Speech #1100054311

I thank the Senator for his graciousness in yielding a minute and a half. I am opposed to the Allard amendment. We have in this legislation very important commitments to. one. the AgJOB workers. and we have also said for the 12 million: If you pay the fines. you go to the back of the line. you work hard. you demonstrate you are going to be good citizens for the 8 years until all of the line is cleared up. and we have a way for dealing with these individuals to permit them at least to get on the path for a green card and eventually citizenship. The Allard amendment changes all of that framework. Under the Allard amendment. we were basically saying to those who are working in agriculture. because as his amendment shows. they get a big chunk of points on this kind of thing. that that would be eliminated. and that agricultural worker who has been playing by the rules. who is a part of the AgJOBs bill. will lose out in any kind of competition in terms of green cards and the opportunity to move on into citizenship. because the other one will have the skills. will have the points. and those agriculture workers and the other lower skilled workers will not have the opportunity to do so. It will change the framework of the bill in a very important way. I know he is looking for equity in terms of all workers here to be able to start a new day. We have worked long and hard in terms of the ag workers in terms of how we are going to treat the undocumented. how we are going to treat newer workers. We have worked that out. It seems to me that is the fairer way.