[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 158 (Thursday, October 12, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15076-S15077]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  NEEDED: IMMIGRATION REFORM WHICH PROTECTS FAMILIES AND U.S. WORKERS

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, in the coming weeks, the full Senate will 
be engaged in the important issue of reforming the immigration laws. 
Our principal goal is to provide the additional authority needed to 
combat illegal immigration. Initial progress is being made as a result 
of increases in resources and personnel of the Immigration and 
Naturalization Service to deal with this ongoing crisis that is so 
harmful to the country, but much needs to be done.
  It would be a mistake, however, to allow the Nation's concerns about 
illegal immigration to create an unjustified and unwarranted backlash 
in Congress over legal immigration.
  Legal immigrants come to America within the limits prescribed in the 
immigration laws. They join their families, roll up their sleeves, and 
contribute to U.S. communities. There is every reason to believe that 
today's new Americans will build an even stronger America for the next 
generation just as our immigrant predecessors did for us.
  It is especially important, therefore, that any reforms of the laws 
governing legal immigration must protect families and U.S. workers.
  Most Americans agree that U.S. citizens should have the right to 
bring spouses, children, and other close family members to this country 
to be with them here if they wish to do so. Yet, there are those who 
would deny American citizens the privilege to reunite their families in 
America.
  Proposals currently before Congress would make it illegal for an 
American citizen to bring a parent who is under age 65. It would be 
illegal for Americans to bring in their adult children. And it would be 
illegal to bring in a brother or sister.
  In each of these cases, under current law, the U.S. citizen must 
agree to sponsor their relatives--to provide for them if they fall on 
hard times. And we must take additional steps to ensure that U.S. 
citizens fulfill their sponsorship obligations and be prepared to take 
legal action against them when they fail to care for their immigrant 
relatives.
  Clearly, some reforms may be desirable in the numbers admitted each 
year. But we should not deny U.S. citizens the privilege of family 
reunification--whether it involves their parents, their adult children, 
or their brothers and sisters.
  In the case of brothers and sisters, large numbers of Americans have 
already paid millions of dollars in fees to the Federal Government to 
have their siblings join them in America. Yet, not only are there those 
who would eliminate this immigration for the future, they would even 
deny any possibility of family reunification here for those Americans 
who have paid hard-earned dollars to the Government and waited 
patiently for their brothers and sisters to come.
  In addition to protecting families, our laws governing legal 
immigration must also protect U.S. workers. When immigrants come here 
at the request of an employer to fill a job vacancy, and not for family 
reunification, we must make certain that they do not displace a U.S. 
worker from that job. And we must ensure that employers do not underpay 
immigrants and undercut the wages of American workers.
  Our immigration laws have enabled dedicated workers to come here to 
contribute their skills and ingenuity to American businesses. At times, 
they have made the difference between the success and failure of an 
enterprise and have saved American jobs in the process.
  Nevertheless, in many respects, the laws and procedures governing 
immigration for employment fail to protect U.S. workers adequately. 
Although U.S. employers are required to attempt to recruit U.S. workers 
before turning to immigrants, this process results in the hire of an 
American worker less than one-half of 1 percent of the time. Clearly, 
the current recruitment requirement does not work and is widely 
ignored.
  I am particularly concerned that the laws permitting temporary 
foreign workers to come to this country have not kept pace with changes 
in the labor market. U.S. companies are resorting increasingly to 
temporary hires, rather than permanent employees, and are contracting 
out functions which they previously performed in-house with permanent 
staff. The growth of temporary and part-time employees in the labor 
market means that temporary foreign workers are now in direct 
competition with this new class of American worker.
  Lax immigration standards on temporary foreign workers--so-called 
nonimmigrants--have enabled computer consulting firms, health care 
providers, and too many others to turn to temporary foreign workers. As 
some U.S. companies lay off U.S. workers from their permanent payrolls, 
they are hiring temporary foreign workers to take their places.
  This practice cannot be permitted to continue. I join with the 
chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee, Senator Simpson, in seeking 
reforms of this aspect of our immigration laws. Clearly, when employers 
cannot find a qualified U.S. worker, the immigration laws should fill 
the gap. But these laws must not be a pretext for hiring cut-rate 
foreign labor at the expense of U.S. workers.
  The immigration issue is about our roots as Americans. It is also 
about how we see our future. We all agree that we must control illegal 
immigration. But very different considerations apply to legal 
immigrants. In the process of enacting immigration reform, we must 
remember and honor the many benefits which legal immigrants have 

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brought to our Nation. The reforms we enact must crack down on illegal 
immigrants, but they must also protect U.S. workers and the right of 
American citizens to reunite with their families.

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