WASHINGTON --- Sen. Chuck Grassley has won passage of an amendment to the immigration reform bill currently being debated in the Senate.
The amendment, introduced by Grassley and Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, tightens a loophole that would have allowed illegal immigrants to provide sworn declarations to prove that they have been employed since January 7, 2004 to in order to gain legal status.
The amendment requires additional information be supplied with the sworn affidavits so that Citizenship and Immigration Services personnel can investigate and verify the declaration. The person who gives the sworn affidavit must provide direct knowledge of the illegal immigrant’s work history. They must also provide information on the nature and duration of their relationship with the illegal immigrant as well as their own name, address, phone number.
“The underlying bill contains a long list of options for illegal immigrants to prove that they’ve been working in this country. I don’t see why we would want to give them another option that can be easily manipulated,” Grassley said. “Our amendment makes the work requirement even harder for illegals to exploit.”
Grassley said that he will vote against the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 if it contains amnesty, which the underlying bill includes. “But there are many more loopholes that need to be closed in this bill. I hope next week we can make some progress in closing many of those loopholes,” he said.
“I voted for amnesty in 1986 when we had a one million illegal immigrant problem. I bought the line that it would solve our problems. Now, we have a 12 million illegal immigrant problem. Obviously, amnesty doesn’t work. I’ve learned my lesson and I’m not going to get burned again. I don’t want to leave the next generation of Senators a 25 million illegal immigrant problem,” Grassley said.
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