Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006
COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM ACT OF 2006--Continued -- (Senate - May 16, 2006)
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Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from New Mexico.
Mr. President, I would like to speak as a member of the Judiciary Committee. I think one of the things we really need to understand about this bill is that it is a very large bill. It is 640 pages long. It contains a multitude of programs. And it--through the visa programs, the nonimmigrant visas--brings in large numbers of people.
I think when we were in Judiciary we did not realize the extent to which large numbers of people are brought in on some of these visas. We were working to a march. We had to get the bill done. And it is my understanding that studies of the bill now on the floor have shown that this bill could allow up to 193 million new legal immigrants. That is a number greater than 60 percent of the current U.S. population in the next 20 years. Now, that is a way-out figure--20 years--but I think we have to begin to look at each of the visa increases over at least the next 10-year period to determine how many people would come in, particularly the guest worker program.
I am happy to cosponsor this amendment with Senator Bingaman. The amendment does two things: it lowers the annual numerical cap from 325,000 of H-2C guest worker visas--and there are a myriad of guest worker visas, but this one is H-2C--to 200,000, and it eliminates the annual escalator.
In my view, all annual escalators in this bill should be eliminated because they bring in too many people over a relatively short period of time. This bill has the potential, as I said, to bring in millions of guest workers over the years. This means that over 6 years--the length of an alien's stay in the United States in this one temporary visa category--there could be 1.2 million workers in the United States.
Under the current proposal, let's say you start at 325,000 guest workers in the first year, and you add the 10-percent escalator. The 10-percent escalator would yield, over 6 years, 2.7 million people. The 15-percent escalator would take it to, over 6 years, 3.2 million people. And if you had the 20-percent escalator, it would take it up to, over 6 years, 3,807,000 people. It is simply too many. So the current bill doubles and even triples the number of foreign guest workers who could enter the United States over the 6 years of our amendment.
I hope this amendment will pass. I would hope that we could eliminate the escalators in these visa programs. The H-1B visa escalator would have a total of 3.67 million people over the next 10 years coming in under an H-1B visa. We increase the H-1B from 56,000 to 115,000, and then we put in a 20-percent escalator each year. If the number of visas reached the 115,000--and it will--therefore, the next year you add 20 percent. Then if that is reached, you add another 20 percent. And it compounds in this manner to the tune of a total of 3.6 million.
I am very concerned about this. I hope the Bingaman amendment will be successful. Again, it does two things. It reduces the base amount from 325,000 to 200,000, and it eliminates the escalator. Two hundred thousand guest workers a year are ample because this is just one part of the bill. There are other visa programs. There is AgJOBS. There is earned adjustment. It all adds up to millions and millions of people.
I strongly support the Bingaman amendment. I urge my colleagues to vote yes.
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