Reform Our Outdated Immigration Laws and Policies

REFORM OUR OUTDATED IMMIGRATION LAWS AND POLICIES -- (Extensions of Remarks - May 21, 2004)

SPEECH OF
HON. BRAD CARSON
OF OKLAHOMA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
THURSDAY, MAY 20, 2004

Mr. CARSON of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge that Congress make it a top priority to reform our outdated immigration laws and policies.

The tragic events of September 11th awakened most Americans to the fact that our immigration system is seriously flawed and overwhelmed by the massive numbers of foreign visitors and immigrants flowing through it into our country. We all saw then that immigration policy has serious national security impacts and weaknesses. Since that time, Congress and the Executive Branch have made a number of statutory, regulatory and policy changes that have addressed from a homeland security perspective some of the many systemic flaws in thus immigration process. Of course, a great deal remains to be done to ensure appropriate levels of safety for America.

We still have 12 to 15 million, or even more, foreign immigrants living and working here illegally. Fortunately, most are not security threats and are simply seeking to improve their economic status by working here where they can make much more than in their home countries. But, undoubtedly some number are here to do us harm either as terrorists, or, more likely, by engaging in criminal activities. We must continue working to identify and expel those who pose such public safety threats.

We also must address the fundamental issue of reducing the extraordinary immigration numbers that we are experiencing year after year. I believe that immigration is a good thing, and most immigrants are good people, here seeking the American Dream. However, I have no doubt that the extremely high numbers of legal and illegal immigrants we have been allowing to come here in recent years represent "too much of a good thing"-numbers matter, and simply put, our immigration numbers, two-thirds of which are due to legal admissions, are excessive. This is especially so given the changing nature of America's labor markets, where low-skilled workers find their jobs disappearing or wages stagnating. Our labor market clearly does not need the roughly 1 ½ million new immigrants who move to the United States every year. Inordinately high numbers of immigrants, most of whom are less educated and relatively low skilled are having real, and often adverse, impacts on American life.

Citizens and earlier immigrants, who often remain lower skilled and less educated, are suffering serious job and wage losses due to the continuing massive cheap foreign labor inflows. Such problems would be greatly lessened if we reduce both legal and illegal immigration to more moderate and sustainable levels. Congress today has the power to do so, by reviewing legal immigration policy and by genuinely enforcing a policy against illegal immigration.

We have been experiencing such a large immigrant inflow now for several decades due both to lax enforcement and more importantly to statutory changes made in the 1980s and 1990s that opened the immigration floodgates to an unprecedented degree. Congress essentially reset the immigration thermostat and forgot about it, despite the increasingly obvious and serious impacts this has been having.

Congress can no longer ignore the immigration numbers issue. In addition to ensuring better enforcement of our laws so as to radically curtail illegal inflows, we must readjust legal admission policies to ensure that legal immigration fits the reality of America's 21st century labor market. It has been recognized for years by those who have bothered to examine how our current system works that statutory changes are needed to eliminate a number of unnecessary admission categories. For example, the Immigration Reform Commission, chaired by the late Rep. Barbara Jordan, recommended repealing the visa lottery, which allows thousands of people to come here merely because their name was drawn in a lottery, and the extended family visa categories which spawn literally endless chain migration.

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 migration. 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 Leadership and the Judiciary Committee to act to bring the bill before the full House for action, and to advance other legislation to ensure that our legal immigration policy, coupled with our blind eye toward illegal immigration, are reviewed.

END