[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 189 (Wednesday, November 29, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S17790-S17791]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   IMMIGRATION: WHERE TO GO FROM HERE

 Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I would like to bring to the 
attention of my Senate colleagues a piece that appeared in the November 
27 edition of the Wall Street Journal entitled ``Immigration: Where to 
Go From Here?'' In this piece, the Journal asked a panel of opinion-
makers--ranging from Jack Kemp to former New York Mayor Edward Koch to 
our colleague Ben Nighthorse Campbell--about the impact of legal 
immigration on America's society and economy. I think that the views 
expressed in this article will be helpful to my colleagues as we debate 
immigration reform in the coming months. I ask that the article be 
printed in the Record.
  The article follows:

             [From the Wall Street Journal, Nov. 27, 1995]

                   Immigration: Where to Go From Here

       Jack Kemp is a co-director of Empower America, a 
     conservative advocacy organization.
       Some immigration policies badly need reform, especially 
     those having to do with illegal immigration. Under the 1986 
     immigration reform act, for example, it's illegal to hire an 
     undocumented alien, and hard and costly even to hire a legal 
     one. By contrast, the law allows, and in many cases legally 
     mandates, payment of welfare, medical, education and other 
     benefits.
       A better, more American, policy would be to make it easy 
     for immigrants to work--for example, with a generous guest 
     worker program and low-cost i.d. for participants. We can 
     design a policy that would be just and would create better 
     incentives, but would make it harder to get welfare payments. 
     For instance, the U.S. could more readily accept immigrants 
     who take a pledge not to go on welfare (a pledge many have 
     already taken).
       With such policies, we not only can ``afford'' to keep the 
     golden door open; we will attract the same type of dynamic 
     men and women who historically helped build this immigrant 
     nation. Let's agree to reform the welfare state and not allow 
     America to be turned into a police state.
                                                                    ____

       Edward I. Koch is a former mayor of New York City.
       The U.S. continues to benefit from the influx of legal 
     immigrants. Just to take a few examples: In Silicon Valley, 
     one out of every three engineers and microchip designers is 
     foreign born; in Miami, Cuban immigrants have revitalized a 
     once decaying city; and in New York, foreign nationals serve 
     as CEOs of banking institutions, as senior managers of 
     international companies, and as investors and entrepreneurs.
       What the restrictionist legislative proposals seem to 
     ignore is the critical distinction between legal and illegal 
     immigration. The number of legal immigrants we admit each 
     year is limited and manageable. Fewer than 25,000 immigrants 
     received labor certifications (the prerequisite for obtaining 
     permanent resident status based on job skills) last year.
       Under existing law, legal immigrants must establish when 
     coming here that they have sufficient assets to sustain 
     themselves or that they have a job with a salary that will 
     ensure their not becoming dependent on welfare. Lacking these 
     two, they are required to provide an affidavit from a 
     sponsor, usually a family member, who will be legally 
     responsible to make sure the immigrant and his family will 
     never become public charges. These commitments should be made 
     enforceable.
       I do not believe that the U.S. would be the world's only 
     superpower if not for the super energy provided by the annual 
     influx of legal immigrants. I don't want to change that.
                                                                    ____

       Stephen H. Legomsky is a professor of international and 
     comparative law at Washington University School of Law, St. 
     Louis.
       The U.S. has two venerable traditions. One is to admit 
     immigrants; the other is to complain that today's immigrants 
     are not of the same caliber as yesterday's. In actuality, 
     today's immigrants are just as resourceful as their 
     predecessors, and they are more vital to American industry 
     and to the American consumer than ever before. Imported 
     laborers used to be valued mainly for their muscle. In 
     today's high-tech global economy, brainpower has become the 
     more valuable resource. American companies and universities 
     compete with their foreign counterparts for the world's 
     greatest minds. Why donate this talent to our global 
     competitors when we can use it ourselves?
       Yes, immigrants take jobs. But they also create jobs by 
     consuming goods and services, lending their expertise to 
     newly vibrant American export companies, starting businesses 
     and revitalizing cities.
       Yes, some immigrants receive welfare. But immigrants also 
     pay taxes--income, sales, property, gasoline and Social 
     Security. For federal, state and local governments combined, 
     immigrants actually generate a net fiscal surplus.
       Of course, immigration does far more than this. It reunites 
     husbands with wives and parents with children. It enriches us 
     culturally. It is, ultimately, the quintessential American 
     value.
                                                                    ____

       Peter Brimelow is the author of ``Alien Nation: Common 
     Sense About America's Immigration Disaster'' (Random House).
       Immigration policy is broke and needs fixing. The perverse 
     selectivity of the 1965 Immigration Act has resulted in an 
     inflow vastly larger and more unskilled than promised. 
     Moreover, in the lull since the 1890-1920 immigration wave, 
     the American welfare state was invented. Its interaction with 
     mass immigration is paradoxical. At the turn of the century, 
     40% of all immigrants went home, basically because they 
     failed in the work force. Now immigrants are significantly 
     into welfare (9.1% vs. 7.4% for native-born Americans, maybe 
     5% for native-born whites). And net immigration is some 90%.

[[Page S 17791]]

       The real economic question about immigration, however, is: 
     Is it necessary? Does it do anything for the native-born that 
     they could not do for themselves? Here there is a consensus: 
     no. Indeed, the best estimate of the post-1965 influx's 
     benefit to the native-born, by University of California, San 
     Diego economist George J. Borjas, is that it is nugatory: 
     perhaps one-tenth of 1% of gross domestic product in total. 
     America is being transformed for--nothing.
       Current legislation usefully reduces numbers. But 
     irresponsible politicians and pundits will prevent a full 
     Canadian-style reorientation to favoring immigrants with 
     skills and cultural compatibility such as English 
     proficiency, or giving consideration to guest workers, before 
     the inevitable backlash compels a total cut-off.
                                                                    ____

       Gregory Fossedal is founder and CEO of the Alexis de 
     Tocqueville Institution, Arlington, VA.
       Immigrants pay $25 billion more in federal taxes than they 
     use in services, according to an Urban Institute estimate. 
     Preliminary data on patents, small business startups, and 
     city and state unemployment all indicate immigrants generate 
     net output and jobs. For a smaller budget deficit we should 
     run a people surplus.
       Some want to ``skim the cream''--letting in lots of 
     engineers and millionaires, but fewer family members, 
     refugees and ``low-skilled'' immigrants. Tempting, but the 
     brilliant Indian and Chinese programmers working for 
     Microsoft often have wives or husbands or parents. Many 
     American executives need an affordable au pair: And the 
     George Soroses or Any Groves of tomorrow often have 
     nothing when they come. They bus tables or clean hotel 
     rooms before they build Fortune 500 companies. It's a 
     mistake for Vice President Al Gore to try to out-think 
     capital markets. Why should Sen. Alan Simpson be smarter 
     than the labor market?
       We should sharpen the programmatic distinction between 
     being in the U.S. and being a U.S. citizen. Make it easy to 
     work or travel--but confer government benefits on citizens, 
     not on people who merely happen to be here (a change included 
     in the House welfare reform). This would end the shibboleth 
     that immigrants are costly, and ease legitimate concern that 
     America is losing its English-speaking core. Then there would 
     be support for the reform we really need--to let in more 
     immigrants.
                                                                    ____

       Barbara Jordan chairs the U.S. Commission on Immigration 
     Reform.
       It is because we benefit from lawful immigration that 
     reform is necessary. The bipartisan USCIR recommends a 
     comprehensive strategy to deter illegal immigration: better 
     border management; more effective enforcement of labor and 
     immigration laws; benefits policies consistent with 
     immigration goals: prompt removal of criminal aliens. Most 
     illegal aliens come for jobs, so reducing that magnet is key. 
     Employers need tools to verify work authorization that fight 
     fraud and discrimination, reduce paperwork and protect 
     privacy. The most promising option: electronic validation of 
     the Social Security number all workers already provide after 
     they are hired.
       A well-regulated legal immigration system sets priorities. 
     Current policy does not. More than one million nuclear 
     families are separated, awaiting visas that will not be 
     available for years. We recommend using extended family visas 
     to clear this backlog. Unskilled foreign workers are admitted 
     while many of our own unskilled can't find jobs. We recommend 
     eliminating this category. A failed regulatory system 
     prevents timely hiring of skilled foreign professionals even 
     when employers demonstrate an immediate need. We recommend a 
     simpler, less costly system based on market forces. We still 
     have a Cold War refugee policy. To maintain our commitment to 
     refugees, we should rethink our admissions criteria.
       These reforms will further the national interest.
                                                                    ____

       Scott McNealy is chairman and CEO, Sun Microsystems Inc., 
     Palo Alto, Calif.
       Sun Microsystems is an American success story, a company 
     that has benefited profoundly from the employment of highly 
     skilled legal immigrants. Founded in 1982 by individuals from 
     three countries--Vinod Khosla (India), Any Bechtolsheim 
     (Germany), and Bill Joy and myself (U.S.)--today Sun has more 
     than $6 billion in annual revenues and more than 15,500 
     employees world-wide. Our latest technology effort was headed 
     by an Indian national and worked on by about 2,000 employees 
     from around the world.
       While illegal immigration is a problem that needs to be 
     addressed, there are very real benefits to the U.S. economy 
     from the employment of highly skilled legal immigrants.
       The legislation that is moving through Congress today, if 
     approved, will hurt Sun, and the industry. With at least half 
     of our revenue earned outside the U.S., and the bulk of 
     our R&D conducted inside the U.S., we need to hire the 
     best and brightest engineers and scientists, regardless of 
     their place of birth, to stay globally competitive. And 
     even though Sun is devoting considerable resources both to 
     training our employees and to educating students from 
     kindergarten through university, we are still confronted 
     with a shortage of U.S. workers with state-of-art, 
     leading-edge engineering knowledge. We must be able to 
     hire highly skilled legal immigrants now or we may miss a 
     product cycle in this fast-paced industry. Miss one 
     product cycle, you're seriously hurt; miss two, you're 
     history.
       If Sun loses its ability to compete and recruit globally, 
     our employees and shareholders lose and ultimately the U.S. 
     loses.
                                                                    ____

       George E. Pataki is the governor of New York.
       In my hometown of Peekskill, N.Y., where my immigrant 
     grandparents lived, the homes and flats that were rented by 
     immigrants from Hungary, Italy and Ireland in the early 20th 
     century are now rented by new immigrants from Peru, Mexico 
     and East Asia. In the early morning you can see many of these 
     new immigrants waiting for rides and for work as they begin 
     their long days as gardeners and laborers. Their work ethic 
     and their dreams for a better future parallel the work ethic 
     of America's earlier immigrants.
       While the federal government must improve the policing of 
     our borders and assure that immigration is in fact legal, 
     Congress must avoid the temptation to pass restrictive 
     measures like California's Proposition 187. This is America, 
     not Fortress America.
       Let those who share our values as Americans--hard work, 
     individual responsibility and a love for this country--
     continue to strengthen our unique nation.
                                                                    ____

       Ben Nighthorse Campbell is a Republican senator from 
     Colorado.
       One weakness of our immigration policy is that we 
     continually give amnesty to the illegal immigrants, 
     undermining the legal process and the intent of the law. But, 
     generally, immigrants still contribute more than they take 
     out. Many of them do jobs no American will do for any wage. 
     Immigrants from Southeast Asia go into inner cities and help 
     rejuvenate them by operating small restaurants and motels. 
     And most of them, to my knowledge, have no problems with the 
     law. The first thing they do when they get here is to find a 
     job and get to work.
       If my ancestors on the Indian side had the same anti-
     immigrant attitude that many Americans do now, those very 
     same people who now criticize immigrants wouldn't be here 
     themselves.
       But, having said all that, I recognize you must have 
     control of your borders. You cannot have an open-door policy 
     for anybody and everybody. It becomes a national security and 
     national health problem when we give up having some control.
                                                                    ____

       Dr. Ruth Westheimer is the author of, ``Sex for Dummies'' 
     (IDG Books, paperback).
       When I was 10 years old, I was permitted to immigrate to 
     Switzerland while my parents and grandmother were not. The 
     net effect was that I survived the Holocaust and they didn't. 
     If we in the U.S. are going to call ourselves followers of 
     the Judeo-Christian ethic, then we have a moral obligation 
     not to shut the doors to those who are being persecuted.
       Now while I am not an economist, I also think that we 
     benefit a lot more than we admit from a constant flow of new 
     laborers. When I first came here, I was able to find a job as 
     a housemaid for a dollar an hour, which saved my life. Now I 
     employ a housekeeper who comes from the Philippines, and to 
     me she is a lifesaver. We all benefit from the Mexican 
     workers who pick our fruits and vegetables, and from the 
     Korean grocers who stay open all night selling them. If we 
     try to keep new immigrants from joining us, we will only be 
     cutting off our collective nose to spite our selfish 
     face.

                          ____________________