[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 200 (Thursday, December 22, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S10078]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           IMMIGRATION POLICY

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, throughout my 48 years in the Senate, I 
worked to uphold the American tradition of a humane immigration policy 
and fought to advance comprehensive immigration reform. As an advocate 
for refugees and asylum seekers fleeing violence and persecution around 
the world, I have been committed to allocating resources to help 
welcome these vulnerable individuals and families to my home State. And 
I did my best to directly support the Vermont communities that do so 
much to help resettle and embrace them.
  My office also has directly assisted thousands of Vermonters with 
visas, refugee resettlement, asylum, and other immigration casework. 
Over the past 48 years, this work has helped children and adults 
receive lifesaving medical treatment by enabling nurses, doctors, and 
dentists to join our short-staffed hospitals and clinics. It has also 
helped H-2A farmworkers to arrive in Vermont in time for harvest, work 
that is critical to our food supply and the success of our farms. My 
office has assisted students, scholars, engineers, musicians, athletes, 
and so many others to participate in and help grow our educational 
institutions and workforce, in the process often reuniting families 
separated for years. My staff and I have had the honor of witnessing 
Vermonters of all ages and from all walks of life realize their dreams 
to become citizens of the United States of America.
  Working with Vermonters with diverse backgrounds from all across the 
globe, I have come to know their struggles and hardships as well as 
their successes and achievements. Some were fleeing war and 
persecution, others pursuing their own dreams and seeking a better life 
for their children. With great courage and determination and the 
assistance of so many caring and generous Vermonters, these New 
Americans have not only improved their own lives, they have also 
brought a great and lasting benefit to our State. Vermont, like the 
rest of this great Nation, is built on the contributions of immigrants.
  The stories I hear from Vermonters who call my office has helped to 
inform my work in Washington. After countless concerned Vermonters 
contacted my office as tens of thousands of Afghans fled persecution, I 
used my position as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee to 
ensure adequate resources were available for resettlement in Vermont 
and elsewhere in the U.S. And when Ukrainians fled Russian attacks on 
their country to find safety in Vermont and elsewhere in the U.S., we 
appropriated funds to help them.
  As former chair and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, 
I played a central role in shaping Federal immigration policy. At the 
forefront of my immigration priorities was passing legislation that 
incorporated the needs of Vermont agriculture and industry because I 
have long recognized the value immigration reform can have on state and 
local economies.
  I also sponsored the H-2A Improvement Act, a bill to include dairy 
workers in the agricultural work visa program. And I have been a lead 
sponsor of the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits, and Security 
Act to legalize the existing undocumented agricultural workforce in 
order to help America's farmers stay a productive and a vital part of 
the American economy.
  While the reforms I believe are needed across our entire immigration 
system have not yet been completed, I am proud that during the 113th 
Congress, the Senate made significant progress toward this goal by 
passing S.744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and 
Immigration Modernization Act, with an overwhelming bipartisan vote. 
This legislation sought to enhance border security, create a workable 
and accurate electronic workplace verification system, reform some of 
the legal immigration system, and provide a tough but achievable 
pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented 
immigrants in the country. It contained important long-standing 
initiatives that would directly benefit Vermont agriculture and 
industry, including important improvements to the agricultural 
temporary worker visa program, and reforms that both streamlined and 
strengthened oversight of the job-creating immigrant investor EB-5 
Regional Center Program.
  Nearly a decade ago, I re-introduced the Refugee Protection Act. This 
bill would improve protections for refugees and asylum seekers and 
fulfill the U.S. obligations under the 1951 Convention Relating to the 
Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. And I was a leading voice to 
demand an end to the expanded use of family detention for mothers and 
children fleeing violence in Central America. Beginning in 2003, I 
fought to end discrimination based on sexual orientation in our 
immigration laws through the Uniting American Families Act, legislation 
that would allow U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to 
petition for their foreign same-sex partners to come to the United 
States through the family immigration system. In June 2013, the Supreme 
Court decided United States v. Windsor, which held that the Federal 
Government cannot discriminate against married same-sex couples for the 
purpose of Federal benefits and responsibilities. The result was the 
fulfillment of my goal to ensure that married same-sex couples have 
full immigration rights.
  Thirty years ago, I visited a refugee camp. I brought my camera, as I 
do everywhere, so that I could show people back in Washington the human 
toll of an issue. A man there encouraged me to take his picture. I 
looked at his worn and weary face through the range finder. We sat and 
talked afterward, and he said simply: ``Don't forget people like me.'' 
The black and white photo hung above my desk for 30 years; every day I 
came to work, he looked at me, saying, ``You don't know my name, you 
don't speak my language, there's nothing I can do to help you--but what 
are you doing for people like me?'' That photo and the question it 
provokes helped guide my approach to immigration legislation and other 
policy areas over the years.
  So much more needs to be done, but we must also remember our 
accomplishments and always honor the immigrants who have made this 
country a great nation.

                          ____________________