William F. Smith: “Mr. Chairman, Mark Twain said, ``First you get your facts straight, then you can distort them all you want.'' I am…”

“Mr. Chairman, Mark Twain said, ``First you get your facts straight, then you can distort them all you want.'' I am afraid that we have heard some of that just a minute ago. In point of fact, when we consider both cash and noncash benefits, there is 21 percent, a record high percentage, of legal immigrants on welfare. The point, though, of this amendment is, it is a motion to kill, it is not just a motion to strike. There is no separate legal immigration reform bill on the House side, and, as I mentioned awhile ago, the proponents have not offered any amendments to try to improve our legal immigration system. This amendment simply makes a bad situation worse. It will keep the status quo. It will keep the huge backlogs. It will keep the long waits, and, in fact, it will allow them to grow larger and longer. Legal immigration drives illegal immigration. Today almost half of the illegal immigrants in the country today actually came over here on legitimate visa, typically tourist visas, and then overstayed, and that is the result of these huge backlogs and long waits, which is what the bill fixes and what the amendment ignores. Also, Mr. Chairman, I have to say that one of the worst reasons to go back to the status quo is because we have a broken legal immigration system that depresses wages and costs jobs. The American people know immigration can hurt them because they have to compete with them.”