[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13471]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           IMMIGRATION REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, as I raise this issue with my 
colleagues, first I want to acknowledge that I believe that there are a 
number of efforts trying to make their way through the House and Senate 
on immigration reform that really should give us an opportunity to have 
a degree of synergism to respond to the concerns of the American 
people.
  I rise today because I just finished a hearing in the Subcommittee on 
Immigration and Claims on the important topic of employer sanctions. It 
would seem we should have agreement that employers should be penalized 
when they engage in the hiring of undocumented aliens. But 
interestingly enough, there is not agreement. The business community is 
particularly sensitive to this, claiming they are not able to find 
enough workers to fill these jobs. Then, of course, I think the AFL-CIO 
has a meritorious argument that when you enforce employer sanctions, 
employers who are unscrupulous will then enforce them against innocent 
persons, some documented and some undocumented, by either massively 
firing them or punishing them with lower wages and bad working 
conditions.
  Interestingly enough, those who are fired will go out the door and 
that unscrupulous employer will then find others who are more timid to 
fulfill those jobs and they themselves may be undocumented. There are 
many issues that cannot be handled piecemeal.
  Let me share another thought that came up in the hearing. There is a 
basic pilot program that requires employers to provide certain 
documentation when they hire an individual. Interestingly enough, only 
a few of the employers around the Nation can participate. Why? Because 
we have not given the Department of Homeland Security enough dollars to 
work the program beyond it being a pilot program.
  It was also brought to our attention that maybe we should look to 
those who make the fraudulent documents and find a way to weed them 
out.
  What this Nation really needs is comprehensive immigration reform. 
And so I offer to my colleagues the Save America Comprehensive 
Immigration Act of 2005. It is H.R. 2092. We call it the fix-it bill. 
There are many fine efforts going through the United States Congress. 
But what I think immigrants need is a bill that fixes some of the 1996 
immigration reform effort.
  So we start off by focusing on family-based immigration by increasing 
the allocation of family-based visas. In speaking to a group of 
IndoAmericans, it was sad to hear the complaint about not being able to 
have loved ones come to the United States simply for a visit or simply 
to visit relatives in the United States that are ill or having some 
event. I have heard that from many, many immigrant communities around 
America, many of them documented with status, but yet they cannot 
invite their relatives to visit.
  Another issue is protection against processing delays. Many offices 
have had to deal with constituents of Members when they call the 
various centers that deal with immigration where they have lost 
paperwork or lost fingerprints, stopping the good flow of immigration.
  This bill includes acquisition of citizenship for children born 
abroad and out of wedlock to a United States citizen father. It allows 
aunts, uncles or grandparents to adopt orphaned or abandoned children 
of the deceased relative so it does not leave in limbo children outside 
of the country who have a United States citizen father, or orphaned 
children here in the United States who do not have an immediate parent, 
a mother or father.
  It provides earned access to legalization. We run away from the 
language of amnesty only because people give it just a bad name. But we 
give earned access to people who are hardworking and providing income 
and taxes to the United States. We realize that intelligence, meaning 
keeping the bad guys out, is important so we provide more resources for 
border security. And we understand the issues of OTMs, other than 
Mexicans, that are coming across the border, maybe some who may want to 
do us harm, and we want to build up security at the northern and 
southern border.
  Employment-based immigration. We want to deal with the unfair 
immigration-related employment practices, and we have in this 
particular legislation protection for American jobs. We have in this 
legislation training of Americans and the ability for an employer to 
have to attest that they cannot find an American for this job before 
they can hire someone who is not a citizen of the United States of 
America.
  We address the question of removal waivers. We address the question 
of diversity visas.
  Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, we address the question of the violence 
against women who happen to be undocumented. This is a comprehensive 
approach to the broken immigration system. I for one look forward to 
working with my colleagues and to give a hearing to all of the 
immigration bills that bring together the various thought processes of 
this Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike. Until we open the door 
to listening to all of us who have these ideas, we are not going to 
move immigration reform along.
  I call on the chairmen and ranking members of our respective hearings 
to call for hearings in the House and the Senate on this important 
legislation and the legislation of my colleagues so we can finally 
answer the concerns of the American people.

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