| Usually supports 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. Beilenson voted against the Chrysler-Berman Amendment to H.R.2202. For Americans who want to bring immigration back down toward traditional levels, that vote was the most important one cast since 1990. Total annual immigration had snowballed from less than 300,000 in 1965 to around a million today primarily because of provisions allowing 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 (begun only in the 1950s) in order to lessen wage depression among lower-paid American workers. Rep. Beilenson agreed with the Jordan Commission. The House Judiciary Committee responded with H.R.2202 which would have effectively ended chain migration. But the Chrysler-Berman Amendment was introduced on the House floor to strip away the legal immigration reform provisions. The House voted in favor of the amendment, thus endorsing the chain migration which the Census Bureau projects will double the U.S. population again in the next century. Rep. Beilenson voted against that much-more congested future.
|
|
|
Rep. Beilenson 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. Beilenson 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. Beilenson co-sponsored H.R.3320 (sponsored by Bilbray of Nevada) during the 103rd Congress. It was the first comprehensive immigration reduction legislation to be introduced in the House since the 1920s. It would have cut legal immigration from around one million to just under 400,000 a year. The House leadership did not bring the bill to a vote
|
|
|
Rep. Beilenson voted for the Smith amendment to H.R.4300 that would have maintained hard caps on most categories of immigration. If Rep. Beilenson?s hand had been the only one on the congressional lever in 1990, over 40% of the increase in immigration caused by the 1990 Act would have been blocked. Because the majority of Congress did not agree with Rep. Beilenson, the actual level today is around one million a year. That contrasts with the traditional American level of only around 250,000 before 1980 and of around 500,000 a year during the 1980s. Rep. Beilenson voted with 143 others for this amendment
which would have placed an absolute annual ceiling of 630,000 on family, worker and lottery immigration. They were defeated 266 to 143.
|
|
|
Rep. Beilenson stood with around 100 other Representatives in 1990 firmly opposing
H.R.4300 that radically increased annual immigration numbers. Traditional American immigration had averaged around 250,000 a year until the 1980s when it dramatically rose to around 500,000. Then in 1990 Congress passed legislation that removed or increased limits in most immigration categories. Since then, immigration has risen to around 1,000,000 (one million) a year. Rep. Beilenson voted twice against that bill and all aspects of that increase.See detailed description.
|
|
|
Rep. Beilenson voted AGAINST the Pombo Amendment to H.R.2202. He was part of a 242-180 majority that killed the amendment that would have created a massive new program. Agri-business would have been allowed 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 study 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. The amendment had no provisions for ensuring that the temporary workers went home after their jobs were concluded. Rep. Beilenson’s vote was on the side of America’s farm workers and on the side of limiting illegal immigration.
|
 |
|
Rep. Beilenson 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.
|
|
|
Rep. Beilenson 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. Beilenson 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. Beilenson was part of a 260-159 majority that preserved the voluntary pilot programs.
|
|
|
