SENATOR HUTCHISON SPEAKS ON THE SENATE IMMIGRATION BILL

Madam President, I did wish to speak, however, on what I hope to do with this bill. I think there are some very good features of this bill. It has been negotiated really for years. The good features are the border security and we do have benchmarks that are required to be done before any temporary worker program or dealing with the backlog of people who are in our country illegally begins.

We will have benchmarks that are finite for border security. That is a good feature of this bill. It also has a temporary worker program going forward. I think it is essential, if we are going to have border security in the future in this country, that we have a temporary worker program that works. If we do not have a temporary worker program that works, we will not have border security. Many people are not putting that together, but it is essential that you put it together because if we do not have a way for people to come into this country and fill the jobs that are being unfilled because we do not have enough workers who will do those jobs, then we will never be able to control our borders.

I am supportive of those parts of the bill. What I cannot support in this bill and what I am going to try to make a positive effort to change are basically two areas. First is the amnesty portion of the Z visa. It would allow people to come to this country illegally, stay here, and if they do not wish to have a green card, they would never have to return. And that visa would be able to be renewed as long as the person wanted to stay here and work. I will offer an amendment at the appropriate time that will take the amnesty out of the bill and require that before a person can work in this country legally, if they are here illegally, they would have to go home and apply from outside the country. We will have a time that will allow that to happen in an orderly way, probably 2 years after the person gets their temporary card when they register to say they are in our country illegally, which they will be required to do. Then they would have 2 years from the time they get that first temporary card to go home and register at home to come in our country legally.

I think taking out the amnesty part of this bill would be a major step in the right direction, to say, for people who are here illegally today, they can get right with the law by applying from home, just as all future workers will have to do. So there would not be an amnesty for people who would be able to work here, stay here, and never go home. That would be my amendment which I would like to offer at the appropriate time.

The second area I think must be fixed is in the Social Security area. We all know our Social Security system is on the brink of failure. We know that in the year 2017, the system will start to pay out more than it receives. By 2041, the trust fund will be exhausted.

Now, in 2017, under the present law, we will have to make adjustments that will either increase Social Security taxes or decrease payments to Social Security recipients. If we put more people into our system who have gotten credits illegally working in this country, it is going to bring forward the year in which we have to start either lowering the payments or raising the taxes. I don't think that is right. I do not think we should give Social Security credits to people who will be Z visa holders in this country for the time they have worked illegally.

In the underlying bill, they do address the issue of fraudulent cards. I commend them for putting that in the bill. If you have paid Social Security with a fraudulent number or a card that is not yours, you will not be able to get credit for Social Security. To be very fair and honest, that is a good part of this bill, but it does not deal with the people who have a card in their own name, but they have worked illegally.

That is what one of my amendments will attempt to address, that we will also not give credit to people who have a card in their name, but they either obtained it illegally or they have overstayed a visa. So I hope we can also not give credit for that illegal time they have worked even if the card is in their name, but it was not their legal right to work. If we can do that and then start a person, when they are on the proper visa, toward getting credit, I think the American people will feel that is a fairer system.

The second area I hope to address is the new future flow of temporary workers. Now, under the bill, the temporary workers who will be coming in after the backlog of the illegal workers is dealt with, those people should not ever go into the Social Security system because, according to this bill, they will be limited to a 6-year period. It is very important that in dealing with those temporary workers, that they will not ever be eligible for Social Security, nor should they be, because they will not have the requisite number of quarters.

What my second amendment does is allow them to take what they have actually put into the Social Security system through the employee deduction. It will allow them to take that home when they leave the system. We think--I think that is a fair approach for both the person working and also the Social Security system itself, that they would get back what they put in, but they would not be eligible for our Social Security system, which would be much more costly down the road.

In addition, the Medicare deduction which is taken from the employee would also go into a fund which is already a fund in place that now allows compensation for uncompensated health care to a county hospital or to a health care provider that delivers a baby of an illegal immigrant who cannot pay or does any emergency service for an illegal immigrant today.

We know many hospitals--I know that in my home State of Texas, my hospitals in my major cities always talk about how much they are having to raise taxes on the taxpayers who live in their districts because there is so much use of the health care facilities by illegal immigrants who cannot pay. So the Medicare deduction would go into a fund that would compensate health care providers for service to foreign workers who would not be able to pay.

Those are the two amendments which I think would assure that the taxpayers of our country and the contributors to the Social Security system who have earned the right to have that safety net would not be unfairly taxed for people who have not been legally in the system or people who do not have the quarters that would be requisite. I hope we can take these amendments up. I hope they will be acceptable. If we can take the amnesty out of this bill by assuring that everyone who is here illegally will have to apply outside of our country to be able to come in legally to work, then we have set the precedent of the rule of law which we have always prided ourselves on in this country. If we can assure that the Social Security system is not also unduly burdened with quarters given for illegal work, then I think the American people will accept that we have to address this issue in a responsible way.

I have heard the outcry of people about this bill, and I think some of that outcry is justified. But I think we can fix the parts that are not in tune with the American people and also do what is right for our country going forward because there is one thing on which I think we can all agree; that is, we have a system that is broken when you have 10 to 12 million people--and that is an estimate because we do not know for sure--who are working in our country illegally. They are not being treated fairly, nor are the American people who do live by the rule of law being treated fairly. It is a system that is broken, and it is a very complicated and hard problem to fix, but that is our responsibility.

I respect those who have tried, in a bipartisan way, to put forward a bill. As a person who has written a book, as a person who has written legal briefs, I know that the person who puts out the first draft is always going to be the one who is under attack. But someone has to do it, and the people who have worked on this bill did step out and say: Here is the starting point.

Congressman Mike Pence and I, last year, when the House and Senate broke down in negotiations over this issue, did the same thing. We came out with what we thought was a starting point that would be the right approach, and the principles we laid down were that we would have a guest worker program which would not include amnesty but would be a fair and workable guest worker program. It would have private sector involvement. It would have border security as our No. 1 goal. It would also preserve the integrity of our Social Security system. Congressman Pence and I tried to do that last year. Many of the elements in the Hutchison-Pence plan are in the bill before us.

If we can perfect this bill and take the amnesty out by requiring everyone to apply outside our country--and it can be done in a responsible way mechanically because you would have some amount of time--1 or 2 years--to do it so that it would not be a glut on the system. I regret the argument that you cannot do it. I think we can. I also think we need to make a responsible effort, and that is exactly what I am going to try to do.

I hope all our colleagues will work in a positive way to try to fix the parts that we think are bad, to admit that there are some good parts. The border security and the temporary worker program are very good, and the part about the Social Security protection for fraudulent cards is good. Let's try to make it better. Let's try to make it a bill that everyone will accept as fair for America, fair for foreign workers, helps our economy, and keeps our borders secure. That is what we owe the people. I hope to make a contribution in that effort.

I yield the floor.

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