SAFE for America Act

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 Speaker, I rise today to urge that Congress make it a top priority to reform our outdated immigration laws and policies.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\1/2\ 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.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss a government program that presents a serious national security threat and is wrought with fraud and abuse, the visa lottery program.

Under the program, each successful applicant is chosen at random and given the status of permanent resident, a green card holder, based on pure luck. A perfect example of the system gone awry is the case of Hesham Mohamed Ali Hedayet, the Egyptian national who killed two and wounded three during a shooting spree at the Los Angeles International Airport in July of 2002. He was allowed to apply for lawful permanent resident status in 1997 because of his wife's status as a visa lottery winner.

The State Department's Inspector General has even weighed in on the national security threat posed by the visa lottery program. In a report issued in September of 2003, the Office of Inspector General stated that the visa lottery program contains ``significant threats to national security from entry of hostile intelligence officers, criminals, and terrorists into the United States as permanent residents.''

Usually immigrant visas are issued to foreign nationals who have existing connections with family members lawfully residing in the United States. These types of relationships help ensure that immigrants entering our country have a stake in continuing America's success and have needed skills to contribute to our Nation's economy. However, under the visa lottery program, visas are awarded to immigrants at random without meeting such criteria.

In addition, the visa lottery program is unfair to immigrants who comply with the United States' immigration laws. The visa lottery program does not expressly prohibit illegal aliens from applying to receive visas through the program. Thus the program treats foreign nationals that comply with our laws the same as those that blatantly violate our laws. In addition, most family-sponsored immigrants currently face a wait of years to obtain visas. Yet the lottery program pushes 50,000 random immigrants with no particular family ties, job skills, or education ahead of these families and employer-sponsored immigrants each year with relatively no wait. This sends the wrong message to those who wish to enter our great country and to the international community as a whole.

Furthermore, the visa lottery program is wrought with fraud. A recent report released by the Center for Immigration Studies states that it is commonplace for foreign nationals to apply for the lottery program multiple times using many different aliases. In addition, the visa lottery program has spawned a cottage industry featuring sponsors in the U.S. who falsely promise success to applicants in exchange for large sums of money. Ill-informed foreign nationals are willing to pay top dollar for the ``guarantee'' of lawful permanent resident status in the U.S.

The State Department's Office of Inspector General confirms these allegations of widespread fraud in its September report. Specifically, the report states that the visa lottery program is ``subject to widespread abuse'' and that ``identity fraud is endemic and fraudulent documents are commonplace.'' Furthermore, the report also reveals that the State Department found that 364,000 duplicate applications were detected in 2003 alone. The only penalty for such abuse is disqualification from that year's lottery.

The visa lottery program represents what is wrong with our country's immigration system. The serious national security threats, fraud and waste that the visa lottery program present beg the question why is this program still in existence?

Last February I introduced H.R. 775, the Security and Fairness Enhancement, or SAFE, for America Act.

This important legislation would eliminate the controversial visa lottery program. Not only will the removal of the visa lottery improve our Nation's security but it will also make the administration of our immigration laws more consistent and fair and help reduce immigration fraud and opportunism.

I urge each of my colleagues to support this important legislation.

Mr. Speaker, on October 6, 2004, the Committee on the Judiciary filed its report on H.R. 775, the ``Security and Fairness Enhancement for America Act of 2003.'' At that time, the Committee had not received a Congressional Budget Office cost estimate for the bill, and it filed the report with a committee cost estimate as provided in clause 3(d)(2) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives. Subsequently, the Committee received the CBO cost estimate on H.R 775, and I am submitting it here for the Record.

October 27, 2004.

Hon. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr.,

Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary,

House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has

prepared the enclosed cost estimate for H.R. 775, the

Security and Fairness Enhancement Act of 2003.

If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be

pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Joseph C.

Whitehill, who can be reached at 226-2840.

Sincerely,

Douglas Holtz-Eakin.

Enclosure

H.R. 775--Security and Fairness Enhancement Act of 2003

Summary: H.R. 775 would eliminate the diversity immigrant

program. The costs of implementing that program are covered

by fees charged to winning applicants in a lottery for a

limited number of immigrant visas. The fees are credited to

State Department and Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration

Services (CIS) accounts as offsetting collections and

offsetting receipts, respectively. (Offsetting collections

are a credit against discretionary spending, while offsetting

receipts are a credit against direct spending.)

CBO estimates that enacting the bill would decrease

collections and spending by the Department of State and the

CIS; however, changes in net spending by those agencies would

not be significant. Enacting H.R. 775 would lower the number

of persons eligible for food stamps and Medicaid benefits.

CBO estimates spending for those programs would be reduced by

$164 million over the 2005-2014 period. Enacting the bill

would not affect revenues.

Each year, the Department of State issues about 50,000

immigrant visas under the diversity immigrant program to

natives of foreign states which the U.S. Attorney General

determines have had a low ratio of immigrants admitted under

the other sections of the immigration law. The immigrants are

selected randomly by the Secretary of State from among

persons who submit applications in a special lottery for the

visas. Persons apply in one fiscal year for visas to be

issued in the coming fiscal year. Applicants must meet

minimum requirements for education or work experience and

otherwise be eligible for immigrant visas as specified in the

Immigration and Nationality Act. Those selected in the

diversity lottery must obtain their visas by the end of the

fiscal year covered by the lottery.

H.R. 775 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector

mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act

(UMRA); CBO estimates that states would save about $45

million in Medicaid costs over the 2005-2014 period.

Estimated cost to the Federal Government: The estimated

budgetary impact of H.R. 775 is shown in the following table.

The costs of this legislation fall within budget functions

550 (health) and function 600 (income security). In addition,

the bill would have an insignificant effect on net spending

in budget function 150 (international affairs) and budget

function 750 (administration of justice).

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By fiscal year, in millions of dollars--

Mr. Speaker, a significant majority of Americans believes that current immigration levels need to be reduced, according to consistent polling results over the last decade. This country currently admits about one million new legal immigrants every year. An undetermined number come in illegally. Realistically, it will take several years to produce the comprehensive reforms that are needed. However, there is something that we can do now to improve the situation.

In 1990, immigration laws were changed to include a new diversity lottery program. The premise of this new program was to encourage more immigration from nations that were not already sending large numbers to the United States. Unfortunately, the current format for this lottery program are subject to fraud and abuse and leave our nation exposed to those who may seek to do harm on American soil.

Under this program, any applicant that applies under the current setup for this program may be chosen at random and given the status of a permanent resident simply based upon luck. We already have a tragic example of the potential for danger with the story of Hesham Mohamed Ali Hedayet, the gunmen who killed two people at the Los Angeles International Airport in July of 2002. The investigation of this shooting revealed that the gunman had been in the U.S. illegally, but his wife won the visa lottery. This enabled the husband to apply for permanent status and remain in the country to commit his crimes.

There are also a number of stories of fraud and abuse that have been identified by the Inspector General of the State Department. Duplicate applications, identity fraud, and forged documents have been found to be commonplace in these reviews, leaving our national security at risk.

The current diversity visa program does a disservice to our immigration policy and to those immigrants who have moved through the more traditional process that allows them to lawfully reside in this country. Combining this with the clear threats to our national security, it is imperative that we take steps to reform this dangerous program.

Legislation has been introduced that I have cosponsored, H.R. 775, the Security and Fairness Enhancement for America Act, which

would eliminate the visa lottery program. The House Immigration Subcommittee has held a hearing on the proposal, and we should continue efforts to move it promptly through the legislative process.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 775, the Security and Fairness Enhancement for America Act of 2003, or SAFE for America Act. I am proud to be a cosponsor of this important piece of legislation, which eliminates the visa lottery program from the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Family connections play an overwhelming role in current immigration law. As a result of most immigrants coming from a few areas of the world, Congress established the visa lottery in the Immigration Act of 1990 to diversify the immigration pool. Approximately 50,000 foreign nationals per year are randomly selected and awarded visas to come and live permanently in the United States under this visa lottery program.

Immigrant visas are typically issued to individuals who already have some existing connection with a family member lawfully residing in the United States or with a U.S. employer. Millions of people apply for these visas through the lottery program, and the program requirements do nothing to ensure that the applicants have the skills they will need to participate in our modern economy. The recipients of these visas are selected based on luck, not by merit or existing ties with the U.S.

This visa program is also problematic because it is unfair to those immigrants who have patiently waited and complied with our immigration laws. Most family-sponsored immigrants currently wait years to obtain a visa, yet the visa lottery program allows 50,000 random immigrants to pass ahead of these family-sponsored immigrants each year with relatively no wait.

Finally, and what is perhaps most troubling are the numerous cases reported by the State Department that show that lottery winners often file fraudulent visa information. Because the lottery accepts visa applications from a variety of individuals and only requires credentials after selection, there is often a rush to find false documents once the winners are notified. False documentation is bad enough when applicants lie about education or work experience. With the amount of terrorist threats against our country, these immigration loopholes can create devastating consequences.

Mr. Speaker, in this atmosphere of ambiguity, it would be wise to closely examine the flow of legal immigration into the United States in order to implement more comprehensive screening and naturalization measures.