Posted on 05/30/2007 10:24:22 AM PDT by ER_in_OC,CA
IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 25, 2007 Contacts: Aaron Saunders (202) 224-1028 Steve Wackowski (202) 224-5122
Senator Stevens Discusses Alaska and National Issues at Press Conference
Audio is available by clicking here. [See transcript by Freeper ER_in_OC,CA below]
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) spoke with Washington, D.C.-based Alaska reporters about a wide variety of topics affecting the State and the nation.
Senator Stevens answered questions on the following issues during the press conference:
1. Emergency Spending Supplemental/Iraq War (4 minutes) 2. International Whaling Commission meetings (1 minute) 3. Price gouging legislation (2 minutes) 4. Tongass Land Management Plan (4 minutes) 5. Exxon Valdez settlement litigation (1 minute) 6. Steller Sea Lion Draft Revised Recovery Plan (2.5 minutes) 7. Opposition to oil and gas leasing in Bristol Bay (2 minutes) 8. FAA Reauthorization bill (6 minutes) 9. Senate’s immigration reform legislation (3 minutes)
Question: "What's your attitude about the immigration bill."
SENATOR TED STEVENS: I am supporting the substitute, which I think is really a very good one. And I want to emphasize that it is not amnesty. There is no amnesty there. If a person wants to go towards a green card, they have to leave the country and come back in under a quota.
Now, no one seems to be picking that up. All these people are talking about amnesty. Amnesty would only be in effect if someone was here and they're allowed to say here and work towards getting a green card. That is not possible under this bill.
So I do think that people should understand -- we've got two new type of visas. We used to have H-Visas, now they're going to have Y and Z Visas. And the H-2B Visa, which is one that our tourist facilities in Alaska have used will become the Y-2B, and it will be increased in terms of National use from 66,000 to 100,000 people a year. They come in for a specific purpose. They can not become eligible for any kind of green card, they can only come in for a specific job. The employer has to show that they have advertised and no one has responded to the advertisement and they have to have these people to in order to fill their jobs and conduct their business.
Its an annual thing and its limited to how many times you can have that. My memory is you can have it for 2 years, and then another two years ... (Stevens' aside: what's the final limit, does anybody remember?) It has a limit in terms of how many times you can come in as a Y-2B Visa worker.
Question: So that would deal with issues like the roe workers...
SENATOR TED SEVENS: This is important for the fishing where the Japanese buy the roe but they only buy that's been packed by their people because of the cultural way of dealing with them. It also deals with ... I was visited by some people that operate rural hotels and they're only open from May to September. They cannot afford to pay someone year-round salaries. And under the circumstances, they also don't want to be involved in paying for retirement.
These are young people. Young, college-age people mostly, and they can come in from foreign countries and work there for a summer, but there's a limit on how many times they can come in under the new Y-2B. The old H-2B there was no limit -- there's a limit to the number of visas -- but no limit on how many times you could apply for one.
I think that immigration bill is good. A lot of people...again, it's like the FAA bill, misunderstand it. They still think we're talking about the original bill. It's a long way from the original bill. It's a good bill. I really commend Sen. Kyl and Sen. Kennedy, they have put partisanship aside, they've taken time to work with people from both sides of the aisle, and I think they've got a substantial majority and will pass that bill soon after we get back.
He should go jump off a bridge.
You know, the one we paid for that goes nowhere.
Except that someone can get a Z-visa indefinitely without having to do any of that.
Finally, a pork project I can support.
Didn`t that bridge die?
What part of the unnecessary $17 billion spending in the bill belongs to Ted? (rhetorical question)
Amazing. He spends 90% of his time on the relatively noncontroversial temporary work visas and brushes the amnesty/Z visas with “There is no amnesty there”. Sorry, driving back across the border once a few years from now (maybe) to go from an automatically issued Z visa to a permanent resident green card instead of going back now and waiting for years for a chance to immigrate is Amnesty.
I think the bridge died a very public death, but the money stayed in the budget for Alaska. I wonder what it could possibly be spent on?
Time to either RETIRE this RINO relic from the past or force him to become an “undocumented worker” into Mexico!!!
Question of the day:
Why are we giving people from other countries who want to come here legally (burearcracy), a harder time than the illegals?
I think it’s time we started going by our elected official’s offices. If those supporting the bill are that stupid and gullible then our country is indeed in trouble.
I wonder how many of those supporting the bill have secret Swiss Bank accounts and what groups have made contributions!
“Let them eat tacos!”
Ted gets a lot of pork.
The Mexican government wouldn’t allow it.
“ Ten movies streaming across that, that Internet, and what happens to your own personal Internet? I just the other day got... an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday, I got it yesterday. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially.
[...] They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material."
I look forward to reading it.
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