[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 48 (Tuesday, April 22, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3416-S3417]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  FAMILY IMMIGRATION, SMALL BUSINESS, AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN AMERICA

  Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, over the past 30 years, family 
immigration has contributed to a virtual renaissance of small business 
culture in the United States, according to Prof. Jimy M. Sanders of the 
University of South Carolina, a witness at a recent hearing of the 
Senate Immigration Subcommittee. His examination of census data and 
field research shows that the family is an institution that embodies an 
important form of social capital that immigrants draw on and that the 
common self-interests of family members provide financial and labor 
resources crucial to establishing successful enterprises.
  At the hearing we heard testimony from four immigrant entrepreneurs 
who were sponsored by family members and whose life experiences 
supported Professor Sanders' findings:
  Ilija Letica, an immigrant born in the former Yugoslavia, started 
Letica Corp. as a family business, and still employs several family 
members. Today, the manufacturer of plastic and paper packaging 
products headquartered in Rochester, MI, employs 1,800 people in 10 
other States as well--Delaware, Oklahoma, Iowa, Alabama, Nevada, 
Indiana, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Tennessee, and Georgia. His daughter 
Mara Letica testified that her father witnessed the effects of 
communism: No food, no freedom, no opportunity, and ultimately 
immigrated to America so he could fulfill his entrepreneurial dreams.
  Adrian Gaspar, born in Portugal, employs more than 20 people in 
Massachusetts at his firm Adrian A. Gaspar and Co., LLP. His company 
provides tax services to 400 small companies and over 1,400 
individuals. He is proud that his office sits in the same building 
where his mother sewed clothes in the hope that she could make a better 
future for her son.
  Perhaps the most inspiring testimony came from Ovidiu Colea, founder 
of Colbar Art, Inc., which manufactures sculptures and art 
reproductions in New York. He dreamed of seeing the Statue of Liberty 
with his own eyes, when an armed guard captured him trying to escape to 
America. Communist authorities imprisoned him for 5 years in a Romanian 
labor camp. After 15 more years of wait, he finally made it to America, 
drove a cab, swept floors, and saved his money to buy a factory, which 
today is the country's largest producer of replicas of the Statue of 
Liberty.
  Finally, we heard from John Tu, president of Fountain Valley, CA-
based Kingston Technology, a leading manufacturer of computer memory 
products for personal computers. Mr. Tu, born in China, immigrated to 
America after being sponsored by his sister. He and fellow immigrant 
David Sun employ over 500 people and built the company, started as a 
family based business operating out of a garage, into a company they 
sold last year for $1 billion. Both Mr. Tu and Mr. Sun took the $1 
billion in profits from the sale of the company and gave $100 million 
to their employees, most of them native born, resulting in bonuses 
ranging from $100,000 to $300,000 per employee. ``Only in America,'' 
Mr. Tu testified, ``could this happen.''
  Gary MacDonald, a native born employee of Kingston Technology, 
pointedly noted in his testimony that four of the five high-growth 
companies that he has worked for in his career were started by 
immigrant entrepreneurs.
  Overall, immigrants are approximately 10 to 20 percent more likely 
than the native born to start a new business in this country, and more 
than 1 in 10 legal immigrants own their own businesses. In addition, in 
1995, 12 percent of the Inc. 500--a compilation of the fastest growing 
corporations in America--were companies started by immigrants. It is 
important to have a discussion about both what is right and wrong with 
different aspects of U.S. immigration policy. But any balanced debate 
on legal immigration must take into account the economic and social 
contributions made by the 1 in 10 legal immigrants who own small and 
large businesses in this country.
  I ask unanimous consent that Mr. Colea's testimony be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the testimony was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

 Testimony of Ovidiu Colea, President, Colbar Art Incorporated--Before 
   the Subcommittee on Immigration, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. 
                         Senate--April 15, 1997

       Good morning Senator Abraham and subcommittee members, good 
     morning ladies and gentlemen. My name is Ovidiu Colea, I am 
     the founder and the president of Colbar Art Inc., 
     manufacturer of sculptures and art reproductions, located on 
     Long Island City, in New York State. It is a great pleasure 
     and honor for me to be invited here. With your permission, I 
     would like to take some time to testify through my own 
     experience about the positive side and the benefits of the 
     legal immigration in the United States. I would like your 
     permission to use some parts of my life story to better 
     understand why the liberty and freedom from this country can 
     change some lives forever and bring many benefits to this 
     country.
       I was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1939, during the 
     beginning of World War II in Europe. That war changed for a 
     long time the lives of people from many countries. After the 
     war ended in 1945, when the paranoia communists came to power 
     in many countries, many people left their home countries, but 
     many could not. One of those people was my own father. When I 
     grew older, I grew up with that missing spirit of liberty and 
     freedom. I spent time together with my father night after 
     night and year after year enjoying the only liberty. For 30 
     minutes each night, we got together in the house with the 
     lights turned off and listening to our only hope, two radio 
     stations, Voice of America and Free Europe. This was the only 
     freedom we could afford.
       When I was 18, I took my way to liberty, hoping to reach my 
     dream. I decided to leave the country in order to come to 
     America. In the summer of 1958, I decided to cross the border 
     to swim over the Danube River on the night. I hid myself in 
     the corn fields for many hours near the river, waiting for 
     the night. When I felt the cold metal of the guard's gun 
     pointing on my head, on that moment, my way to freedom and 
     liberty was closed. I was arrested, then sent to a prison 
     labor camp for the next 5 years. What was my crime? I wanted 
     to be free, to have liberty and to reach America. Five years 
     of starvation, physical punishment, long hours of labor in 
     hot and cold weather, sleeping on the floor, eating the roots 
     of the plants and digging for growing seeds in the soil and 
     being punished for trying to learn a foreign language. 
     Nothing of this changed my determination of trying to come to 
     America. After two decades, I came to America with a visa. 
     When I came to the United States, I was penniless, but this 
     country gave me hope.
       My first job in 1978 was working in a casting factory, 
     making $3.00 an hour. In the night, which was my second job, 
     I drove a taxi in New York City. I also had a third job, 
     which I worked during the weekends for over 3 years. I got 
     married and had two children. After 9 months working for a 
     company, I was laid off. After 1 week of unemployment, I 
     opened a partnership company, Barrett-Colea.
       In 1982, my company won a contract from AT&T for an Olympic 
     project to make 65,000 replicas for the Olympic commemorative 
     in Los Angeles, the largest sculpture reproduction ever 
     produced in the United States of America. The company created 
     many jobs for this project. In 1985, my company applied for 
     and won a license from the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island 
     Foundation. We gained the right to use the symbol of the 
     Statue of Liberty on our product. The replicas of my 
     company's product, which are made only in the United States, 
     were presented to President Reagan, who sent us a beautiful 
     letter of recognition of our effort on May 12, 1986.
       Many jobs were created and through their hard work, the 
     company was able to par- 

[[Page S3417]]

     ticipate on the national effort to restore the Statue of 
     Liberty, our Nation's most precious symbol of liberty and 
     freedom. Our replicas are used by the INS and other 
     institutions around the United States of America. The company 
     made a new advancement in the art field, developing new 
     reproduction methods using acrylic. This technology is only 
     available in the United States, which gave our country the 
     advantage in the art field. In 1986, I applied for and 
     obtained a patent on a new technique of embodiment for 
     acrylic sculptures. In 1988, my new company, Colbar Art Inc., 
     consisted of 5 employees developed new technique and 
     reproduction methods.
       In 1989, my new company, Colbar Art Inc., began a project 
     with the Buddhist Association of America in Carmel, NY, a 
     project to build the biggest statue of the Buddha in the 
     United States of America, which will stand 37 feet high. This 
     project created new jobs for the company, the largest of its 
     type in the United States. The project took 3 years to 
     complete. At present through my company s efforts, the jobs 
     created over the time increased year after year. At the 
     present time, the company employs more than 30 people, among 
     them, many are immigrants.
       At present, my company is the largest manufacturer of 
     Statue of Liberty replicas in the United States and a large 
     number of my employees are working to preserve the beauty of 
     our symbol of freedom. At the same time, the company is 
     manufacturing the best high quality limited edition 
     reproduction of acrylic sculptures, which are made only in 
     our company.
       A new challenge faces American companies and the challenge 
     comes from the emerging economic power with low labor costs. 
     In order to be more competitive in this market, American 
     companies must find people to employ on a priority basis 
     which mean American companies must be able to employ the 
     right person at the right time. Any delay could greatly 
     affect the success or failure of the company. Despite the low 
     labor costs on other countries, I chose to keep the jobs in 
     my country, America, giving back something that she gave to 
     me. I thank my country for the opportunity that was given to 
     me. American companies must do everything possible to make 
     jobs available primarily for our people first.
       Mr. Chairman and subcommittee members, I thank you very 
     much for your time and I hope my experience will be seen as a 
     positive contribution of one immigrant who loves this 
     country.

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