Pete Sessions: “I thank the Senator. By the way, the AgJOBS amendment also provides they shall be given fully paid-for health insurance…”

“I thank the Senator. By the way, the AgJOBS amendment also provides they shall be given fully paid-for health insurance, which American workers do not get. It provides that the worker organizations and employer associations are the ones to receive the applications for temporary status. But, they cannot provide that application or the information in the application to the Department of Homeland Security unless the alien consents. They might receive information or evidence in the application pertaining to a crime, but, apparently the sponsors of this amendment are not concerned about that. Instead, they want the applications and the information that is given to the organizations and associations that are authorized to receive them kept from the Department of Homeland Security. As a matter of fact, the only way your application is allowed to go to the Department Homeland Security and its Secretary--the only way it can go there--is if you have a lawyer. If you do not have a lawyer, your application has to go to one of these groups who will send it to DHS for you. These groups are not independent, fair groups. The employer groups and the worker organizations are groups that have a special interest in promoting this. So this is not protecting the interests of the people of the United States to give this process over to two groups, both of which have a special interest in promoting people coming into this country.…”