Byron Dorgan: “this is a sunset of the temporary worker program in 5 years. It is a new bill, a new program, with more questions than…”

“this is a sunset of the temporary worker program in 5 years. It is a new bill, a new program, with more questions than answers. It seems to me that we ought to ask some questions at the end of 5 years. In the fifth year, we will have 600,000 jobs assumed by temporary workers coming in; in the fourth year, 400,000 jobs, and on and on. So the question is, How many of them are going to leave? What if they do not leave? Are we going to come back to the floor with a new immigration bill, talking about illegal immigration? Why don't we sunset after 5 years to see if this has worked? Let me make a final point as we vote. We have had a lot of discussion about immigration, but no one on the floor of the Senate is talking about the impact on American workers. All of these jobs the temporary workers will assume are going to compete with people at the bottom of the economic ladder in this country. They are called American workers as well. Let us sunset this and evaluate what we are doing, what kind of contribution to illegal immigration this will amount to, and what impact it has on American workers. Let us sunset this at the end of 5 years.”