Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I rise to speak on my amendment No. 1504, cosponsored by Senators MURRAY, MURKOWSKI, BOXER, GILLIBRAND, CANTWELL, STABENOW, KLOBUCHAR, WARREN, BALDWIN, MIKULSKI, LANDRIEU, SHAHEEN, and LEAHY. I ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment.

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Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, the immigration bill clearly and inadvertently disadvantages women who are trying to immigrate to the United States. The bill, S. 744, reduces the opportunities for immigrants to come under the family-based green cards system.

The new merit-based point system for employment green cards will significantly disadvantage women who want to come to this country, particularly unmarried women.

Many women overseas do not have the same educational or career-advancement opportunities available to men in those countries. This new merit-based system will prioritize green cards for immigrants with high levels of education or experience. By favoring these immigrants, the bill in effect cements into U.S. immigration law unfairness against women. That is not the way to go.

The bill inadvertently restricts the opportunities available to women across the globe. Currently, approximately 70 percent of immigrant women come to this country through the family-based system. Employment-based visas favor men over women by nearly a 4-to-1 margin as they place a premium on male-dominated fields such as engineering and computer science. But across the globe women do not have the same educational or career opportunities as men.

Immigrant women make many contributions and positive impacts to communities. Economically, women are increasingly the primary breadwinners in immigrant families. They often bring additional income, making it more likely for the family to open small businesses and purchase homes. In addition, women provide stability and permanent roots, as they are more likely to follow through on the citizenship application process for themselves and their families.

Ensuring that women have an equal opportunity to come here is not an abstract policy cause to me. When I was a young girl, my mother brought my brothers and me to this country in order to escape an abusive marriage. My life would be completely different if my mother wasn't able to take on that courageous journey. I want women like her--women like my mother--who don't have the opportunities to succeed in their own countries to be able to build a better life for themselves here.

The Hirono-Murray-Murkowski amendment evens the playing field for women. This amendment would establish a tier 3 merit-based point system
that would provide a fair opportunity for women to compete for merit-based green cards. Complementary to the high-skilled tier 1 and lower skilled tier 2, the new tier 3 would include professions commonly held by women so as not to limit women's opportunities for economic-focused immigration to this country. This system would provide 30,000 tier 3 visas and would not reduce the visas available in the other two merit-based tiers, while maintaining the overall cap on merit-based visas.

This amendment is supported by We Belong Together: Women for Common-Sense Immigration Reform; the Asian-American Justice Center; the National Domestic Workers Association; the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; Church World Service; Family Values at Work; National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum; MomsRising; National Immigration Law Center; American Immigration Lawyers Association; National Organization for Women; Center for Community Change; Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services; the Episcopal Church; Unitarian Universalist Association; United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; Catholic Charities USA; Caring Across Generations; Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles; American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees; Sisters of Mercy; Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance; AFL-CIO; the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America; the National Council of La Raza; the United Methodist Church; National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance; Hispanic Federation; Service Employees International Union; Immigration Equality Action Fund; Out4Immigration; Sojourners; and Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO.

I believe our amendment would address the disparities for women in the new merit-based system, and the dozens of organizations I mentioned believe likewise.

Let's work together to improve the new merit-based immigration system and make this bill better for women.

I yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum.

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Ms. HIRONO. Yes.

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