Political Quotes

“one of the things I have found intriguing, and was glad to hear, was the bill sponsors of S. 744--the comprehensive immigration bill--indicated they had a plan that would move us to a more merit-based system of immigration. They made that promise. It is something I advocated in 2007. I had the opportunity to meet with the chairman of the Canadian system while in Canada and we talked about their merit-based system. It is a very significant system, a major change in how they handle immigration in Canada. He was very pleased with it. Fundamentally, they sought to admit people into Canada who would have the best chance of being successful in Canada. They can't admit everybody into Canada. No other country I know of has no limit on the number of people who enter. But they wanted to say who could be the most successful, who would do the best, and who should flourish in Canada, so they gave points for people with more education, people who already spoke English, people who had the job skills Canada needs, younger people, and matters such as that. It was designed to serve the Canadian national interest. It has been in place for a number of years now, it actually works, and they are very happy with it. So when I heard this might be a part of the immigration reform bill, I was pleased. It is important to emphasize, first, that merit-based immigration is separate from the doubling of the guest workers who come in under the bill.…”