Speech #1100054109

I have not seen any casts or anything on arms. but I know there was a lot of arm twisting. We were told during the debate on the guest worker provision the following: The manager of the bill and the manager on the minority side said the same thing. They said: Look. if you do0 not have a temporary worker provision to allow those who are not now in this countryeven as we legalize 12 million who are here with a work permit immediatelyif you do not allow millions more to come in600.000 a year. now 200.000 a yearif you do not allow additional people to come into this country. they will come anyway. They will come as illegals across the border. So I asked the question: Wait a second. You are saying we have to have a temporary worker program to bring people into this country who are not now here and declare them legal to take American jobs because if we dont have a temporary worker program. they will come anyway? I thought you said you had border enforcement. What you appear to be saying is. you do not have border enforcement. so for those who would come illegally. lets just see if we can label them as legal under temporary workers. You cannot have it both ways. There either is border enforcement or there is not. You cannot say to me we must put in a temporary worker program because if it is not there we will have illegal immigration. and then in the next breathwhile thumbing your suspenderssay. and by the way. we really have effective border control. If you have effective border control. why then would you have illegal immigration that necessitates you to say there are millions who live outside this country who now must be allowed in? That is on top of the 12 million people who. under this underlying bill. will be declared legal. to have legal status. Anyone who came across by December 31 of last yearacross an ocean or acioss a river or across any borderanyone who entered this country by December 31 of last year would be told: You now have legal status in this country and will be able to work. My colleague. a while ago. asked a very important qluestion: What about the people in other parts of the world who thought this was all on the level and there was an immigration system and they applied through the quota system and have waited now 8 years to see if they would be allowed to come to this country and they are near the top of the list. but now they discover something that makes them feel as if they made a big mistake? What they discovered is. while they waited all of those years to get towaid the top of the list under the legal immigration system we have. with the quotas we have. they should have snuck across the border on December 31 because those who did will have been declared. by this piece of legislation. as legal. And those who went through the process and have waited years7 years. 8 yearsand are near the top of the list are told: You are just out of luck. That does not make any sense to me. It just does not make any sense. Let me describe some quotes from the week before last. ..this legislation has tough border security and tough interior enforcement provisions. Even If you have a secure borderwe are hopeful of having secure bordersIt wont stop illegal immigration. That is from a Senator on the floor of the Senate 2 weeks ago in support of this bill. The fact of the matter is. some workers will come here illegally. or legally. one way or the other they come in. That is where the temporary worker program comes in . . . if we eliminate this program. you will have those individuals that will crawl across the desert . .. or you can say. come through the front door and you will be given the opportunity to work.... That is unbelievable. This is from the architects of the proposal before the Senate who come here boasting it has real security on Americas borders. and then say: By the way. if we do not allowin addition to legalizing 12 million people who came here illegallya substantial additional number of people who do not now live here to come and take American jobs. they will come anyway because they will come as illegal immigrantswhich suggests to me. at least. there is not meaningful border protection or border security in this legislation. Let me describe for a moment the guest worker provision. These are temporary workersI do not know why you call them guestsbut these are temporary workers who would come in and take jobs at the low end of the economic scale and. by and large. put downward pressure on income for American workers.