Model Senate is mock congress project in which students are assigned a senator, and a committee.The three committees we focused writing bills on is, immigration, college debt, and climate change. Once seniors had their assigned roles, and had written their piece of legislation, one bill was selected from each committee to go into committee meetings. During the committee meetings both parties presented their speechs and amendments, voted on amendments, then voted on the final bill to go to the floor. Final bills were then presented on floor to senators in all committees to be voted on the last time.
Debbie Stabenow
Michigan Democratic Senator
MODEL SENATE SPEECH -
Good Morning everyone, my name is Debbie Stabenow and I am here today to advocate my support for Bill No. 3-2016 as well as propose an amendment to this bill. I believe Senator Cruz and Hatch have devised a pretty well rounded bill that focuses on improving the lives of immigrants already here in our country while also finding ways to decrease the amount of illegal immigrants by providing more options to legally reside in the United States.
Before I offer up my amendments to this bill, I’d like to touch on the sections that pose great ideas and solutions to improve our immigration system. I believe creating new visa forms for unskilled labor workers is a great addition to this bill. Section 2’s proposal encourages legal migration into our country by allowing those who would otherwise illegally immigrate to our country to do so in a legal way. Due to the lessened eligibility requirements stated in Sub-Section C. Section 2’s proposal is hopefully going to in turn decrease the amount of illegal immigrants due to the increase in eligible visas. Increasing the amount of visas assigned to different countries based on population size and visa demand is a promising proposal for those who are applying for visas in regions with as large demand for visas. The visitation requirements/check in’s are a great addition to hold the individual accountable to their responsibilities of being a guest worker in our country and complying to our countries laws. On a side note I do not think the fine of $150 is an attainable amount for those who are working lower wage jobs, though I will not be proposing an amendment on that today.
The amendment I would like to propose to you all today is addressing Section 3, Sub-Section B. The original draft of the bill states “Students visas can be changed to skilled worker visas as long as there is an application process.“. I found this subsection to be relatively vague and it seemed to neglect covering all the bases that must be addressed when going through a process such as this one. I’m proposing to amend Subsection B stating, “ After student visas expire, the student has deferred action on deportation while they are applying for a skilled worker visa.” This amendment gives successful students the ability for deferred action of deportation and legality to be in the United States without a visa during their lengthy application process for the skilled worker visa. With this amendment we have hopes to give assurance to our valued students who want to continue to reside in the United States to contribute to our work force.
I hope you all have taken my amendment proposal into consideration as I believe it will strengthen the bill on the table. In conclusion I, Debbie Stabenow support Bill No. 3-2016 because of its important efforts to improve the lives and experiences of the immigrants in our country.