| Leans toward less immigration, less population growth, less foreign labor. |
|
 |
Each symbol in the left-hand column below
signifies an action for HIGHER immigration. |
|
 |
Each symbol in the right-hand column
below signifies an action for LOWER immigration. |
|
|
|
Rep. Condit 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. Condit 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. Condit helped kill the reform by voting for the Chrysler-Berman Amendment which stripped out the legal immigration reforms. Rep. Condit’s vote was important; the reformers were only 28 votes short of approving the end of chain migration. Rep. Condit 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 .
|
|
|
Rep. Condit was an original supporter of H.R. 2202, the Immigration in the National Interest Act of 1995. It was a large omnibus bill designed to reform the entire immigration system. The legal immigration reforms it included were based on the bi-partisan Barbara Jordan Commission's recommendations for cutting the major links of family-chain migration and protecting American workers from further wage depression. The bill would have eliminated the categories for adult children and siblings and limited that for parents of adults. H.R.2202 also included dozens of provisions aimed at reducing illegal immigration, including a 10-year ban on legal re-entry for illegal aliens, additional border patrol agents and equipment, and worksite verification programs.
|
|
|
Rep. Condit was one of 100 cosponsors of H.R. 1915, the Immigration in the National Interest Act. HR 1915, as introduced and passed by the Immigration and Claims Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, would have shifted the primary focus of immigration policy to spouses and minor children from extended family and to skilled immigrants from less skilled ones. It would have set a ceiling of 330,000 on family-based immigration. In addition this bill would have increased the number of skilled workers, while eliminating the unskilled worker category and the lottery program. H.R. 1915 also contained provisions designed to reduce illegal immigration such as worker verification programs. Many of the illegal immigration provisions of this bill were ultimately passed in the form of H.R. 2202 in 1996.
|
 |
|
Rep Condit voted AGAINST the Smith amendment to H.R.4300 that would have maintained hard caps on most categories of immigration. Unlike, Rep. Condit, 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. Condit helped defeat that ceiling 266 to 143.
|
|
|
Rep. Condit helped pass H.R.4300 that increased the numbers in all categories of immigration. America?s immigration tradition had been around 250,000 immigrants a year until the 1980s when numbers rose dramatically to more than 500,000 a year. After Rep. Condit voted three times in 1990 in favor of raising limits, immigration has now snowballed to around 1,000,000 (one million) a year, contributing the majority of U.S. population and labor growth, congestion and sprawl.See detailed description.
|
|
|
The House passed H.R. 3736
by a vote of 288-133. Rep. Condit opposed this bill which ultimately increased by nearly 150,000 the number of foreign workers that 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. Condit joined those who argued that the foreign workers were not needed while U.S. firms were laying off tens of thousands of American workers.
|
 |
|
Before the House passed the H-1B doubling bill (H.R.3736), Rep. Condit 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. Condit 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. Condit voted against that. The protections for American workers fell 33 votes short of passing.
|
|
|
Rep. Condit 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. Condit 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.
|
|
|
Rep. Condit was part of a 262-154 majority that brought a foreign nurses guestworker program to an end. He voted AGAINST 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. Rep. Condit was among those who contended that there are more than enough Americans trained in nursing to do the job if the pay and working conditions are appropriate.
|
 |
|
Rep. Condit voted against H. Amdt. 479 to H.R. 4546, the Department of Defense Authorization bill. The amendment authorized the Secretary of Defense to assign members of the military, under certain circumstances, to assist the Bureau of Border Security and U.S. Customs Service of the Department of Homeland Security on preventing the entry of terrorists, drug traffickers, and illegal aliens into the United States The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Goode of Virginia, passed the House by a vote of 232-183.
|
 |
|
Rep. Condit voted FOR H RES 365, which was brought up and passed in a new form in March of 2002. The vote in favor of the bill was a vote in favor of rewarding illegal aliens via a four-month reinstatement of Section 245(i). That is an expired immigration provision that allows illegal aliens with qualified relatives or employers in the U.S. to pay a $1,000 fine, to apply for a green card in this country, and to be
allowed to stay in this country without fear of deportation until their turn arrives for a green card years, and even decades, later. The illegal aliens also would not have to go through the usual security screening in U.S. embassies in their home countries. The lowest estimate from supporters of the bill was that some 200,000 illegal aliens would benefit. H RES 365
included language that would implement some important visa-tracking regulations helpful to discouraging illegal immigration. But all of those provisions had already been passed previously in H.R. 3525, making the assistance to illegal aliens the sole purpose of the bill.
Rep. Condit was one of 275 Representatives who voted in favor of the 245(i) amnesty. The bill narrowly passed by a vote of 275 to 137 (a two-thirds majority was needed in order to pass).
|
|
|
Rep. Condit voted on the floor of the House IN FAVOR OF a motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 1885, a four-month extension of Section 245(i), which is a de facto amnesty in that current federal policy did not deport illegal aliens once they applied for Section 245(i) and allowed them to remain in the U.S. for years until they were allowed to become official immigrants. The vote on the four-month extension represented a compromise of the White House push for a longer extension. Even though the four month extension was better than a year-long or permanent extension, it still would have resulted in at least 200,000 more people being added to the country through illegal immigration. Rep. Condit was part of a 336-43 majority voting in favor of the four-month extension of Section 245(i). It did not become law, though.
|
|
|
Rep. Condit voted not to enforce the border by voting AGAINST the Traficant amendment to HR 2586. This amendment authorized the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury, to request that members of the Armed Forces assist the INS with border control duties. The Traficant amendment passed by a vote of 242 to 173, but this measure was never considered by the Senate.
|
|
|
Rep. Condit, along with 151 other House Democrats, signed a letter to President Clinton saying he would sustain a veto of an end-of-session appropriations bill if it did not include an amnesty. This was an action in support of Rep. Conyer's amnesty act, H.R.4966, that would have granted amnesty to some 3.4 million aliens from Central America and Haiti. This would have been the largest amnesty in the history of the country -- larger than even the 1986 IRCA Amnesty.
|
|
|
Rep. Condit voted AGAINST enforcing the border by opposing the Traficant amendment to H.R.4205. This amendment authorizes the Secretary of Defense to assign, under certain circumstances, members of the Armed Forces to assist the INS with border control duties. The Traficant amendment passed by a vote of 243 to 183, but the Clinton Administration never chose to exercise this power.
|
|
|
Given the chance to vote against a notorious pro-illegal immigration program called Section 245(i), Rep. Condit declined. The Section 245(i) 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 supposed 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 -- if passed -- would make it clear that the House wanted the Conferees to kill the Section 245(i) program. Immigration lawyers lobbied the House vigorously to keep what to them was a lucrative program. Rep. Condit was part of a 268 to 153 House majority that refused to “instruct” the Conferees to kill the program. Despite the vote, House Conferees worked hard to kill the program and succeeded.
|
|
|
Rep. Condit was part of a 333-87 majority which passed H.R.2202. It was a large omnibus bill with dozens of provisions aimed at reducing illegal immigration. It authorized major increases in the border patrol forces. But it 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.
|
|
|
Rep. Condit 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.
|
|
|
Rep. Condit 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. Condit was part of a 260-159 majority that preserved the voluntary pilot programs.
|
|
|
