legislation does that. I support that. In my view. this bill is also responsible in how it deals with the very contentious and difficult issue of how we respond to the reality that there are some 12 million illegal immigrants in this country today. This bill carves out a path which eventually leads to citizenship. and that is something I also support. Butand here is the but: There are a number of provisions in this bill I do not support. that I think are going to be very harmful to the middleclass and working families of this country.