[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 90 (Wednesday, June 6, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H6094-H6100]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IMMIGRATION ISSUES
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) is
recognized for 60 minutes.
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I have defended President Bush
throughout most of his administration: From the war in Iraq; to those
tragic mistakes that were made at Abu Ghraib, realizing they were just
mistakes, but not at the heart of the policy; from the tax cuts to the
preparation of the prescription drug bill.
I feel that I have been a loyal soldier to this administration, to
the President, and, yes, to the country, especially on the country's
war on terror. I have been four-square behind the President's
successful efforts in that war and some of these efforts that we have
been talking about today that are straining the public morale.
I have been very supportive of the President's tax efforts,
fundamental economic efforts in the tax area to keep our economy
humming.
So after all of this support, last week it was personally offensive
to me to hear that I and millions of people like me were being
described by the President as not wanting to do what is right for
America because we refused to support the Kennedy-Bush immigration bill
currently being examined and going through the Senate.
The President also suggested that those of us who oppose the type of
legalization of status and those of us who
[[Page H6095]]
are opposed to the type of legislation that we believe will promote
more illegal immigration into our country, that we are just trying to
frighten people by using the word ``amnesty.''
The President, of course, insists on defining amnesty in a way that
is independent and contrary to the way everyone else defines that word,
and every time he does that, he loses credibility. Every time he
follows his inclination to try to obfuscate this issue of illegal
immigration, rather than to deal with it and to debate it four-square,
he loses credibility.
The President also suggests if we know the details of the bill, the
legislation, I call it, the Bush-Kennedy legislation, that we will
support it. Well, the more we find out about that legislation going
through the Senate, the more vigorously we should oppose that bill.
There are literally hundreds of loopholes in that legislation. I
believe the very basis of the legislation is flawed in its intent. The
fact there are so many terrible aspects of this bill, one has to
suggest that the bill's intent was not the right intent to begin with.
It was not a bill aimed at stemming illegal immigration, but instead
this bill has some other intent, obviously.
The American people, however, can decide for themselves. The
President says we need to get to know what is in the bill. Well, let's
take a look at what is in the bill.
Problem number one: This legislation is an amnesty bill. I am sorry
if that doesn't go by the definition that is handed down by the White
House, which obviously has the ability to define or redefine words, but
it is an amnesty bill. This bill grants immediate legal status to
illegal aliens, and that legal status happens immediately, before any
of the enhancements. They will have what they call ``enforcement
enhancements'' in the bill that will help us ``enforce our immigration
laws.''
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But before any of those enhancements are activated, and they are
called the triggers, before they are activated, every person who is
here illegally will be able to be granted legal status, a temporary
visa. It is called a Z visa.
So 24 hours after an illegal immigrant files an application, they
will be granted a probationary visa, the so-called Z visa. It will be
issued, and with that legal status, that visa, comes the right to live
and work in the United States: Immediate legalization for everyone who
is here.
The President tries to suggests it is not amnesty because we are not
granting citizenship. And then a big cloud of smoke comes up for people
to try to understand what's going on here.
Amnesty doesn't mean granting citizenship; amnesty means somebody is
doing something illegal and you have now made it legal. All of them get
this amnesty, this legalization, within 24 hours of applying the minute
this legislation passes. That is whether or not the triggers, the
enforcement mechanisms that are also in the bill, if they are never
activated, these so-called probationary visas will never expire. They
will continue on. Every 8 years or so they will have to be reapplied
for, but they can be reapplied for and granted further extensions
forever.
And the Social Security cards which come with that can be issued.
These people when they have Z visas, these probationary visas, they are
now eligible for all of our government programs with the Social
Security cards and all of the other things that people who are here
legally, people who immigrated to this country legally, people who
waited for years to come here, who obeyed our rules, these other people
are going to get it immediately.
Of course, U.S. citizens, what does U.S. citizenship get? The only
difference is a right to vote. So how is this not amnesty? Obviously it
is.
Word games aside, the Senate bill not only grants amnesty, but it
also provides things that will do great damage other than just the
amnesty to our country.
The much-touted fines of this bill, and there are fines that are
required, and we have heard this, another cloud of smoke comes in
during that discussion on this bill. We hear this idea there is going
to be a $5,000 fine for those people who want to be serviced by this
legislation. No, that $5,000 fine is not required before someone gets a
legal status. That is what happens before someone becomes a citizen.
This legislation that is passing through the Senate does not require
$5,000 to legalize status. You cannot buy a used car in this country
for $1,000; but $1,000 will give you the right to live in the United
States and obtain government benefits, including Social Security, that
goes with that legalization.
The Z visa fine, which is a requirement, it is just a payoff, that
$1,000, is not the $5,000 that everybody hears about. It is about
$1,000. Unfortunately, ignorant and lazy mainstream media people have
been using the $5,000 figure, and even that I think would be a very
questionable thing to give all of these benefits and rights to people
here illegally for $5,000. No, we are going to give it to them for
$1,000. And by the way, it can be paid on the installment plan. You can
buy the right to live, work and receive benefits in the United States
of America for $1,000. And it can be renewed every few years, it can be
renewed every few years forever.
If a government official misuses information, according to this
legislation, if there is information on an illegal amnesty application,
and that information is misused by a government employee, there is a
$10,000 fine for that government employee who would misuse information
on an illegal immigrant's amnesty application.
So breaking into our country, entering the United States illegally,
using false documents, which almost all of them have, identity theft to
hold a job, and they are holding of course jobs that they are not
entitled to have in the first place, this is somehow less onerous, we
are only going to charge them $1,000 to legalize their entire status,
but we are charging $10,000 for a paperwork mistake by a government
official who might misuse the information or get it wrong on the
application.
It should be noted that the amnesty of the Senate bill treats illegal
immigrants better than they treat legal immigrants into the United
States. Illegal aliens who snuck into the United States 5 months ago
are given immediate legal status while legal immigrants who applied to
come to the United States after May 1, 2005, must start the application
process all over again.
Now these are people who have been waiting overseas. They applied
after May 2005. They are overseas waiting. Those people who are not the
law breakers, they must start the process over again.
So the illegals can cut in line, go around everybody around the world
where there are millions and millions of people who are waiting to come
here legally, who respect our laws, those people who cut in line in
front of those who would be U.S. citizens and come here legally are the
ones given the benefit. Those waiting in line have to, in fact, go to
the end of the line, in some cases, according to this legislation,
while the others scoot ahead.
This, of course, is a serious blow to those waiting in line who would
like to come here legally, and that has not escaped the notice of the
foreign press. People overseas are taking very close note of this. The
foreign press is making it very clear what this legislation is doing to
people who respect the laws of the United States.
This legislation is now being touted overseas by people suggesting
that anyone who stands in line and waits and respects our laws is a
fool. And, of course, we are making them fools by rewarding those who
don't obey the rules and punishing those who do.
By the way, in the Senate bill a note from a friend, a note, a letter
from a friend, is considered evidence that one has lived in the United
States before. When an illegal alien applies to live in the United
States, if this legislation passes, he can literally provide a sworn
declaration from someone, as long as it is not a relative, as proof
that he lived in the United States and now is eligible for this
legalization of his status.
Is there anyone outside the White House who does not understand that
this will cause a massive influx of new illegal immigrants into our
country? Because if they want to get legal status, all they have to do
is find someone to write a letter for them, and as far as they are
concerned, that is a get-into-America-free card that one of their
friends will write for them. Does anyone think that we are not going to
[[Page H6096]]
have a massive flow of people? That all of the people waiting in line
will not hear about this? And what about all of the people not waiting
in line hearing about this?
Between 12 and 15 million people are expected to apply for amnesty if
the legislation now going through the Senate passes. Now how can the
Department of Homeland Security possibly verify the letters that are
going to be presented by people to prove that they have immigrated to
this country or lived in this country for a given period of time; and
thus, then they have legal status if they have lived here. Even if it
is illegally being here, they still will be legalized if they have
a note from their friend. Does anyone not understand the jeopardy that
this rule puts us in in America? Yet it is in the bill. I mean, it is
bizarre but it is in the bill. Who wrote this bill? Whoever did let
this provision be in the bill.
And as for the much-publicized background checks that amnesty seekers
are supposed to have, the background checks are going to happen on
those people applying for citizenship. The background checks are going
to happen after legal status has already been granted as a temporary
status, a legal status that can be again renewed. Background checks are
not required before the probationary visas are issued.
And yes, you heard it correctly, legal status must be granted to an
illegal alien within 24 hours of that illegal alien making application.
Even if the alien has not passed all of the appropriate background
checks, within 24 hours, the Department of Homeland Security has to
grant him legal status, a ``probationary visa'' which can go on
forever. Can you imagine the criminals, the carriers of communicable
diseases, the dregs of other societies, who will obtain a legal right
to live and work in the United States because of this loophole?
How about the gang who flew planes into the World Trade Center? How
about the terrorists, would they have been granted legal status
immediately by this bill? Many of them of course were here illegally.
They had overstayed their visas. The answer is yes, they would have
made legal status almost immediately. It is insanity.
And a final burst of insanity, illegals who have been ordered
deported by a United States court already, and the court has ordered
them to be deported because they are not here legally, those people
already under court order to be deported, will be eligible for this
amnesty, for this legalization of their status.
Now listen to this carefully. Illegals who have been through the
courts and are under court order to leave the United States, can apply
for amnesty. Almost 636,000 aliens are in this country in defiance of a
court order to leave. All of them can now apply to stay here under this
bill. They will be given a temporary visa, a ``probationary visa,''
that can be renewed.
Talk about teaching a disrespect for law. Does a court order mean
nothing? How can we simply allow people who have openly defied our
laws; and, yes, also defied a court order from a judge in the United
States of America, how can we simply ignore that? That is what the
Senate legislation would have us do. That is the Bush-Kennedy
legislation making its way through the Senate.
Problem number two with the bill, the enforcement triggers in the
bill are actually weaker than the current law. What is a trigger? What
we have are the enforcement mechanisms that are in this bill that are
supposed to be activated. They will supposedly help us enforce the
laws, like fences and more beds in detention centers and stronger
border patrol.
The provisions of this bill, these triggers, these enforcement
mechanisms, are actually weaker than current law. This bill does not
require, for example, one more detention center bed. It does not
require one more mile of fence. It does not require one more agent than
is currently required by law. In fact, the bill cuts the fencing
requirements in half so the bill actually, when they talk about to get
the fence, we have to have this bill, although there is already
legislation requiring the fence, this bill requires actually one-half
the fencing that is already required by law.
It requires 11,500 fewer detention spaces and fewer border patrol
agents than the Congress has already authorized in other legislation.
So we are supposed to support the legalization of status for illegals
in order to get the trigger mechanisms to work, in order to get the
enhancement of enforcement when this bill weakens the enforcement that
is already in place.
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To think you can weaken an enforcement provision and then pretend
that legislation somehow strengthens border enforcement is an insult to
the American people.
Wake up, America. Our country is being stolen from us. Our country is
being invaded, and the Senate legislation will accelerate this
invasion.
And it is not just Mexican Americans who are crossing the border, nor
South Americans and others who are crossing the border from Mexico. We
also, of course, have a huge problem with illegal immigration of people
who are coming into our country and overstaying their visas. They're
just as much a part of the illegal immigration problem as those people
crossing our Canadian and our Mexican border. Yet this bill does
nothing, absolutely nothing, to strengthen the system to try to reform
the U.S. visa system. They call it the U.S. visit exit system which,
right now, when someone comes into our country with a visa, we don't
know if they have left.
It was mandated back in 1996 that that system would be fixed and that
we would track visitors to our country so we would know if they had
come and if they'd gone home, and so then we would know at least who is
here illegally. That hasn't even been fixed by this legislation. Of
course, not knowing who is left or who stays in the United States, it
makes it impossible for us to track who has overstayed their visa.
May I remind you that somewhere between a third and half of our
illegal alien population, that's between 4 and 5 million people, are
people who are here who have overstayed their visas. So I think it's
misportrayed when we only look to our southern border, and too many
people, too many people talk about this as something to do with Mexico.
Well, it has something to do with Mexico, because a large number of
illegals are from Mexico, but this problem is way beyond that, and
there are many, many other illegals in this country, from Asia and
elsewhere, that need to be brought to justice and to be returned to
their country.
Now why is this such an important component of this bill? Because
it's already been mandated by Congress, and what is important, in
actually looking at the legislation going through the Senate, is that
legislation doesn't even touch on this provision of trying to get
control of this huge wedge into our system, this road on which people
are invading like bacteria into our country.
The Bush-Kennedy legislation in the Senate, of course, does not touch
on it, because that legislation is not aimed at stemming the flow of
illegals into our country. It is, indeed, pro-invasion legislation.
Problem number three, a great many criminals are eligible for amnesty
under the bill going through the Senate. Again, this is a simple
statement of fact, and this is very bizarre.
Under the bill going through the Senate, some child molesters are
eligible for legal status. I'm not making this up. A child molester in
this legislation, a child molester who committed his crime before the
bill was enacted, is not barred from amnesty if their conviction
omitted the age of their victim. This is a bizarre loophole.
Who wrote this bill? Who included that in this bill? This is a nutty
provision. The people who put that provision in the bill are working
with those people who wrote the legislation.
Also, we have gang members who are eligible for amnesty. As long as a
gang member signs a piece of paper renouncing their gang membership,
they can apply for the probationary status and must be granted it
within 24 hours. Now, I'm certain that signing a piece of paper will
mean that the gang members will change their drug dealing and violent
ways and become positive members of our society.
This bill will cost American taxpayers billions and billions, yes,
trillions of dollars. Just one example. The earned income tax credit
which now provides help for financially low-income Americans, we
actually are providing them through this tax credit
[[Page H6097]]
some stipend, some money, it is currently done at a cost of $20
billion. It's a $20 billion expenditure that we're trying to help out
low-income Americans.
Illegal aliens on Z visas and guest workers will be eligible to apply
for the earned income tax credit immediately. They are now legally in
this country, so they can have that income tax credit. The
Congressional Budget Office says this will cost $20 billion more of our
money.
Now the 1996 welfare reform bill demanded that persons be a legal
resident of the United States for 5 years before they can receive any
benefits that are eligible to people in the United States. Why are we
granting illegal aliens and guest workers benefits that we do not give
to legal aliens? How can this possibly be right that we treat illegal
aliens better than law-abiding immigrants, much less treating them
better than the poor people who are waiting in line, trying to emigrate
to this country legally, who respect us and want to become U.S.
citizens the right way?
Well, also in the Senate legislation is, of course, the old issue of
State tuition and loans. Yes, in this legislation, State tuition and
loans will be granted to illegal immigrants once they get their
probationary visa. That means anybody who's come here illegally will
automatically be eligible for all these educational benefits that our
children are eligible for.
Actually, it's worse. Our children can't get in-State tuition. If
we're 100 miles away over your State's border, we can't go to the other
State and go in that facility, but someone who has snuck into this
country from thousands of miles away or from the other side of the
world can get a tuition break, and it is paid for by us, the taxpayers.
They get in-State tuition, even though they come from a far-off country
and have come here illegally, while if we try to go to another State we
have to pay higher rates.
Now the legislation does ban some illegal aliens from being able to
collect Social Security, and that's true. But we know that the
President of the United States, for example, has actually already made
an agreement with Mexico, although it was a secret agreement in order
to provide what they call a totalization agreement, which will permit
illegals from Mexico who have been working in the United States to
obtain Social Security benefits for the work that they did here
illegally, but that's just for the people from Mexico.
Now this bill says that others outside of the totalization agreement
won't get Social Security benefits for the work they did while they
were here illegally, but there's a big loophole in the bill. Any
illegal who overstayed a visa but was issued a Social Security number
will be allowed to obtain credit for the work they did illegally.
In other words, if someone was here illegally, overstayed a visa,
while they were here on the visa, if they got their Social Security
number, they will then be permitted to get credit for what they did
when they were working here illegally because they then had their
Social Security card.
We know that between, as I said, 4 and 5 million illegal aliens are
people who entered here on a visa and then did not go home. This
loophole would allow these millions of people who broke the law to work
in this country to collect Social Security. At the very time when we
are rightfully worried about the future solvency of Social Security, we
will allow those who violated their visas to obtain the fruit of their
illegal labors. They will be permitted to have Social Security. This is
an incredible injustice to our seniors who depend on that system and
should not worry about what amounts to basically this theft of Social
Security benefits.
Now, let us note that there are many people trying to suggest that
illegal immigrants actually help Social Security. People actually said
this here in Washington.
Well, let's note this. More than half of the illegal immigrants in
our country work for cash under the table. Now, of those people who are
working for cash, are they helping our Social Security system? We're
being told that illegals working here help our Social Security system.
So these illegal immigrants, because they're being paid under the
table, half of them are paid under the table, they do not pay into the
Social Security system. And since they are paid cash, the employers do
not pay. Not only does the worker not pay his contributions to the
Social Security system, but the employer isn't paying his portion into
the Social Security system.
So a negative effect is this job, if you look at it even beyond that,
is that this job is a job that could be filled by an American citizen
or a legal immigrant, but now that job's been taken by an illegal who
is not doing anything to pay into the Social Security system. The legal
immigrant or the American citizen, whose job that would be if that
person wasn't there, would be paying into the system.
So Americans are losing jobs to illegals who aren't paying their fair
share into the Social Security system. How does that help the Social
Security system?
Corresponding to this, a flow of illegal labor into our country
brings down wages in general. So employers might have paid $10 to $12
an hour, they're now paying much lower wages which then results, of
course, in lower contributions to the Social Security system.
Don't tell me that illegal immigration or that huge amounts of
immigration to our country will help the Social Security system. It's a
grave threat to the Social Security system.
Of course, there are those who say, well, actually the way to make
this right is to legalize all those immigrants who are here illegally
and then they will be paying Social Security. Well, let me note this.
Legalizing the status of those who are here illegally will make the
Social Security challenge we now face dramatically worse in the future
than it is now. Any plan that specifically gives Social Security to
those who have been working in this country is an invitation to fraud
on a massive scale.
What would stop anyone from claiming that they worked here under a
false Social Security number? Hundreds of thousands of people pay into
Social Security under various numbers. Hundreds of thousands, millions
work here under false Social Security numbers. So how can you prove who
used those fraudulent numbers? Who were they? You can't prove who they
were. If they make that claim, how are we going to prove that that's
not them?
We already have a huge problem with identity theft and fraudulent
identification. Allowing those who work here illegally, who have worked
here illegally to participate in Social Security, exponentially
increases the incentive for fraud. Because now they were using false
papers to begin with, now they will claim that they were here and they
could claim they worked for any number of people, even if they didn't.
Another overlooked consequence is the survivor's benefits and
disability benefits of the Social Security system. What would stop
anyone from claiming my spouse worked in the United States under this
false number, I am his widow, these are his children, please start
sending me survivor's benefits now that we are entitled to them?
Remember, billions of people around the world have no retirement
whatsoever. Why assume that only younger immigrants will come to the
United States? Why wouldn't someone in their 50s think, gee, if I come
to the United States and work for a few years, maybe 10 years, the
Social Security that I will get will let me live very well at home;
I'll get it sent to me at home. Why wouldn't they think that?
If you had no retirement benefits and you knew that we were
legalizing the status of millions upon millions of people who have come
here, why wouldn't you do anything, including commit fraud, which they
already do to get jobs anyway with their fraudulent documents, why
wouldn't they do anything to get their hands on that Social Security?
The bill going through the Senate would facilitate that.
Furthermore, many people who would be legalized under the several
different proposals that are going around, including these ones that we
are hearing in the Senate, the people that are coming here already and
will come here under the system because it will attract many more
illegals, these are mainly poor and unskilled workers.
The fact is over half the illegal immigrants in this country do not
have a high school education. The inconvenient fact is that Social
Security pays out more benefits proportionately to lower-wage workers
than to higher-wage workers.
[[Page H6098]]
A projection I've seen from Social Security assumes that immigrants
have the same general earning potential as native-born Americans. Well,
that's obviously not true.
So to bring in people with low education or little education, what
we're going to do in the long run is place the burden of about $100,000
per person in the long term on our Social Security system because they
will collect that much more than they put in, especially if they come
here when they are in their 50s, in the late 40s or 50s. In the long
run, this will be a catastrophe for the Social Security system.
And last and foremost in terms of Social Security, in 1986, after
being told that it would only legalize about 1 million people, 3
million people were actually legalized. Three million illegal
immigrants ended up being given amnesty. That's back in 1986.
{time} 2145
It is now 20 years later. The current illegal immigrant estimate
ranges from 12 to 20 million people. I keep hearing the lowball, 11
million. Let me note the 20 million figure that I just suggested, that
we have up to 20 to 25 million illegals in this country, this didn't
come from a government source, it was from a private study that was
conducted on the monies that were sent back as remittances to other
countries.
They studied that and figured out how many people it would take to
supply those kinds of remittances, and they came up with about 20
million people could be here illegally. Well, what's going to happen
when those people are legalized? Last time, 1 million people became 3
million, and now we have maybe 15 to 20 million. Well, if we legalize
those people who are already here, and then we permit them into the
Social Security system, this will turbocharge the flood of illegals
into our country.
So, what does that mean? We are going to end up, not with the 20
million that we had, 3 million before, and it became 12 to 20 million,
now, with 20 million, 12 to 20 million, we could expect that by
legalizing their status we will have between 45 and 60 million illegals
here by 2027.
Wake up, America, 45 to 60 million people from other countries
pouring into the United States? What is that going to do to our
society? No fence, no wall, no minefield, no system will keep illegal
immigratios out of this country. If we give them a reasonable hope that
generous government benefits, including retirement benefits like Social
Security can be theirs, if they can just get across the border and wait
us out. Because that's exactly what we are doing right now. If we pass
this bill that's going through the Senate, we are telling the people
throughout the world that they will be able, if they wait us out and
get here, they can expect to get pension benefits, health benefits,
education benefits, beyond their imagination.
Who would not come, when they come, by the tens of millions, oh, much
to the surprise of the people who were passing this legislation. After
all, Senator Kennedy didn't predict this massive jump that we have now
when they passed the bill in 1986. Well, what's going to happen when
they get here? The Social Security system will collapse, as will most
of our government infrastructure.
Listen, being irrationally benevolent to illegals is a crime against
our own people. The bill that's going through the Senate would bring
about such a calamity in the United States of America. It would be a
calamity for average Americans. Illegal immigrants are not, despite
what you have heard, required to even pay back taxes in the legislation
going through the Senate. The bill originally did not require any back
taxes to be paid however.
However, there was an amendment to the bill, I understand, that was
passed, asking that illegals pay back taxes. All right, we are going to
treat our illegals better than we treat our own people, because that
provision in the bill is weak. It only requires that illegal immigrants
show proof that they have paid taxes for 1 year under subparagraph DI,
that's according to the bill.
Unfortunately, the bill was written in such haste that there is no
subparagraph DI in the legislation. So there are certain to be court
cases arguing whether or not the provision that requires a certain
amount of back taxes to be paid, whether or not that is a legal
requirement or not. Because there is no section DI in the bill.
Remember, you do not have to show that you worked in the past in
order to obtain a legal status. So the actual effect of the full
amendment on taxes will be that you will have to show that you will pay
taxes in the future if you come, and, frankly, how do I become an
illegal immigrant with this type of lax attitude towards taxation? I
would love not to have to pay my taxes if I had back taxes that I owed.
If people are paid under the table for years, we are just going to
give them, issue them a waiver. You have paid up, made all this money
in the United States. U.S. citizens will go to jail if they make a
$1,000 mistake. You could have earned, $10-, $20,000, paid taxes, and
you are forgiven.
The final insult, our tax dollars will go to lawyers that are helping
illegal immigrants become legal. That's right, the bill gives money so
that those people who are here working in agriculture will have other
people who come to them and offer them free legal services to legalize
their status.
Well, another problem, problem number 4. The authors of the bill say
that this bill will end chain migration. But the bill that is going
through the Senate does not end chain migration. Chain migration, just
so people will understand, is when we allow relatives of immigrants who
are already here to come to the country for family unification. They
will do that and get in line before those other people who have been
waiting long, long periods of time to emigrate to the United States.
Well, chain immigration is actually dramatically increased by the
legislation going through the Senate. Now, they claim they have ended
it, but look at what the bill actually does. The bill, right now, there
are 138,000 people who come into our country legally through what they
call this chain migration, you know, family reunification. For 8 years,
they are going to increase that number to 440,000 a year. You get that?
So they say we are not going to change migration, but we are
increasing it. We are tripling it for at least 8 years. Does anyone
really believe that 8 years from now they are going to then end this?
We have tripled chain migration.
The point system, which supposedly will take the place of this chain
migration, is a joke. The merit system will not even kick in until
2016. What year is this? That's 9 years from now. So what you have to
do is you have to take it on faith that the future Congresses won't
scrap this system altogether. But, of course, the merit points are
here, we are talking about, are granted for high demand occupations.
Now, what we are talking about here, of course, is the fact that the
bill over there provides for a guest worker program and for us to
restructure, supposedly restructure the legal immigration coming into
our country, even though, by the way, we all know that by granting
amnesty that will bring tens of millions of more illegals into the
country anyway.
But the legal system, we are going to have a merit system, and we are
going to have people coming into our country to fill jobs like
janitors, maids, gardeners and other low-skilled occupations.
Well, you know, I can see that instead of bringing people in from
overseas by the hundreds of thousands, by the millions, perhaps we
should let the market work and let the pay level of our low-skilled
workers increase so that our own people can get the job. In this
country there are 69 million people of working age who are not working.
People say, well, how are you going to get the people to pick the fruit
and the vegetables? Some jobs they won't do. The President, of course,
has stopped saying they won't do, he says jobs that they aren't doing.
Well, first of all, we have millions upon millions of prisoners. We
have more prisoners who are healthy young men, by and large, 18- to 40
years old, who are sitting in prison doing nothing but pumping up,
watching TV. Let's let them pick the fruits and vegetables. Let's let
them make some money on it. Let's let them help pay for their
incarceration.
No, there are people in our country to do the jobs, but they are not
going to do it for free, and they are not going to do it for a
pittance. I used to work
[[Page H6099]]
as a janitor, yet the janitors make about the same as I made when I was
a janitor. What's different, the GDP has tripled. The janitors are
making about the same amount of money.
Why? Because a flood of illegals have come into this country and bid
down wages. Every middle class American working person has had his
income brought down by illegals. Oh, yes, it's helped the employers,
all right. It's helped the bosses. It's helped the rich people who want
to hire illegal nannies. It's helped the people who want their lawns
mowed because they would have to pay more wages.
They would have to pay the children of the neighborhood perhaps more
than they would pay the illegal immigrant who comes around to mow the
lawn. It's better for our country to have these people who are not
working paid more money and have the people in our middle class pay
more money than bring in millions and millions and millions of people
into this country legally or illegally.
Of course, this country, this system would suggest that we bring them
in illegally. That's what the Senate, the Kennedy bill, wants to do.
We currently have a 15 percent unemployment rate among those in
America with less than a high school education. Why shouldn't we let
them get those jobs? Yes, they might have to pay them more money,
because they would have to attract them to work. That makes more sense
to me than bringing in these people from overseas.
In my own district, I was contacted by people in the health care
industry begging me, say we need nurses and health care people. Well,
officially, they can't find the nurses and the people to work. They
wanted me to support bringing in 100,000 Filipino nurses, 100 now from
Pakistan and India.
But these are high-paying jobs, even the high-paying jobs, they want
to bring in foreigners to do the jobs. No, this $50- to $75,000 health
care job should go to a young American or middle-class American who is
working their way through school. It could be a middle-aged American
person who just wants to upgrade their skills. It should go to that
person.
We went to junior colleges last week during break. I brought all the
junior colleges and the hospital people together to find out why we
didn't have enough people, trained health care people to work. Why was
it a pressure for us to bring people from the outside?
We found out that in our junior colleges where we should be training
these people, that they weren't permitted to pay the instructors of the
people being trained for these health care programs more than they paid
the other instructors who were teaching sociology and political
science.
That just means that these nurses, who can earn more money on the
outside, won't come to be teachers at junior colleges. They have 185
students at Golden West College who are taking nursing, and yet 24,000
students are taking classes that will enable them to get a job selling
clothing at Nordstrom's or being the assistant manager of a 7-Eleven at
$35,000 a year when there are $60,000-a-year jobs that are going
begging in the health care industry, and they want us to bring in
people from the Philippines.
This is wrong. This is a betrayal of the American people to bring
people in from outside our country to bring down wages and take the
jobs away from the American people who need those jobs. This is wrong.
But people say, no, no, we need a comprehensive bill, there is all
this talk about a comprehensive bill. All this talk about a
comprehensive bill is a cover, because every part of the legislation
going through the Senate actually, that will be implemented, that will
be different than the law that exists today, actually encourages the
invasion of our country by illegals and by a massive flow of people
coming into the country even through the legal system.
Do we need a comprehensive bill in order to try to set up those
protections that will protect our border? No. It's already mandated.
That bill actually weakens it.
Do we need something to help us with our visa system? No. You know,
this isn't helped at all by the legislation going through the Senate.
Do we need it in order to have more Border Patrol agents? No we have
already mandated more Border Patrol agents that is required by that
bill. All of those aspects of that legislation are covered for the real
purpose of the bill, which is to legalize the status of 15 to 20
million illegals who are here, which will then create a massive flow of
illegals into this country, which will result in 20 to 30 to 40 million
new illegals in this country within 10 years. We will have lost our
country. Wake up, America. We already have a flood of illegals sweeping
into our country, crowding our classrooms, closing our hospital
emergency rooms, up leashing violent crime, driving down wages. None of
this is theory.
{time} 2200
It is a harsh reality that faces the American people and is borne not
out of academic studies but is being borne out by the life experiences
of American people, the American people across our country.
Middle class America is being destroyed. Our communities are not
safe, our Social Service infrastructure is collapsing, and, yes, it has
everything to do with illegal immigration, immigration that is out of
control. And the bill going through the Senate, once they legalize the
status of all those who are here illegally, there will be five and six
times more illegals, ten times more illegals in our country. And what
will happen then? It'll be lost.
Year after year, while our schools have deteriorated, our jails
filled and our hospitals and emergency rooms shut down, the elite in
this country have turned a blind eye to this disaster that is befalling
the rest of us, their fellow Americans. The elites obscure the issues
and try to maneuver, to keep in place the policies that reward illegal
immigrants with jobs and benefits, just like the bill that's going
through the Senate will reward the illegals who have come into our
country.
This country, the upper class says, can't function without cheap
labor. And it may be cheap to the captains of industry. It may be cheap
to the political elite. But it's painfully expensive to the American
middle class.
It's our kids whose education is being diminished, our families who
are paying thousands more in health insurance to make up for the
hospital costs of those who are giving free services to illegals. It's
our neighborhoods that are suffering from crime, perpetuated by
criminals who have been transported here from other countries. People
who should not be here, criminals who should not be here are raping and
murdering American citizens. More Americans have been murdered by
illegals over the last 5 years than American soldiers have been killed
in Iraq. Yet we hear a cry of pain and agony coming from the Congress
for soldiers who volunteered to go overseas and take their chances. And
what do we hear for the victimized Americans who are being raped and
murdered in greater numbers than those being, the Americans being
killed in Iraq? We don't hear anything except, well, let's, we need a
comprehensive bill, a bill that somehow is going to be fair to the
illegal immigrants who are already here.
Our job is not to be fair with people who have come here illegally,
not to watch out for the benefit of people who are overseas. Our job as
elected officials here, as Members of Congress, is to watch out for the
United States of America and the people of the United States of
America. There's nothing wrong with that. That's not being selfish.
And what do we hear from some of the Senators backing that
legislation, even Republican Senators, as if we're being hateful by
expecting our government to watch out for the benefit of Americans,
rather than giving benefits away, draining our treasuries and giving it
to people who have come here illegally or people in other societies?
This is wrong. It's morally wrong. It's a dereliction of our duty as
people who were elected to watch out for our people.
It's in our neighborhoods that are suffering from crime that's
perpetuated by criminals who are here, as I say, from other countries.
It's our livelihood that's being dragged down as wages are depressed
and anchored down by a constant influx of immigrants, mostly illegal,
some with H1-B visas, who will work for a pittance.
The American people have every right to expect that we're not going
to
[[Page H6100]]
let masses of people come in and bid down their wages; that we're not
going to let people come into this country and give them, like that
bill does, immediate legal status when some of them have communicable
diseases, diseases which are coming into our schools which we licked
years ago, threatening our children.
It is not hateful to say that we have to watch out for our children.
It is not wrong for us to put that as a priority and say, yes, we care
about those overseas, we care about others. But it is not wrong and
hateful and it is not some sort of a selfishness to say we've got to
take care of our own people with our limited resources.
Of course, big business has a hold on the GOP. There's no doubt about
it. I've been in the party for a long time to see the undue influence
that big business has on the party. It's very clear.
Yet big business is in an unholy alliance and the GOP is in an unholy
alliance with the liberal left, the liberal left coalition that
controls the Democratic party. It is this unholy coalition between the
big business element of the Republican party and the liberal left
coalition which dominates the Democratic party that is responsible for
this invasion of our country, this attack to the well-being of our
people. The coalition gives the jobs and passes out the benefits that
have lured tens of millions of illegals into our country.
And it's no accident. This predicament was predictable. Big business
wants to depress wages. The liberal left that controls the Democratic
party wants to have political pawns. They believe that large numbers of
illegals will help them change America, or even large numbers of
newcomers will help them change America.
Well, if you give the jobs and benefits, as this coalition in our
Congress has done for the last 10 years, if you give away the policies
that created the jobs and the benefits that have gone to people who've
come here illegally from overseas, well, if you give them the jobs and
benefits, the masses of the people over there, if you told them that
they are eligible for these benefits and these jobs, they will do
anything to get here. And that's exactly what they've been doing. As
you say, give it, and they will come. Surprise, surprise.
And now, the out-of-touch elite claim this new piece of legislation,
the so-called comprehensive bill will, in some way, fix the immigration
crisis. That's what you hear.
Well, everybody wants a comprehensive bill because we've got to do
something. Doing nothing is better than doing something wrong. Doing
nothing is better than doing something that'll make a problem worse.
And of course the people who say you've got to do something are the
ones who created the problem in the first place.
And, as I said, all of these things that they're trumpeting in the
bill, the new enforcement measures, the security measures, the fence,
the new agents, the employer sanctions, all of these things are already
in place in the law. But we have to give amnesty to illegals and
actually encourage tens of millions more to come here in order to get
that?
It's like Lucy holding out the football for Charlie Brown. This bill
is yet another attempt to trick us as Lucy tricked Charlie every time.
It is an illusion, a scam that will make things worse.
The Senate legislation being touted by Senator Kennedy and the few
Republican senators and our President, as I say, the purpose of that
bill is to legalize the status of 15 to 20 million illegals, which will
then bring tens of millions more. It is a pro-invasion bill. It
behooves all of us, all of us to oppose that legislation because we
love America.
The President has it all wrong. We want to do what's right for
America. That's why we're opposing what he's suggesting.
In that bill, of course, is a provision that would increase the
Border Patrol. And, as I say, the legislation going through the Senate
actually increases the Border Patrol by fewer agents than is already
required that the Border Patrol expand. A great deal has been made out
of that. But let's take a look at what that really means.
Do we really believe that President Bush and this administration and,
yes, those supporting this bill, are supportive of a strong border
control of the fence and strengthening the Border Patrol?
This is an administration that has backed up U.S. attorneys who have
taken Border Patrol agents who have stopped drug smugglers at our
border and thrown the Border Patrol agents in jail for not following
the proper procedures, giving immunity to the drug dealer, and throwing
the book at the people, the law enforcement agents who are trying to
protect us.
As we speak, Ramos and Compeon, two Border Patrol agents who, for 15
years combined in their lives, were risking their lives every day to
protect us. One of them is a 10-year veteran of the Naval Reserve. The
other served in the military before joining the Border Patrol. These
people have clean records.
Yet the U.S. attorney has thrown the book at these folks, these two
brave men, men whose records are clean. And yet he has, the U.S.
attorney claims they are corrupt again by playing word games, just like
his boss. And today, as we debate this bill, these two Border Patrol
agents languish in solitary confinement in Federal prison.
How can anyone claim that they are in favor of the Border Patrol,
strengthening the Border Patrol agents, when this administration has
done so much to demoralize those people in the Border Patrol and to
attack the well-being of those who are protecting us?
The demoralization of our Border Patrol is a grave threat to our
national security and the safety of people. We need to back our Border
Patrol agents. They do not support this legislation. We need to be
strong. We need to make sure that we are doing what is right for the
American people. That is what this battle is all about.
Let's remember those two Border Patrol agents because they symbolize
everything that's wrong with that legislation, everything that's wrong
with the position of the elite in this country. These are just ordinary
men, Ramos and Compeon, who were out trying to protect us, just like
our military people overseas, risking their life. Yet they were told
not to use their weapons on the border, and they did, and they did not
follow the proper procedures, and they were thrown in jail.
Remembering them, remembering what we do right for our own people,
let us oppose this effort to change the immigration laws that would
bring more illegals into our country.
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