Speech #1140069792

I urge my colleagues to oppose and reject this proposal. I would also just mention one more thing. and then I will wrap up. Senator SHELBY and I wrote a letter to the Appropriations Committee on November 16. asking for Congress to assume its constitutional duty ensuring immigration laws are uniform by approving the number of refugees who come to America. and not leave that as an openended power given to the President. who can execute it in an arbitrary manner. We also said that no benefits should be provided to future refugees until the Congressional Budget Office submits a scorea simple report on the cost of this program. How long would it take? Not that long. Dont we need to have a score. a cost number? We also asked that no refugees be admitted until the Department of Homeland Security submits a report on terrorist and criminal refugees. None of those provisions were included in any of the legislation before us. I think all of those are logical. I also previously wrote letters asking for other provisions. such as prohibiting funds for lawsuits against States that are trying to help enforce immigration laws. to bar funds for attorneys for illegal aliens through these grant programs that are being utilized. Fundamentally. it has never been the responsibility of the Federal Government to prepare and provide free attorneys for people who have entered the country illegally. It never has been the law. I also asked that no funds be provided for sanctuary cities. I asked for language that prohibited funds for Executive amnesty policies. that prohibited funds for the DACA Program. that there would be no spending of funds in the Immigration Examinations Fee Account for anything other than naturalization and immigration benefits provided by Congress. I asked for language that would bar funds for salaries of political appointees or other employees who direct employees to violate the law. Why should we be paying people who direct their own subordinates to violate fundamental provisions of immigration law? I asked for language that would prevent funds from being used to grant "prosecutorial discretion" to aliens in removal proceedings. no funds for an extension of Temporary Protected Status unless approved by Congress. and no funds to continue the Administrations abuse of the parole authority. We shouldnt be funding these abusive practices that undermine the certainty of immigration laws. I asked for language to prohibit funds to grant HlB visas to companies that have replaced American workers. I asked for restrictions on the issuance of Employment Authorization Documents. and that no funds be used to add new countries to the Visa Waiver Program until implementation of a biometric exit system. This bill does direct some money to a biometric exit system. which. if this Administration would act. would begin to do something significant. But they have resisted what the 9/11 Commission has said we must have. When people come into the country. they are checked in. they are fingerprinted. and they are biometrically identified. but nobody checks if they left. So you can come into America on a visa and never go home. This is why almost half of the people illegally in America today came lawfully on a visa. They just didnt return when they were supposed to. I asked for money to establishnotably. there has been an advocacy unit in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the past to protect illegal immigrants and give them all kinds of additional rightsan advocacy unit for victims of immigrant crimes. I asked for others. too. I would just say that I. and others. have raised a series of important issues that need to be fixed. and would receive. if understood by the American people. 90 percent support. Senator GRASSLEY. chairman of the Judiciary Committeeof which my Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest. is a parthas also been active in these things. It is a deep disappointment that this last piece of legislation that could make some improvement in a number of these issues will do nothing of significance. but it will increase by fourfold the number of lowskilled. lowwage workers allowed to enter this country from 66.000 to 264.000. They will pull down wages and reduce the job prospects of struggling Americans.