Voted in 1996 to continue chain migration

Rep. Campbell in 1996 voted for the Chrysler-Berman Amendment to H.R.2202. It was a vote in favor of a chain migration system that has been the primary cause of annual immigration levels snowballing from less than 300,000 in 1965 to around a million today. Rep. Campbell supported provisions that allow immigrants to send for their adult relatives. Then each of those relatives can send for their and their spouse's adult relatives, creating a never-ending and ever-growing chain. The bi-partisan Barbara Jordan Commission recommended doing away with the adult-relative categories and chain migration (begun only in the 1950s) in order to lessen wage depression among lower-paid American workers. The House Judiciary Committee agreed with the Jordan Commission and passed H.R.2202, which would have effectively ended chain migration. But on the floor of the House, Rep. Campbell helped kill the reform by voting for the Chrysler-Berman Amendment which stripped out the legal immigration reforms. Rep. Campbell’s vote was important; the reformers were only 28 votes short of approving the end of chain migration. Rep. Campbell helped continue a level of immigration that the Census Bureau projects will result in a doubled U.S. population in the next century. The Chrysler-Berman amendment passed the House by a vote of .

Rejected immigration ceiling in 1990

Rep Campbell voted AGAINST the Smith amendment to H.R.4300 that would have maintained hard caps on most categories of immigration. Unlike, Rep. Campbell, 143 Representatives (of 435) feared that the 1990 legislation would unleash a chain reaction that would drive immigration numbers ever upwards. They backed an amendment that would have placed an absolute annual ceiling of 630,000 on family, worker and lottery immigration. But Rep. Campbell helped defeat that ceiling 266 to 143.

Nearly doubled H-1B foreign high-tech workers in 1998

Rep. Campbell helped the House pass H.R.3736. Enacted into law, it increased by nearly 150,000 the number of foreign workers high-tech American companies could hire over the next three years. Although the foreign workers receive temporary visas for up to six years, most historically have found ways to stay permanently in this country. Rep. Campbell voted for more foreign workers even though U.S. high tech workers over the age of 50 were suffering 17% unemployment and U.S. firms were laying off thousands of workers at the time.

Voted in 1998 to allow firms to lay off Americans to make room for foreign workers

Before the House passed the H-1B doubling bill (H.R.3736), Rep. Campbell had an opportunity to vote for a Watt Substitute bill that would have forbidden U.S. firms from using temporary foreign workers to replace Americans. Rep. Campbell opposed that protection. The substitute also would have required U.S. firms to check a box on a form attesting that they had first sought an American worker for the job. Rep. Campbell voted against that. The protections for American workers fell 33 votes short of passing.

Tried to create massive new foreign agriculture worker program in 1996

Rep. Campbell voted IN FAVOR of the Pombo Amendment to H.R.2202. He was voting for a massive new program that would have allowed agri-business to import up to 250,000 foreign farm workers each year for a period of service of less than a year. A bi-partisan congressional commission working with the Bush Administration (1989-93) had concluded that there were at least 190,000 farm workers already in America who were out of work at any given time. The federal commission said the oversupply of farmworkers was a major reason why farm workers’ real incomes had fallen by almost half over the previous two decades. Rep. Campbell rejected the recommendations of the commission and took the side of growers who asked for a larger labor supply. The amendment -- which had no provisions for ensuring that the temporary workers did not stay in the U.S. as illegal aliens -- failed by a 180-242 vote.

Tried to continue foreign nurse guestworker program in 1996

Rep. Campbell supported continuing a guestworker program for foreign nurses through his vote IN FAVOR of the Burr Amendment to H.R.2202. Those favoring the amendment said many rural areas had a shortage of nurses and needed the foreign workers. The 262-154 majority, however, let the foreign nurses program end, contending that there are more than enough Americans trained in nursing to do the job if the pay and working conditions are appropriate.

Rep. Campbell has taken no action to reduce
the rewarding of illegal immigration by giving citizenship
to anchor babies.

Inviting / Repelling Illegal Aliens top

Signed a letter to Speaker Hastert opposing an illegal alien amnesty in 2000.

Rep. Campbell, along with 52 other Republican Representatives took a stand against illegal immigration by signing a Dear Colleague letter from Representative Tom Tancredo to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. The letter expressed opposition to an illegal alien amnesty for more than 2 million illegal aliens in an end-of-session appropriations bill. This show of opposition was an important ingredient in the Speaker taking a firm stand against Pres. Clinton's amnesty and in the ultimate defeat of the proposed amnesty.

Voted to authorize the use of troops on the border in 1999
Rep. Campbell voted in favor of the Traficant amendment to H.R. 1401. This amendment authorized the Secretary of Defense, under certain circumstances, to assign members of the Armed Forces to assist the Border Patrol and Customs Service only in drug interdiction and counter terrorism activities along our borders. The Traficant amendment passed by a vote of 242 to 181.

Voted to kill pro-illegal alien Section 245(i) program in 1997

Campbell voted for the Rohrabacher Motion to H.R.2267 as one of 153 Members who went on record as insisting on killing the notorious pro-illegal-immigration program called Section 245(i). The program dealt with certain illegal aliens who were on lists that could qualify them eventually for legal residency. It provided them a loophole in which they could pay a fee and avoid a 1996 law’s provision that punishes illegal aliens by barring them for 10 years from entering the U.S. on a legal visa as a student, tourist, worker or immigrant. The controversial experimental program was scheduled to “sunset” late in 1997 and be automatically taken off the books. But the Senate voted to permanently continue the pro-illegal immigration program by attaching it to an appropriations bill. House leaders, though, refused to include the program in the House appropriations bill. That meant the issue would be decided in a joint Senate/House Conference Committee. Representatives wanting to make sure that House Conferees fought the Senate stance, brought a “Motion to Instruct” to the floor. The motion would make clear House opposition to the Section 245(i) program. Rep. Campbell resisted intense lobbying from immigration attorneys and businesses that rely on illegal labor, voting to “instruct” the Conferees to kill the program. House Conferees succeeded in doing just that.

Voted against major law in 1996 that cracked down on illegal immigration

Rep. Campbell in 1996 was on the losing side of the 333-87 passage of H.R.2202. He voted AGAINST the large omnibus bill which authorized major increases in border patrol forces. The bill also had many provisions aimed at making life more miserable for illegal aliens who manage to get into the country, half of whom arrive with legal visas but then illegally overstay. Until passage of the bill, a person could be apprehended as an illegal alien, be deported and then turn around and come back to the U.S. on a legal student, tourist, worker or relative visa. After the bill, an illegal alien was barred from any kind of legal entry for 10 years.

Tried to create mandatory workplace verification programs in 1996

Rep. Campbell was one of only 86 Representatives who took the tougher-on-illegal-immigration side during the voting on the Gallegly Amendment to H.R.2202. He voted IN FAVOR of the amendment which would have made pilot workplace verification programs (see above) mandatory in five of the top seven immigration states. The amendment failed 86-331 under complaints that businesses and states should have more choice in whether they participated in workplace programs to keep illegal aliens from taking jobs.

Protected voluntary pilot programs for workplace verification in 1996

Rep. Campbell voted AGAINST the Chabot Amendment to H.R.2202. His vote was one in favor of setting up voluntary pilot programs in high-immigration states that would assist employers in verifying whether people they had just hired had the legal right to work in this country. Such verification is considered by many experts to be an essential tool for withdrawing the job magnet from illegal aliens. The verification system established by H.R.2202 did not involve an ID card. Rather it provided that when new workers wrote down their Social Security number on an application, employers could phone into a national verification system to help assure that the number was a real number and belonged to the person giving it. In earlier smaller pilot programs, businesses had hailed the verification system for making it easier for them to avoid hiring illegal aliens. But a coalition of conservative pro-business Members and of liberal civil libertarians tried to kill the verification program as too intrusive into the private rights of businesses and workers. Opposing that coalition, Rep. Campbell was part of a 260-159 majority that preserved the voluntary pilot programs.