Voted as part of the Senate Judiciary Committee to end chain migration and crack down on illegal immigration in 1996

Sen. Abraham voted as part of the Senate Judiciary Committee in favor of S. 1664, the Immigration Control and Financial Responsibility Act of 1996. S. 1664 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. S. 1664 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. S. 1664 was passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee by a vote of 13-4.

Voted in 1996 to continue chain migration

Sen. Abraham in 1996 voted against the Simpson Amendment to S.1664. It was a vote in favor of a chain migration system that has been the primary reason for annual immigration levels snowballing from less than 300,000 in 1965 to around a million. Sen. Abraham 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 (begun only in the 1950s) in order to lessen wage depression among lower-paid American workers. The Simpson Amendment attempted to carry out that recommendation. But Sen. Abraham helped kill the reform by voting with the 80-20 majority against the amendment. Sen. Abraham's vote helped continue a level of immigration that the Census Bureau projects will result in a doubled U.S. population in the next century.

	Voted to strip legal reforms from 1996 bill
	Sen. Abraham helped defeat legal immigration reform when he voted for Senator Spencer Abraham's amendment to remove the legal immigration reforms from S.1664, the Immigration Control and Financial Responsibility Act of 1996. This vote effectively killed any chance of Congress considering the Jordon Commission recommendations on easing legal immigration levels.

Voted in favor of chain migration in 1996

Sen. Abraham voted in 1996 against the Feinstein Amendment to S.1664. The Feinstein Amendment would have reduced annual admission of spouses and minor children of citizens to 480,000 and significantly reduced annual limits other categories of chain migration such as parents of citizens and adult unmarried children of citizens. By voting against the Feinstein Amendment, Sen. Abraham voted in favor of a system of chain migration that has been the primary reason for annual immigration levels snowballing from less than 300,000 in 1965 to around a million today. In 1996 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. The Feinstein Amendment attempted to carry out that recommendation. The Feinstein Amendment would have had an overall impact of reducing U.S. population growth by about 1.2 million over 10 years, but it was defeated by a vote of 26 to 74.

Sen. Abraham has taken no action to reduce
major numbers in all categories.

Importing Specific Foreign Workers top

	Voted for a foreign worker bill with no anti-fraud measures in 2000.
	Sen.Abraham voted for S.2045, the Abraham foreign worker bill to nearly triple the number of foreign high-tech workers. On the heels of the release of a GAO report finding no proof of a high-tech worker shortage and evidence of abuse in the H-1B program, Sen. Abraham voted for this foreign worker bill that contained no worker protections or anti-fraud measures. The bill passed the Senate 96-1.

Voted in 2000 to triple the number of H-1B visas available annually

Sen. Abraham voted, as part of the Senate Judiciary Committee, against American workers by voting FOR S.2045 (the Abraham bill). This legislation nearly tripled the number of H-1B visas available annually. S.2045 also granted H-1Bs virtual permanent residency by allowing foreign high-tech workers and their families to stay in the U.S. as long as they have an application for a green card or visa on file.

	Cosponsored a foreign worker bill with no anti-fraud measures in 2000.
	Sen.Abraham cosponsored S.2045, the Abraham foreign worker bill to nearly triple the number of foreign high-tech workers. The bill passed the Senate 96-1.

Voted in committee to maintain H-1B cap increase in 2000

Sen. Abraham voted in committee AGAINST the Kennedy amendment to reduce the overall H-1B increase proposed in S.2045 from about 200,000 to around 150,000. In addition, the Kennedy amendment would have rasied the fees paid by employers of H-1B visa holders and required employers to attest they had not displaced U.S. workers to hire H-1Bs. Sen. Abraham joined 9 other Senators in ensuring the labor requirements did not pass. The amendment was defeated 8-10.

	As Committee member, produced H-1B doubling bill in 1998
	Sen. Abraham was a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that created the Abraham H-1B doubling bill in 1998, S.1723. He voted with the 12-6 majority to send the bill to the floor of the Senate without safeguards for American workers.

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

Sen. Abraham helped the Senate pass S.1723 in a 78-20 vote. 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. Sen. Abraham 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 committee against including worker safeguards in H-1B bill in 1998

Sen. Abraham joined 9 of his Senate colleagues to keep employee safeguards from inclusion in S.1723. A Kennedy-Feinstein Amendment would have accomplished two important goals: ensuring no American was laid off or displaced prior to hiring an H1B employee; and, that employers demonstrate they had previously taken timely and effective steps to hire a qualified American. 10 Senators helped defeat this amendment.

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

Before the Senate passed the H-1B doubling bill (S.1723), Sen. Abraham had an opportunity to vote for a measure requiring U.S. firms to check a box on a form attesting that they had first sought an American worker for the job. Sen. Abraham voted against that, joining those who said the requirement would give government too much authority over corporations’ right to hire whomever they please from whatever country.

	Voted to allow firms to lay off Americans to make room for foreign workers in 1998
	Before the Senate passed the H-1B doubling bill(S.1723), Sen. Abraham had an opportunity to vote for a Kennedy amendment that would have prohibited U.S. firms from using temporary foreign workers to replace Americans. Sen. Abraham opposed that protection. The Amendment failed 38-60.

Citizenship for Illegal Alien Babies top

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

Inviting / Repelling Illegal Aliens top

Voted against an amnesty for illegal aliens in 2000
Sen. Abraham voted against a procedural vote to include an amnesty for illegal aliens from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Haiti in the Senate H-1B bill (S.2045). This was not necessarily a vote against the amnesty but rather a vote against including it with the H-1B bill. The move to include the amnesty with the H-1B legislation failed43-55 in a procedural vote on the Senate floor.

Led effort to grant amnesty to 50,000 illegal aliens from Haiti, plus their families, in 1998

Sen. Abraham helped create the pressure in the Senate during 1998 that led to an amnesty for some 50,000 illegal aliens from Haiti who came to the U.S. before Dec. 31, 1995, plus their spouses and children. Altogether, this amnesty is expected to reward 125,000 Haitians with legal residence in the United States. He cosponsored S 1504 that the Senate Appropriations Committee eventually slipped into an omnibus supplemental appropriations bill. That meant the full Senate never debated or voted directly on rewarding the illegal aliens. The legislation was written for illegal aliens who had been given “temporary asylum” in 1995 because of civil and political disorder at the time in Haiti. But after the U.S. spent hundreds of millions of dollars to drive out the Haitian dictatorship and to democratize Haiti, the Haitian illegal aliens still refused to go home. They received full backing from Sen. Abraham to remain permanently in the U.S. No part of the House of Representatives ever considered the amnesty. But in emergency negotiations at the end of the 105th Congress, President Clinton successfully insisted on including the amnesty in the final appropriations bill.

Voted to grant amnesty to nearly one million illegal aliens from Nicaragua and Cuba in 1997

Sen. Abraham voted to grant legal status to Nicaraguans and Cubans who had lived in the United States illegally since 1995, along with their spouses and minor unmarried children. The overall ten year impact of this legislation will be the addition of some 967,000 people to U.S. population. There was no separate vote on the amnesty, as it was included in the DC Appropriations bill. The only opportunity Senators had to vote in favor of or against the amnesty was the Mack Amendment to S.1156. The Mack Amendment passed 99-1.

Voted in 1996 for major law that cracked down on illegal aliens.

Sen. Abraham was part of a 97-3 majority which passed S.1664. 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.

In 1996, removed higher fines for businesses which hire illegal aliens

Sen. Abraham, in committee consideration of S.1664 protected businesses from having to pay higher fines when they are caught hiring illegal aliens. Under the idea that current fines were not enough of a deterrent against businesses cutting their labor costs by hiring illegal aliens, the Senate immigration subcommittee approved higher fines. Various study commissions have found that the willingness of U.S. businesses to hire illegal aliens is the No. 1 incentive for foreign workers to become illegal aliens here. But Sen. Abraham voted with a 10-8 majority in the Judiciary Committee to remove the higher fines from the 1996 legislation against illegal immigration.

Tried to kill voluntary pilot programs for workplace verification in 1996

Sen. Abraham voted IN FAVOR of the Abraham Amendment to S.1664. He was part of a coalition of pro-business conservatives and liberal civil libertarians who tried to use the amendment to kill the establishment of voluntary pilot programs in high-immigration states. The programs were intended to 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 S.1664 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. Sen. Abraham was unsuccessful in stopping the voluntary verification system. The Senate tabled the amendment by a 54-46 vote.