[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.''

                              {time}  2115

  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.

                              {time}  2130

  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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