Next Up — Immigration Reform
This week will be very interesting on this front — as a bipartisan group of 8 Senators will release a plan to address issues with illegal immigration today and President Obama will release a plan tomorrow in Las Vegas. This comes after an election where Hispanics decisively voted for Barack Obama and the GOP spent a great deal of time demonizing them. While fixing the undocumented immigrant problem is indeed important, keep in mind that Democrats want to solidify their relationship to Hispanics and the GOP wants to start one. This deal would cover border security, a path to citizenship for approx. 10M people, and work visas for high tech workers. From the LA Times:
….The Senate proposal would allow most of those in the country illegally to obtain probationary legal status immediately by paying a fine and back taxes and passing a background check. That would make them eligible to work and live in the U.S. They could earn a green card — permanent residency — after the government certifies that the U.S.-Mexican border has become secure, but might face a lengthy process before becoming citizens.
….Less-controversial provisions would tighten requirements on employers to check the immigration status of new workers; increase the number of visas for high-skilled jobs; provide green cards automatically to people who earn master’s degrees or PhDs in science, technology or math at U.S. universities; and create an agricultural guest-worker program.
President Obama’s proposal :
Obama is expected to push for a faster citizenship process that would not be conditional on border security standards being met first. The structure of the citizenship process will probably be among the most hotly debated parts of any immigration plan.
The President met with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus last week and Rep. Gutierrez remarked that the President’s Plan was in line with the CHC’s principles for immigration reform.
There isn’t alot of detail yet, but I’m not crazy about the “certification” deal for the border. This President has been aggressive in border enforcement and in deportations — and is sometimes criticized for that — but if this means that there is an expectation that the border will be completely non-porous before the process towards citizenship, then I think we’re looking at a pig in the poke. Still, it is good that this is getting to the front burner.
What do you think of this?
EDIT: The Washington Post has posted up the entire Senate proposal. It is organized around 4 legislative pillars:
1. Create a tough but fair path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants currently living in the United States that is contingent upon securing our borders and tracking whether legal immigrants have left the country when required;
2. Reform our legal immigration system to better recognize the importance of characteristics that will help build the American economy and strengthen American families;
3. Create an effective employment verification system that will prevent identity theft and end the hiring of future unauthorized workers; and,
4. Establish an improved process for admitting future workers to serve our nation’s workforce needs, while simultaneously protecting all workers.
Tags: Immigration
10 million jobs is a lot of jobs to give up for Americans. (I know, it probably won’t add up to quite 10 million in the end). But I’ve gotten comfortable with the amnesty portion, basically on the grounds they have acquired squatters’ rights, since we encouraged them to come illegally and looked the other way for so long.
But if we are going to give out amnesty, I want them to go straight to full citizenship with no fines and no interim second-class status (after the usual citizenship test and background checks). The whole point is to bring them under the full protection of US law so US workers are no longer competing against labor with second-class rights.
And WTF is the point of fines against an already exploited population, except to make angry white voters feel better?
HOWEVER (using my Mike Castle voice)….
They MUST rat out all their employers who employed them illegally. Then we can begin tracking those bastards (the illegal employers).
We MUST impose harsh sanctions against illegal employers going forward. Otherwise we will be back for another round of amnesty in a few election cycles.
Employer sanctions ARE border security. Without employer sanctions there is no comprehensive reform.
If employers think they can make these people citizens and still keep exploiting them, they have another think coming. As soon as this batch of workers are citizens, employers will throw them under the bus for the next wave of cheap illegal workers.
Edited to provide a link to the WaPo who has the complete text of the Senate proposal posted now.
Yikes! Near total agreement with Puck! I favor the Dream Act like portion, but am far from sold on the rest of the illegals gaining citizenship, “tough road” or not. But I also expect the Tea Party types to rise up and smite the GOP senators, arch hypocrite John “finish the dang thing” McCain included. And we’re dreaming if we think the employers of the illegals will ever be held accountable, when money is involved in America the most wins.
“after the government certifies that the U.S.-Mexican border has become secure.” Yeah, like we could get the gov’t to agree and pass certification.
Unless its a path to citizenship without this nebulus definition of “secure border” this is a bad idea. The Rs and anti-immigrant crowd can always claim the border is not secure thus keeping millions half-way legals in limbo.
It isn’t just the government to agree to this certification — this seems to create a board of task force of southwestern representatives that would weigh in on this border security. Giving this group of people a blank check for passing on to defense contractors (the people doing the border security efforts now) seems like a futile effort.
The other thing I have questions about is the actual process for getting immigrants into the “line”. Are they creating another process (with staffing) to do this, or are they just putting everyone into the existing queue? The existing queue is a MESS and piling on a few more million is a recipe for disaster.
Interesting that they haven’t talked about potential costs for this.
Chris Coons’ office releases a statement on this announcement:
Interesting as I read various Senators’ comments on this. They are all over the moon about the bipartisanship of the thing. Whether or not it is good policy isn’t exactly at the top of the list.
Not that I object to bipartisanship. Just don’t want these guys to get the idea that they are supposed to come home with bipartisanship. Good policy is supposed to be the goal.
It’s not 11 million American jobs that will be lost
Of the 11 million only 5-6 million are of working age and not dependents.
So it’s 5-6 million jobs- and after Several years they will be American too
They will swell the ranks of the unions and hopefully pull the American workers with them
Cheating employers won’t be able to exploit so let’s hope they do this right and fix this issue
I do not want to see American jobs lost. But I don’t want to see the tired old meme they r taking jobs
The draconian state laws passed to curb illegal hires failed miserably. The rotting fruits and vegetables in Georgia and Arizona and Mississippi tell THAT tale all to clearly….
So, lets hope the GOP plan is nixed – immigration is reformed , they all join unions
And VOTE DEMOCRATIC when the naturalize!
puck said “Employer sanctions ARE border security.”
Absolutely correct. People come to America, legally and illegally because of opportunity. eVerify and other means should be required by all employers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is against immigration reform because it reduce the number of workers that will work on the cheap because they are afraid of being caught.
While we need to enhance border security against terrorists, criminals and the like, border security for the generally law abiding (well they are here illegally) are the requirements and constraints that we put on employers.
Yeah. I agree, that was very well put.
Requiring fines turns the US Government into coyotes and snakeheads, requiring impoverished people to buy their entry into the US.
While we need to enhance border security against terrorists, criminals and the like
Really? As of 2011, $90B spent with no stopping of drug importation, and little impact on illegal crossing or terrorists for that matter.
$90B — with walls, fences, new stations, more police, you name it and we still need enhancements? When was the last time you saw the southern border? That border is never going to be perfectly sealed up and there needs to be an assessment of the costs v. benefits of more extraordinary measures for this.
This is why the whole border security and the commission to certify it are a big question to me. 90B for 1600 miles of security that won’t ever be perfect. Time to depoliticize that, make it work as best as you can and move on.
If we are itching to collect money from someone, we can collect a steep payment from employers who are sponsoring new immigrants, for example highly skilled workers. I mean a payment with teeth, like a year’s salary. Then they might think twice about whether they really can’t find an American to do the job.
Jamelle Bouie at the Plum Line writes, noting that We Don”t Have a Border Security Problem , this time noting how much the Obama Administration has spent:
More from Senator Coons today — this time announcing a bill he is sponsoring for high-tech immigration:
“and there needs to be an assessment of the costs v. benefits of more extraordinary measures for this.”
Yes, there needs to be. Building a 2000 mile long fence was a silly thing to do. Be that as it may, I don’t have enough information to opine on how secure the border is or how secure it needs to be.
I do know that companies are using H1B Visas for other than high tech positions. For example, Sallie Mae did a H1B Visa hire against a position for Director, Financial Planning & Analysis. Someone would have explain to me why this nation has no one that could fill that type of position. H1B Visa does provide a benefit for companies and immigrants. But honestly, are we not producing the people that can fill many of these positions?
Coons’s bill is depressing. Calling it reform is enraging.
We subsidize our corn then complain when Mexican farmers can’t compete and come north for work
I believe we should work for open borders worldwide