Post by unlawflcombatnt on Jun 6, 2007 14:59:42 GMT -6
Immigration Bill Update June 6, 2007, from
Numbers USA
The most egregious part of this bill is the instant Amnesty Provision, which is described in the following passage in red:
"All illegal aliens who claim to have been in the United States since January 1, 2007 would have up to two years to appear at an U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office, drop off a completed application for a “Z” visa, pay a $1,000 fine (plus $500 for each spouse, child, and parent living here illegally with them) and submit their fingerprints. USCIS would attempt to check their fingerprints against one or more criminal databases and, as long as fewer than three misdemeanors and no felonies showed up within 24 hours, USCIS would be required to grant them “probationary” amnesty in the form of a work permit and legal permission to remain in the United States until their Z visa application was adjudicated."
The majority of the June 6th summary is below:
"(June 6) The Senate is currently debating on S. 1348, the amnesty / guestworker bill. Votes on amendments are expected throughout the day.
Before adjournment yesterday evening, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) filed a cloture motion on the bill, which is likely to come up for a vote some time on Thursday, June 7. If successful, the cloture motion would cut off debate and prevent a filibuster. In order for cloture to be invoked, 60 senators must vote "yes" on it.
Background Information on S. 1348
This page describes Senate floor action on S. 1348 (If you have any questions or comments, please CLICK HERE.)
VIEW CHART showing estimated numerical impact of the Bush-Kennedy immigration bill.
CLICK HERE to read the final draft of the grand amnesty compromise brokered by President Bush, Sen. Kennedy and Sen. McCain. This legislation would reward between 12-20 million illegal aliens with amnesty and skyrocket legal immigration. Even though the Senate was expected to begin voting on this legislation on Monday, May 21, it was only made available to most Senators, staff, and the general public at 2 a.m. on Saturday, May 19.
BACKGROUND: On May 17, Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), and other Senate and White House negotiators announced that they had reached agreement on a “compromise” immigration bill. The final text of the bill was made available to Senators and their staff on Monday, the same day the Senate began debating the proposed legislation. Under the proposal:
All illegal aliens who claim to have been in the United States since January 1, 2007 would have up to two years to appear at an U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office, drop off a completed application for a “Z” visa, pay a $1,000 fine (plus $500 for each spouse, child, and parent living here illegally with them) and submit their fingerprints. USCIS would attempt to check their fingerprints against one or more criminal databases and, as long as fewer than three misdemeanors and no felonies showed up within 24 hours, USCIS would be required to grant them “probationary” amnesty in the form of a work permit and legal permission to remain in the United States until their Z visa application was adjudicated.
In case one amnesty is not sufficient, the proposal also includes both the DREAM Act amnesty for illegal aliens who graduate from U.S. high schools and the AgJOBS amnesty for 1.5 million illegal alien agricultural workers.
The employers of these newly amnestied aliens also would receive amnesty under the proposal. They would not be subject to fines or prosecution either for hiring the illegal aliens or for any tax fraud committed as a result.
Issuance of the Z visas, along with a new category of “Y” temporary foreign workers visas (see below), would be put on hold until the Secretary of Homeland Security could certify to the President that a series of “triggers” had been met:
Customs and Border Protection must have hired (not trained or deployed) a total of 18,000 Border Patrol agents;
The Department of Homeland Security must have installed 370 miles of border fence (about half the total miles of fencing required by the law passed by Congress and signed by the President at the end of the last Congress), along with some vehicle barriers and radar and camera towers, and deployed at least four unmanned aerial vehicles;
Immigration and Customs Enforcement must have 27,500 detention beds (the number it has now) and DHS must continue to detain removable aliens apprehended along the southern border;
DHS must have the tools to prevent illegal aliens from obtaining jobs, including the establishment of (though not the widespread use of) identification standards (presumably like those required by past laws, including the REAL ID Act) and an electronic work eligibility verification system (like the Basic Pilot); and
USCIS must be “processing and adjudicating in a timely manner” Z visa applications (since these are not supposed to be issued until the triggers are met, apparently, USCIS would be deciding them and saving them for later issuance).
So the triggers do NOT require that DHS have operational control of the border; they do NOT require that DHS comply with the law and build the all of the fence; they do NOT require that DHS implement the exit system that would allow us to know if "guest workers" actually leave, even though it has been in the law since 1996; they do NOT require work site enforcement; and they do NOT require that DHS increase its apprehension rate or its alien absconder removal rate.
Once the Secretary made the certification that the triggers had been met, USCIS would have to issue millions of Z visas within a six-month period because all “probationary” status would expire six months after issuance began. (If the certifications were never made because the triggers were never met, thus preventing issuance of the Z visas, the probationary status would remain valid indefinitely until Congress or the Administration took action.
The new Y-visa guestworker program would also kick in upon certification that the triggers had been met. This program allows U.S. employers to import up to 200,000 (it was 400,000 before Senator Bingaman successfully amended the bill) low-skilled foreign workers to fill American jobs in industries like construction, landscaping, and services. These workers would be allowed to come for up to three two-year periods, as long as they agreed not to bring their families and went home for one year in between each period. If they wanted to bring their families for one two-year period, they would be prohibited from coming for more than two two-year periods. (Since we have no exit system to ensure that temporary workers or their families leave when they are supposed to, and since the bill requires only that DHS submit a plan to eventually implement one, these workers and their families could simply stay illegally.)
The bill also purports to end chain migration by eliminating the visa categories for siblings and adult children. First, however, it proposes clearing the waiting list of such relatives by increasing family-based permanent immigration by 440,000 each year until the more than six million individuals who have been on the waiting list since May of 2005 have been accommodated.
Once all those on the waiting list for the chain migration categories have been granted green cards, all the millions of amnestied Z visa holders would become eligible to apply for green cards. Z visa holders would be required to drop off their green card applications at a U.S. consular office in their home country (or in any other country where the consular officials chose to accept the applications regardless of nationality of the applicant, a choice left to the discretion of the consular offices under the bill). DHS would collect another $4,000 from each head of household, check that they are learning some English and that they have paid their taxes, but only since they were legalized. Those Z visa holders who declined the offer of a green card could simply renew their Z visa every four years for as long as they wanted to remain in the United States.
Rather than the current employment-based visa preference categories, the bill would create a “merit system,” which would assign points to applicants for green cards based on their skills, education, English ability, and the presence of relatives in the United States. In the first five years under the bill, the number of visas in this system would be almost double the current number of employment-based visas.
The bill also includes three titles of enforcement provisions—one on border enforcement, one on interior enforcement, and one on work place enforcement. These provisions are virtually meaningless, however, unless the administration is willing to enforce them. The Bush Administration has demonstrated its unwillingness to enforce current law, so it seems overly optimistic to expect that, after they get their amnesty and new foreign worker programs, that they would suddenly see the value in enforcing any new immigration control measures.
One amendment under consideration this morning that could inflict a severe blow to the already fractious coalition supporting the so-called "Grand Bargain" will be debated and probably voted upon. Although the amendment simply expands the list of crimes making illegal aliens ineligible for legalization SA 1184, sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), opponents claim that its intent is to make the vast majority of illegal aliens ineligible for legalization. The amendment does not, by definition, apply to an individual who entered or re-entered the country illegally. It applies only to those individuals who have been arrested, charged, convicted and sentenced by a court of law to one year or more in jail. Moreover, it targets only those who have repeatedly been convicted of criminal offenses and are considered felons under current law. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), long an open-borders advocate and one of the prime movers behind the "Grand Bargain," is offering a counterproposal to Cornyn's amendment (SA 1333), but the text of this "side-by-side" amendment has not yet been made available to the public.
On the other side of the equation, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), the lead Republican in the "compromise" negotiations, has said that he will withdraw his support for the bill if an amendment by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) is adopted. SA 1249 would establish an “employer-sponsored” merit-based immigration system, create exemptions for the related cap of 140,000 visas per year, and exempt all aliens with graduate degrees from any institution from the H-1B cap.
Kyl said the "compromise" also would fall apart if amendments that would either add green cards for family reunification {Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.)} or exempt spouses and minor children of green card holders from numerical caps on permanent visas {Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y)} were to be adopted. Another amendment that may fall into that category – also backed by Menendez – would more than double the number of green cards available under the bill for the parents of U.S. citizens.
June 6 will likely see a number of votes on other pending amendments taking place throughout the day. Please check the Upcoming Votes section below for more information on these and other notable amendments.
On June 5, Senators voted down (31-62) an amendment sponsored by Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) that would have ensured that green card applicants who entered the country illegally were not given preference under a merit-based processing system over those who have waited outside the country for their immigration status to be approved. The Senate adopted an amendment (71-22) sponsored by Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) eliminating existing statutory provisions authorizing the Department of Labor to waive requirements that employers in "labor shortage areas" offer jobs to U.S. workers before seeking to import foreign workers. Members also adopted (67-26) an amendment sponsored by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) that would establish fact finding commissions on the wartime treatment of European Americans and Jewish Refugees. Finally, an amendment, sponsored by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), that would have required voters, in an effort to prohibit illegal aliens from voting, to present a government-issued photo ID at the polls was defeated (41-52) and subsequently withdrawn. "
More on this can be found at Numbers USA
Numbers USA
The most egregious part of this bill is the instant Amnesty Provision, which is described in the following passage in red:
"All illegal aliens who claim to have been in the United States since January 1, 2007 would have up to two years to appear at an U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office, drop off a completed application for a “Z” visa, pay a $1,000 fine (plus $500 for each spouse, child, and parent living here illegally with them) and submit their fingerprints. USCIS would attempt to check their fingerprints against one or more criminal databases and, as long as fewer than three misdemeanors and no felonies showed up within 24 hours, USCIS would be required to grant them “probationary” amnesty in the form of a work permit and legal permission to remain in the United States until their Z visa application was adjudicated."
The majority of the June 6th summary is below:
"(June 6) The Senate is currently debating on S. 1348, the amnesty / guestworker bill. Votes on amendments are expected throughout the day.
Before adjournment yesterday evening, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) filed a cloture motion on the bill, which is likely to come up for a vote some time on Thursday, June 7. If successful, the cloture motion would cut off debate and prevent a filibuster. In order for cloture to be invoked, 60 senators must vote "yes" on it.
Background Information on S. 1348
This page describes Senate floor action on S. 1348 (If you have any questions or comments, please CLICK HERE.)
VIEW CHART showing estimated numerical impact of the Bush-Kennedy immigration bill.
CLICK HERE to read the final draft of the grand amnesty compromise brokered by President Bush, Sen. Kennedy and Sen. McCain. This legislation would reward between 12-20 million illegal aliens with amnesty and skyrocket legal immigration. Even though the Senate was expected to begin voting on this legislation on Monday, May 21, it was only made available to most Senators, staff, and the general public at 2 a.m. on Saturday, May 19.
BACKGROUND: On May 17, Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), and other Senate and White House negotiators announced that they had reached agreement on a “compromise” immigration bill. The final text of the bill was made available to Senators and their staff on Monday, the same day the Senate began debating the proposed legislation. Under the proposal:
All illegal aliens who claim to have been in the United States since January 1, 2007 would have up to two years to appear at an U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office, drop off a completed application for a “Z” visa, pay a $1,000 fine (plus $500 for each spouse, child, and parent living here illegally with them) and submit their fingerprints. USCIS would attempt to check their fingerprints against one or more criminal databases and, as long as fewer than three misdemeanors and no felonies showed up within 24 hours, USCIS would be required to grant them “probationary” amnesty in the form of a work permit and legal permission to remain in the United States until their Z visa application was adjudicated.
In case one amnesty is not sufficient, the proposal also includes both the DREAM Act amnesty for illegal aliens who graduate from U.S. high schools and the AgJOBS amnesty for 1.5 million illegal alien agricultural workers.
The employers of these newly amnestied aliens also would receive amnesty under the proposal. They would not be subject to fines or prosecution either for hiring the illegal aliens or for any tax fraud committed as a result.
Issuance of the Z visas, along with a new category of “Y” temporary foreign workers visas (see below), would be put on hold until the Secretary of Homeland Security could certify to the President that a series of “triggers” had been met:
Customs and Border Protection must have hired (not trained or deployed) a total of 18,000 Border Patrol agents;
The Department of Homeland Security must have installed 370 miles of border fence (about half the total miles of fencing required by the law passed by Congress and signed by the President at the end of the last Congress), along with some vehicle barriers and radar and camera towers, and deployed at least four unmanned aerial vehicles;
Immigration and Customs Enforcement must have 27,500 detention beds (the number it has now) and DHS must continue to detain removable aliens apprehended along the southern border;
DHS must have the tools to prevent illegal aliens from obtaining jobs, including the establishment of (though not the widespread use of) identification standards (presumably like those required by past laws, including the REAL ID Act) and an electronic work eligibility verification system (like the Basic Pilot); and
USCIS must be “processing and adjudicating in a timely manner” Z visa applications (since these are not supposed to be issued until the triggers are met, apparently, USCIS would be deciding them and saving them for later issuance).
So the triggers do NOT require that DHS have operational control of the border; they do NOT require that DHS comply with the law and build the all of the fence; they do NOT require that DHS implement the exit system that would allow us to know if "guest workers" actually leave, even though it has been in the law since 1996; they do NOT require work site enforcement; and they do NOT require that DHS increase its apprehension rate or its alien absconder removal rate.
Once the Secretary made the certification that the triggers had been met, USCIS would have to issue millions of Z visas within a six-month period because all “probationary” status would expire six months after issuance began. (If the certifications were never made because the triggers were never met, thus preventing issuance of the Z visas, the probationary status would remain valid indefinitely until Congress or the Administration took action.
The new Y-visa guestworker program would also kick in upon certification that the triggers had been met. This program allows U.S. employers to import up to 200,000 (it was 400,000 before Senator Bingaman successfully amended the bill) low-skilled foreign workers to fill American jobs in industries like construction, landscaping, and services. These workers would be allowed to come for up to three two-year periods, as long as they agreed not to bring their families and went home for one year in between each period. If they wanted to bring their families for one two-year period, they would be prohibited from coming for more than two two-year periods. (Since we have no exit system to ensure that temporary workers or their families leave when they are supposed to, and since the bill requires only that DHS submit a plan to eventually implement one, these workers and their families could simply stay illegally.)
The bill also purports to end chain migration by eliminating the visa categories for siblings and adult children. First, however, it proposes clearing the waiting list of such relatives by increasing family-based permanent immigration by 440,000 each year until the more than six million individuals who have been on the waiting list since May of 2005 have been accommodated.
Once all those on the waiting list for the chain migration categories have been granted green cards, all the millions of amnestied Z visa holders would become eligible to apply for green cards. Z visa holders would be required to drop off their green card applications at a U.S. consular office in their home country (or in any other country where the consular officials chose to accept the applications regardless of nationality of the applicant, a choice left to the discretion of the consular offices under the bill). DHS would collect another $4,000 from each head of household, check that they are learning some English and that they have paid their taxes, but only since they were legalized. Those Z visa holders who declined the offer of a green card could simply renew their Z visa every four years for as long as they wanted to remain in the United States.
Rather than the current employment-based visa preference categories, the bill would create a “merit system,” which would assign points to applicants for green cards based on their skills, education, English ability, and the presence of relatives in the United States. In the first five years under the bill, the number of visas in this system would be almost double the current number of employment-based visas.
The bill also includes three titles of enforcement provisions—one on border enforcement, one on interior enforcement, and one on work place enforcement. These provisions are virtually meaningless, however, unless the administration is willing to enforce them. The Bush Administration has demonstrated its unwillingness to enforce current law, so it seems overly optimistic to expect that, after they get their amnesty and new foreign worker programs, that they would suddenly see the value in enforcing any new immigration control measures.
One amendment under consideration this morning that could inflict a severe blow to the already fractious coalition supporting the so-called "Grand Bargain" will be debated and probably voted upon. Although the amendment simply expands the list of crimes making illegal aliens ineligible for legalization SA 1184, sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), opponents claim that its intent is to make the vast majority of illegal aliens ineligible for legalization. The amendment does not, by definition, apply to an individual who entered or re-entered the country illegally. It applies only to those individuals who have been arrested, charged, convicted and sentenced by a court of law to one year or more in jail. Moreover, it targets only those who have repeatedly been convicted of criminal offenses and are considered felons under current law. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), long an open-borders advocate and one of the prime movers behind the "Grand Bargain," is offering a counterproposal to Cornyn's amendment (SA 1333), but the text of this "side-by-side" amendment has not yet been made available to the public.
On the other side of the equation, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), the lead Republican in the "compromise" negotiations, has said that he will withdraw his support for the bill if an amendment by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) is adopted. SA 1249 would establish an “employer-sponsored” merit-based immigration system, create exemptions for the related cap of 140,000 visas per year, and exempt all aliens with graduate degrees from any institution from the H-1B cap.
Kyl said the "compromise" also would fall apart if amendments that would either add green cards for family reunification {Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.)} or exempt spouses and minor children of green card holders from numerical caps on permanent visas {Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y)} were to be adopted. Another amendment that may fall into that category – also backed by Menendez – would more than double the number of green cards available under the bill for the parents of U.S. citizens.
June 6 will likely see a number of votes on other pending amendments taking place throughout the day. Please check the Upcoming Votes section below for more information on these and other notable amendments.
On June 5, Senators voted down (31-62) an amendment sponsored by Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) that would have ensured that green card applicants who entered the country illegally were not given preference under a merit-based processing system over those who have waited outside the country for their immigration status to be approved. The Senate adopted an amendment (71-22) sponsored by Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) eliminating existing statutory provisions authorizing the Department of Labor to waive requirements that employers in "labor shortage areas" offer jobs to U.S. workers before seeking to import foreign workers. Members also adopted (67-26) an amendment sponsored by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) that would establish fact finding commissions on the wartime treatment of European Americans and Jewish Refugees. Finally, an amendment, sponsored by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), that would have required voters, in an effort to prohibit illegal aliens from voting, to present a government-issued photo ID at the polls was defeated (41-52) and subsequently withdrawn. "
More on this can be found at Numbers USA