| Usually supports less immigration, less population growth, less foreign labor. |
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Each symbol in the left-hand column below
signifies an action for HIGHER immigration. |
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Each symbol in the right-hand column
below signifies an action for LOWER immigration. |
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Rep. Archer 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. Archer 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. Archer voted against that much-more congested future.
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Rep. Archer cosponsored H.R.2162 (the Archer Bill) during the 104th Congress. That bill would have cut legal immigration from around 1 million to below 400,000 a year. The House leadership did not bring the bill to a vote.
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Rep. Archer voted for the Smith amendment to H.R.4300 that would have maintained hard caps on most categories of immigration. If Rep. Archer?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. Archer, 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. Archer 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.
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Rep. Archer 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. Archer voted twice against that bill and all aspects of that increase.See detailed description.
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Rep. Archer 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. Archer 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.
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Before the House passed the H-1B doubling bill (H.R.3736), Rep. Archer 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. Archer 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. Archer voted against that. The protections for American workers fell 33 votes short of passing.
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Rep. Archer 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. Archer’s vote was on the side of America’s farm workers and on the side of limiting illegal immigration.
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Rep. Archer 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.
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Rep. Archer took a stand against one of the largest sources of U.S. population growth and against one of the strongest incentives for illegal immigration by co-sponsoring H.R.73 (the Bilbray Bill). As a matter of policy for decades, the federal government has granted citizenship to babies born to illegal-alien mothers. This is a pronounced reward to their mothers for having entered or stayed in the United States in violation of immigration laws. Not only do the mothers immediately get access to a whole array of social services for their babies, but these illegal aliens get a virtual guarantee that they will never be asked to leave the country. These babies of illegal aliens are called “anchor babies” because they act as an anchor to eventually pull large extended families into the United States. Rep. Archer wants to put an end to this enticement for citizens of other nations to become illegal aliens in this country. H.R.73 would have denied citizenship to babies of women who at the time of giving birth are in the U.S. as illegal aliens, tourists, temporary foreign workers, foreign students and diplomats. The only exception is if the mother is married to the father of the baby, and the father is a U.S. citizen or lawfully admitted permanent resident alien. This will reduce legal U.S. population growth considerably. A California study in 1992 found 96,000 new citizens were added in that year in that state alone through these ‘anchor babies’ of illegal aliens. U.S. Census data on the birthrates of the foreign born indicate that well over 200,000 new citizens are added to the U.S. each year through anchor babies.
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Rep. Archer co-sponsored H.R. 7, the Citizenship Reform Act of 1997 that would have put an end to the automatic granting of citizenship to babies born to illegal aliens in the United States. This policy grants citizenship to some 200,000 additional people a year according to U.S. Census data. Not only do these births represent additional U.S. population growth, but because the babies of illegal aliens are U.S. citizens, they can then act as 'anchors' to eventually pull a large number of extended family members into the country legally.
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Rep. Archer acted to enforce the border by voting for the Traficant amendment to H.R.4205. This amendment authorizes the Secretary of Defense, under certain circumstances, to assign 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.
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Rep. Archer, 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.
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Rep. Archer 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.
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Archer 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. Archer 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.
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Rep. Archer 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.
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Rep. Archer voted AGAINST the Gallegly Amendment to H.R.2202. That amendment 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 to participate in programs to keep illegal aliens from taking jobs.
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Rep. Archer 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. Archer was part of a 260-159 majority that preserved the voluntary pilot programs.
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