Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007
Floor Speech
COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM ACT OF 2007--Continued -- (Senate - May 24, 2007)
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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, pending before the Senate and a vote in a few moments is an amendment by the Senator from North Dakota, Mr. Dorgan. It will sunset the guest worker program at 5 years. We will stop at 5 years and take a look at this immigration program and decide whether it is good for America, whether it is fair and just.
I don't believe that is an unreasonable request. I think it is the right thing to do, and I will be supporting that amendment.
I wish to speak to that amendment, but first I wish to say a word about the bill.
Mr. President, 96 years ago, just a few miles from where we are meeting, on July 18, 1911, a woman came down a gangplank in Baltimore, MD. She had just arrived on a voyage from Bremen, Germany. She had a 2-year-old little girl in her arms and two young children, a boy and a girl, by her side. She stepped foot in America in Baltimore and took a train to join up with her husband in a place called East St. Louis, IL.
This woman who brought these three children across the Atlantic didn't speak English. She only knew that her husband was waiting 800 miles away and was making her journey. That woman was my grandmother. The baby in her arms was my mother. That was 96 years ago. Ninety-six years later, the son of that little girl stands as a United States Senator from Illinois. It is a story about America.
This Nation is great because of the immigrants and their sons and daughters who came here and made it great. I am certain that when my mother's family announced to their villagers in Jurbarkas, Lithuania, that they were leaving for America, that they were leaving behind their home, their garden, their church, their history, their language, and their culture and heading someplace where they couldn't even speak the language, I am sure as their neighbors walked away in the darkness that evening they all said the same thing: They'll be back. They'll be back.
They didn't go back. They stayed here. They built America. People similar to them have been building America since the beginning.
This bill is about immigration. It is about a system of immigration that has failed us. It has failed us because 800,000 undocumented illegal people pour across our southern border every year into America. It has failed us because employers welcome these employees, often paying them dirt wages under poor conditions and say to them: We will use you until we don't need you, and then you are on your own.
These immigrants sacrifice for themselves, send their money home, and dream of someday that they will have security and peace of mind. That is the story.
Sadly, we have 10 or 12 million now in our country who came that way, with no legality or documentation.
I salute Senator Kennedy and those who brought this bill to the floor. They have worked long and hard for years to deal with this issue honestly. They have to fight the talk show hosts who are on every afternoon screaming about immigration with not one positive thought of what we can do about it. Instead, Senator Kennedy and many like him have stood up and said: We will risk our political reputation by putting this measure before America. Let's do something and fix this broken immigration system.
I salute them for that--for border enforcement, for workplace enforcement, for dealing honestly, fairly, legally, in an American way with the 12 million people who are here.
The amendment before us addresses one part. It addresses the guest worker program. As written in this bill, we would allow 400,000 people a year to come into America and work as temporary workers, and that number could increase. By action of the Senate yesterday, we reduced the 400,000 to 200,000.
Do we need 200,000 guest workers every year in America? I don't know the answer to that. I can tell you today that among college graduates in America, the unemployment rate is 1.8 percent. The unemployment rate for high school graduates is 7 percent. It tells me that there is a pool of untapped talent in America.
Do we need 200,000 people coming from overseas each year to supplement our workforce? I don't know the answer to that question. There are those who insist we do and some who say we don't. And that is why Senator Dorgan's amendment is important. It says we will try the 200,000 a year for 5 years and then stop and assess where we are, what has happened to wages of American workers, what has happened to businesses that need additional workers. We can make an honest assessment at that point. If we see American wages going down, if we see the unemployment rate of Americans going up, we may want to calibrate, reconsider.
His is a thoughtful and reasonable approach. Senator Kennedy has said, and he is right, that we establish standards of treatment for these guest workers that are dramatically better than what they face today. There is gross exploitation taking place. We know that.
Many of these undocumented, illegal workers are treated very kindly, but many are exploited. We know the stories. we hear them, we read about them.
We can change that, and we should. A great nation should not allow people to be exploited in this way.
It is not inconsistent to say that we will have a limited number of guest workers, that we will treat them fairly and honestly and in a decent manner, with decent wages, and then step back in 5 years and make an assessment of where we are. I think that is a reasonable approach to take.
There are many positive provisions in this bill, but the one thing that troubles me is the idea of guest workers being here for 2 years and leaving, creating a rotating class of people with little investment in the United States. How will that work? We already know the answer to that question. That is what European nations are doing today. They are bringing in people from former colonies and other countries. The Turks are coming into Germany, Africans coming into France, but they never become part of those countries. They are always the workforce. They become angry. They become dispossessed. They riot in the streets because they have no investment in that country in which they are working. They are being exploited and used. I don't want to see that happen in America. I want those who are living here to be vested in this country and its values and its ideals.
Finally, let me say that when it comes to guest workers and H-1B visas, where we invite higher skilled workers, our first obligation is to the workers of America, those who are unemployed and those who have the American dream but just need an American chance. As we look at each of these categories of workers, let us make certain that the first question we ask and answer is, are we dedicated to the workers and the families across America to make sure they have a fighting chance to realize the same American dream my mother realized when she came off the boat.
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Mr. DURBIN. If he would be kind enough to share with us a copy of the modification, if it is routine, there will be no problem. I object at this moment until he does. I will be glad to work with him and the chairman once we have seen a copy.
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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I wish to first describe what I am going to try to do at this moment so all Senators will know. I am going to ask unanimous consent that we set aside the pending Sanders amendment for the purpose of offering an amendment which I am going to offer and then, after a brief comment of 3 to 5 minutes, I will ask unanimous consent to return to the Sanders amendment as the pending business before the Senate. I don't wish to mislead anybody about what I am doing. This should be a total of about 5 minutes, and we will be back where we started. My amendment will be at the desk for later consideration.
I make that unanimous consent request to set aside the pending Sanders amendment for the purpose of offering my amendment.
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Mr. DURBIN. I say to the Senator from Alabama through the Chair, I will be completed in 3 to 5 minutes, and we will be in exactly the same place we started. The Sanders amendment will be pending with no other requirements under the unanimous consent request.
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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I offer this amendment on behalf of myself and Senator Grassley. The new Y guest worker program included in the immigration bill would require employers to recruit Americans before hiring a guest worker. That is our first obligation. If there is a job opening in America, an American should have the first chance to get it. That is the intent of the bill, but there is one loophole. The loophole allows the Secretary of Labor to declare a labor shortage and then waive the requirement of offering the job to an American. We don't define what a labor shortage is. This amendment removes that right of the Secretary of Labor.
What it means is, as there are job openings, they will always be offered first to Americans. Shouldn't that be our starting point, always offer the job first to an American, to see if an unemployed person or someone else wants to take it? Then if the job is not filled, we can consider other options. We know when it comes to H-1B visas, which are visas offered to skilled workers to come into this country to fill in gaps for engineers and architects and professionals, there have been abuses. When we had the openings for the H-1B visas, opportunities for people to come into this country, it turned out that 7 out of the 10 firms that won the right to offer H-1B visas were not American companies trying to fill spots where they couldn't find Americans. They turned out to be foreign companies that were outsourcing workers to the United States, exactly the opposite of what we had hoped for. We don't want that to happen with the temporary guest worker program. This amendment would eliminate this jobs shortage exception. It would require that in temporary guest worker positions, the first job offering always be to an American. It is simple. Senator Grassley and I offer it. It is supported by the AFL-CIO and the building trades unions, the laborers and Teamsters, many other organizations. I urge my colleagues, when we return after our Memorial Day recess, to consider this amendment. It is a very important amendment to stand faithful to our first obligation, our people in America who are looking for jobs.
I ask unanimous consent to set my amendment aside and return to the Sanders amendment as the pending amendment before the Senate.
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Mr. DURBIN. May I ask the Senator from Massachusetts and the Senator from Pennsylvania to consider the following--if we could enter into a unanimous consent request that would allow the Senator from Alabama to lay down his amendments, to speak, and then withdraw the amendments, returning to the Sanders amendment, and have unanimous consent at a time certain that we would have a vote on the Sanders amendment; would that be agreeable?
I would like to make that unanimous consent request, if the Senator from Alabama can tell us how much time he would need.
Mr. SESSIONS. Madam President, I would prefer to have a vote on my amendment tonight, if we could do so. I would be reluctant to have another vote if we can't have a vote on the amendment I will offer.
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, the Senator from Vermont has been here all day waiting for this opportunity and has patiently waited as several suggested rollcalls have passed by. In fact, one was to be at 5 o'clock. Without prejudicing the Senator from Alabama, I have a pending amendment, too, or had one earlier, which I am willing to wait until after the recess to consider. I think it might be a gesture of fairness to allow the Senator from Vermont to have his vote this evening, whether the Senator and I get our chance or not. We will be back after Memorial Day.
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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I say to the Senator, I have been informed by staff that his amendment has not been filed, and we have not seen a copy of it. Senator Feingold, who earlier had an amendment, stepped aside so Senator Sanders would have his chance. I say to the Senator from Alabama, it appears some who have been waiting all day are looking for a chance for a vote, and the Senator from Alabama is asking for consideration of an amendment that has not been filed and we have not seen.
Madam President, I say to the Senator, could I ask unanimous consent that the Senator from Alabama be recognized to offer an amendment and that he then be recognized for up to 15 minutes; that following his remarks, the Senate resume consideration of the Sanders amendment and there be 2 minutes of debate prior to a vote in relation to the Sanders amendment, with no second-degree amendment in order to the Sanders amendment prior to the vote?
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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I will renew my unanimous consent request and see if the Senator from Alabama will find it acceptable.
I ask unanimous consent that Senator Sessions be recognized to offer two amendments and be given up to 15 minutes to speak to those amendments; that following his remarks, the Senate resume consideration of the Sanders amendment and there be 2 minutes of debate prior a vote in relation to that amendment, equally divided, with no second-degree amendments in order to the Sanders amendment prior to the vote.
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