George Miller: “this amendment must be rejected because it simply is ludicrous on its face. The American public watching this debate…”

“this amendment must be rejected because it simply is ludicrous on its face. The American public watching this debate must wonder if we have lost our minds. We spend a day-and-a-half trying to decrease illegal immigration into the country. We have spent months trying to reform the welfare system. The entire country is worried by wage anxiety and their jobs. Now we have an amendment on the floor that allows you to drive down wages of American workers, allows you not to employ American workers who are desperately looking for jobs, and undermines the idea of taking able-bodied Americans and putting them to work and taking them off of welfare. That is what this Pombo amendment does. For the employer, they self-certify. They say, ``I cannot find anybody; bring my workers from Mexico or some other country.'' We know in a highly regulated program that those people overstay their visa six times what tourist or education visas overstay. We are asking for illegal immigrants. The notion that somehow you are going to say to people, ``Well, just go home,'' we have people now who risk their life, pay thousands of dollars to come here, with no job. Now we bring them here with a job for 10 months, we pay them, and we say, ``By the way, would you mind going home?'' Have you lost your mind? Have you simply lost your mind with respect to what is a concern of the American public?”