Limiting Flow of Legal Immigration

LIMITING FLOW OF LEGAL IMMIGRATION -- (House of Representatives - May 05, 2004)

(Mr. BARRETT of South Carolina asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. BARRETT of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, while I believe that illegal immigration must be stopped, there is nothing wrong with allowing a moderate level of legal immigration. Immigrants have contributed greatly over the years to our Nation and our economy, and society should accommodate several hundred thousand new legal immigrants annually.

However, we can never realistically accept but a tiny fraction of the tens of millions who would love to migrate here each year, and we can no longer allow a million new legal immigrants to come and work here.

For starters, I believe that we need to reduce legal admission numbers by ending the visa lottery and the so-called extended family categories that fuel foreign worker inflow by chain immigration. A positive first step at reforming our outdated immigration laws would be to pass H.R. 775, the Goodlatte bill that repeals the visa lottery.

As a cosponsor of that bill, I urge the House of Representatives leadership and Committee on the Judiciary to act to
bring the bill before the full House for action and to advance other legislation to cut down legal foreign worker inflows to more moderate levels.