William F. Smith: “Let me conclude by saying once again that today our colleagues are seeing a rare alignment of orbits here where we have…”

“Let me conclude by saying once again that today our colleagues are seeing a rare alignment of orbits here where we have the Department of Justice, the State Department, and the White House itself joining many of us in Congress who are Republicans in saying that we need to extend the program, but we need to oppose any weakening amendments. The primary reason for opposing those weakening amendments is because of the danger of increasing illegal immigration in America. As I pointed out, unfortunately and regrettably, the country that seems to have let a lot of people into the country illegally is Portugal, 26,000 today. And that is why the visa screening process is in place. If Portugal becomes a Visa Pilot Program and it has an exemption for obtaining visas, then we are going to be in a situation where it is even easier for individuals from that country to come into the United States and stay illegally. That 26,000 figure is simply going to explode; we will have more illegal aliens from Portugal than any other visa exemption country. Second of all, in the case of Greece, then their record is going the wrong direction. We should not be going in a direction that is going to continue to undermine the integrity of the immigration system.”