Date: 2012-11-30
Speaker: ZOE LOFGREN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I have long been a champion of creating a green card program for foreign students with advanced STEM degrees from Americas great research universities. Coming from Silicon Valley. Im fortunate enough to see firsthand the new technologies. the new companies. the new jobs that such innovators create every day in the district I represent. Theres no question that a STEM green card program is the right thing to do for our country. For that reason. it pains me greatly to say I cant support this flawed bill. I cant support a bill that pits immigrant communities against each other. that sets a terrible precedent for addressing our broken immigration system that is indefensibly designed to reduce immigration while purporting to increase it. and that harms American workers. I certainly admire the gentleman from Arizona on his Staple Act. I know that he has pushed for this over the Congresses. But his Staple Act did not eliminate the Diversity Visa program. as this does. Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle say that a STEM visa program is critical to the future of this countryand I agree. But if thats true. why poison the bill with an unrelated provision to eliminate the Diversity Visa program? Theres no reason that giving a green card to one person should mean taking one away from someone else. but that is exactly what the bill asks us to do. My colleagues are fond of saying they support legal immigration. but this bill shows quite the opposite. Supporters of legal immigration would not have to kill one immigration program to benefit another. nor would they agree to a Grover Norquiststyle "no new immigration" pledge that will continue to strangle our immigration system for years to come. If we were to accept a zerosum premise. how could we craft meaningful solutions for farmers and agricultural workers. for DREAMers. who were brought here as children. or for those families with loved ones waiting abroad in decadeslong queues? This bill. however. is even worse than that. It is actually designed to reduce legal immigration. Taking 55.000 green cards from one category and putting them in another may seem like an even trade. but it is not if the new category is drafted to ensure that green cards go unused. According to the National Science Foundation. American universities currently graduate about 30.000 foreign students with degrees that would qualify them for green cards under this bill. Assuming every single one of them wanted to stay and could find an employer willing to offer them a permanent job. which is certainly not the case. that would still leave 25.000 green cards unused. This bill shamefully prevents those green cards from being used to help other employment and familybased immigrants suffering in long backlogs. And I would note that those who have their labor certification based on a bachelor of science degree. if youre born in India. youre facing a 70year wait. Yet this bill would not allow the traditional policy of having visas trickle down when they are unused. Thats not the way the immigration system works. I believe the only reason the bill was written in this fashion is to satisfy antiimmigrant organizations who have long lobbied for reduced levels of immigration. In an attempt to appear more proimmigrant. the authors point to a new "familyfriendly" position. But looks can be deceiving. Currently. a lack of green cards means that a category of familybased immigrantthe spouses and minor children of U.S. permanent residentshave to wait about 2 years overseas before they can rejoin their families. Instead of providing critical green cards to these nuclear families. the STEM bill offers temporary V visas with three significant catches: the family members must first spend at least 1 year overseas. unlike the original V visa. created by a Republican Congress in 2000. the new visas prohibit family members already here from participating. and unlike the original V visa. recipients are prohibited from working. With all the talk about moving forward on immigration. this is a step back from where Republicans were just 12 years ago. When I hear allegations of fraud in this program. I just have to say that is absurd. In the year 2007. the General Accountability Office found no documented evidence that Diversity Visa immigrants posed a terrorist or other threat. The DV recipients go through the same immigration. criminal. and national security background checks that everyone goes through when they seek lawful permanent residence.