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Immigration
Illegal Immigration * The
9/11 Commission Implementation Act *
The President's Immigration Proposal *
Bolstering the U.S. Border Patrol
* Criminal Visa Denial Act * H-1B
and L-1 Temporary Worker Visas * Drivers
Licenses and Foreign Identification *
Illegal Immigration
I support increasing legal immigration, while vigorously
reducing illegal immigration.
The first responsibility of a nation is to protect its borders.
As a nation of laws, we must defend our borders and also enforce
all our immigration, employment and tax laws.
An underground economy corrupts our society and places additional
burdens on those who play by the rules, so we must ensure
businesses hire legal residents and pay all required taxes.
To assist employers, we should establish a tamper proof Social
Security card to be used by all Americans and legal immigrants.
At the same time, one of America's strengths is the continual
flow of new immigrants who take jobs others don't want and
see opportunities others ignore. I believe we should open
our doors to more legal immigrants and allow them guest worker
privileges and the opportunity to study here.
The hard issue is how to deal with the 13 million immigrants
who have come here illegally. The fact is we are not going
to send them home because it would not be practical or humane.
I believe we should allow these immigrants to stay and work
here legally, but not put them on a path to citizenship.
I oppose granting illegal immigrants amnesty by giving them
a path to citizenship unless they go home, apply for legal
entry, and wait in line like everyone else who plays by the
rules.
To enhance our border security and strengthen our immigration
laws, I voted for H.R. 4437, the Border Protection, Antiterrorism,
and Illegal Immigration Control Act, which passed the House
by a vote of 239 to 182 on December 16, 2005. This legislation
would crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants
by requiring them to verify the Social Security numbers and
alien identification numbers of their prospective, current
and former employees and increasing fines for businesses that
continue to hire illegal immigrants.
This bill would authorize additional police and surveillance
equipment on our borders, require the construction of additional
fencing on our southern border, and direct the Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) to work with the Department of
Defense (DoD) to formulate a plan for increasing the availability
and use of military equipment to assist with the surveillance
of the border.
This legislation would make it a felony to be in the U.S.
illegally and would expand penalties for those who enter illegally
or are residing illegally after conviction of certain crimes.
I voted for an amendment that would have reduced the felony
to a misdemeanor. Unfortunately, this amendment failed by
a vote of 164 to 257. Failure of this amendment to pass put
me in a position of voting on a good, tough and fair border
security bill that had harsher penalties than many of us wanted.
Regretfully, part of the problem we have encountered with
immigration is due to the Mexican government. It is important
we stand up to Mexican President Vicente Fox, who not only
promotes illegal immigration, but also demands amnesty for
illegal Mexicans while advocating open borders with the United
States. I share the anger expressed by many residents of Connecticut's
Fourth Congressional District when I see illegal immigrants
marching our streets and demanding rights while waving foreign
flags. In my judgment, these immigrants are not even guests
and do not have the right to demand anything but to be treated
humanely.
You may be interested to know, I support making English the
official language of the United States government, and am
a cosponsor of H.R. 997, the English Unity Act, which is legislation
that would do so. While we should encourage all Americans
to speak other languages, it is imperative American citizens
have schools that teach courses in English, signs that are
written in English and a government that conducts its business
in English.
I also believe we can't continue to grant automatic U.S.
citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants, and I am
cosponsoring a constitutional amendment and legislation to
do so. I believe a person born in the United States should
only become citizen if a parent is a U.S. citizen, is lawfully
present in the United States or has lawful immigration status
at the time of the birth.
While the problem of immigration is not an easy issue, it
is imperative we do everything we can to find common ground
and resolve this crisis.
The 9/11 Commission Implementation Act
I strongly supported S.
2845, which was renamed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism
Prevention Act. On December 7, 2004, I voted for S.
2845 when it passed the House by a vote of 336 to 75. The
Senate passed S. 2845 the following day and the President
signed it into law on December 17.
This legislation is based on the 9-11 Commission's recommendations
and makes significant reforms to U.S. intelligence agencies.
S. 2845 also institutes reforms in a broad range of other
areas, including aviation security, maritime security, emergency
responders, public diplomacy, and law enforcement.
S. 2845 makes several improvements to our border security
and immigration system. This legislation will require state
driver's licenses and birth certificates to bear a set of
standard characteristics, thereby making it more difficult
for terrorists or illegal aliens to falsify identification
to gain admission and remain in the country. In addition,
S. 2845 doubles the current number of border patrol officers
to 10,000 over the next 5 years, and increases the number
of full-time Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators
by 4,000 over the next 5 years. This legislation also provides
the Department of Homeland Security with the authority to
remove aliens by making visa revocation grounds for removal.
While I support broader immigration reforms, including prohibiting
illegal aliens from obtaining driver's licenses, in my judgment
it would have been a mistake had Congress voted down the vital
intelligence reforms which had been agreed upon because these
provisions were lacking. I am confident we can enact strong
immigration reforms in the next Congress, and look forward
to working with my colleagues to see that this is done.
The President's Immigration Proposal
There is no question we must take steps to repair our broken
immigration system, and I believe the President took a bold
step by restarting a national dialogue on this issue last
year. Although the President's proposal was never introduced
in the House of Representatives as legislation, I share the
concerns of many residents of the Fourth Congressional District
about the outline of the plan.
The President's proposal as he presented it in January 2004
would create a new temporary worker program to match willing
foreign workers with willing U.S. employers when no Americans
can be found to fill the jobs. The program would be open to
new foreign workers, and to undocumented men and women currently
employed in the United States. To obtain a temporary work
visa, the workers would have to pay a one-time fee to register
in the program, abide by the rules, and return home after
their period of work expires. The President's plan also envisions
an opportunity for visa renewal, although future enrollment
would only be open to persons not currently present in the
United States.
In addition to the guest worker program, the President's proposal
would require U.S. companies make every reasonable effort
to find an American to fill a job before extending job offers
to foreign workers. The proposal suggests improved enforcement
against companies that break the law and hire illegal workers,
and better control of our national borders by entering into
agreements with countries whose nationals participate in the
program. The proposal also supports a reasonable increase
in the annual limit of legal immigrants.
The President has also suggested the extension of economic
incentives for immigrants to return to their native country.
To accomplish this goal, the United States would work with
other countries to allow aliens working here to receive credit
in their nations' retirement systems and would support the
creation of tax-preferred savings accounts they can collect
when they return to their native countries.
While I support some elements of the proposal, such as increasing
legal immigration and strengthening enforcement of our existing
immigration laws, it seems to me the President's proposal
could ultimately turn into an amnesty program for the workers
participating in the program. I oppose granting amnesty to
those who've broken our immigration laws. After working legally
in the United States for six years it may be difficult to
convince these workers to return to their native country.
Bolstering the U.S. Border Patrol
To combat illegal immigration, I support increasing the size
of the U.S. Border Patrol from 5,000 to 10,000 personnel.
During consideration of H.R. 4200, the National Defense Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 2005, Congressman Virgil Goode offered
an amendment to authorize the Secretary of Defense to temporarily
assign up to 10,000 full-time Department of Defense personnel
to help control our borders. I voted for the amendment, which
passed the House by a vote of 231 to 191. Unfortunately this
provision was dropped from the final version of the legislation.
Criminal Visa Denial Act
Effective border security begins with our embassies abroad,
where U.S. visas are issued. Based on information gathered
by the Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security,
which I chair, I introduced the Criminal Alien Visa Denial
Act to ensure the State Department and INS have access to
US criminal databases before they let aliens into the country.
I am pleased this legislation was included in the USA PATRIOT
Act, comprehensive anti-terrorism legislation, which was signed
into law by President Bush on October 26, 2001.
Before enactment of the Criminal Alien Visa Denial Act, the
State Department and INS lacked the ability to access the
FBI's National Criminal Information Center's Interstate Identification
Index database. That meant an alien could come into our country,
commit a crime, leave, and get a reentry visa from our State
Department or cross the border without being stopped.
Strengthening national security, particularly border security,
against dispersed but deadly criminals and terrorists requires
interagency cooperation and coordination on an unprecedented
scale. The modern threat demands a more systematic collection
and dissemination of the information needed to identify suspect
or prevent known criminals from entering the United States.
The gap in data-sharing between Departments is being closed
because of the Criminal Visa Alien Denial Act.
H-1B and L-1 Temporary Worker Visas
I support creating a floating cap for H-1B visas that can
appropriately respond to the conditions of the U.S. labor
market.
In my judgment, a static cap on the number of H-1B and other
employment-based visas is counter-productive. When our economy
is good and unemployment is low, it is beneficial to have
a higher number of work visas to meet the needs of American
employers. When our economy is less strong and Americans are
having difficulty finding jobs, our government is harming
our own citizens by allowing employers to bring in foreign
workers to do jobs that Americans are willing to do.
A labor shortage in the late 1990s, particularly in high-technology
fields, prompted Congress to temporarily increase the number
of H-1B visas. This increase, which expired on October 1,
2003, gradually raised the H-1B cap from 65,000 to 195,000.
When this legislation expired, the cap returned to the original
limit of 65,000. No legislation has been introduced to extend
the increased cap.
The economic prosperity of the 1990s fueled a drive to increase
the levels of employment-based immigration. During that period,
a scarcity of trained American workers threatened our nation's
economic growth. H-1B visas enabled American technology firms
to recruit and retain educated and skilled foreign workers,
provided there was a demonstrated labor shortage among American
workers.
During the last Congress, I was an original cosponsor of
H.R. 2702, the L-1 Non-Immigrant Reform Act. This legislation
makes comprehensive reforms to the laws governing L-1 visas,
which are used to temporarily transfer managers and executives
from a foreign country to the United States.
I am concerned multinational corporations are abusing these
visas. H.R. 2702 limits L-1 visas to 35,000 per year, prohibits
granting an L-1 visa to any corporations that has recently
laid off an American worker, limits the number of years L-1
visa holders may stay in the United States, and prohibits
corporations from outsourcing L-1 visa holders as subcontractors.
Times have changed, and our economy has changed. It is imperative
that we closely monitor the workforce needs of American businesses,
and adjust our employment-based immigration laws accordingly.
Drivers Licenses and Foreign Identification
I am opposed to granting driving privileges and providing
identification cards to people who are illegally present in
the United States. During the last Congress I was a cosponsor
of H.R.
1121, the Drivers' License Integrity Act, which requires
non-immigrants to have a valid visa in order to receive a
state drivers' license. In my judgment, tightening access
to state-issued identification cards is an important and necessary
improvement to our homeland security.
I was also a cosponsor of H.R. 3235, the Responsible and
Secure ID Act. This legislation would withhold one quarter
of federal transportation funds from states that do not require
proof of citizenship or legal status in the United States
in order to obtain a license.
Drivers licenses are a verifiable form of identification
in the United States. Providing such identification cards
to people who are illegally present in our country grants
them access to privileges that, in my judgment, should be
reserved for those who obey our laws.
I was also a cosponsor of H.R. 687, the Identification Integrity
Act, which prohibits federal employees from accepting foreign
issued identification, with the exception of passports, to
establish identity. Because it is difficult to determine the
authenticity of foreign identification cards, these documents
provide a gaping loophole for illegal immigrants.
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