…Which came as a complete surprise to the business community, particularly at a time when his administration has done nothing but attack legal immigration, making the H-1B application process nearly unbearable for employers since the release of his “Buy American – Hire American” Executive Order. So, what could Trump do if he was ‘really’ interested in high skilled immigration?
“The decision to simply delay this deeply controversial and possibly unconstitutional unilateral action until after the election — instead of abandoning the idea altogether — smacks of raw politics,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement which is a total surprise considering the House’s refusal to do anything on immigration reform; is he being sarcastic or untruthful?! Even members from within Obama’s own party scoffed at the decision. Despite this, the White House just last week assured anxious Hispanic lawmakers on Capitol Hill that President Obama will use executive action before the holiday season closes to reform U.S. immigration law, after breaking his pledge to make changes by the end of summer. The message was delivered in a meeting Thursday with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and other administration officials, including domestic policy adviser Cecilia Munoz, a key player for Obama on the issue, according to Politico.
Illinois Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez said Obama’s decision to “play it safe” could end up harming his good standing among many Latino voters in the midterms. He further stated, “While we wait until November … there’s going to be another 60,000 people deported,” he said. “There is pain and suffering in the community, and there is a lot of anguish and anger.”
Other resources:
The Los Angeles Times reported that Boehner’s leadership team was drafting “principles” for overhauling immigration laws that will be presented in coming weeks. His remarks were made Wednesday (Jan. 8, 2013) during the first private meeting of House Republicans in the new year.
“We are working on a standards or principles document,” Boehner said, according to a person in the room granted anonymity to discuss the private session. The document is being drafted by Boehner, his leadership team, including House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), as well as other members interested in the issue.
House Republican leaders believe that the GOP needs to support an immigration overhaul to woo Latino voters in advance of the 2016 presidential election – if that’s even possible with the rampant obstructionism that has plagued the House. In any event, we all sit waiting to hear about this step-by-step approach that he’s been talking about for months.
The small team of GOP members and staff has been working to draft a statement of basic principles on immigration policy for several weeks. The effort is being coordinated by Rebecca Tallent, former immigration advisor to Arizona Sen. John McCain and a veteran of the previous effort to pass immigration reform during the second term of President George W. Bush. Boehner hired Tallent in December.
It was reported that the goal is to present the document — which could serve as an outline for future legislative action — before the House GOP retreat at a resort on the Eastern Shore of Maryland on Jan. 29th.
It is likely that Boehner will wait until the filings for Republican primaries are past before things really get moving in order to protect Republican incumbents from having to vote on immigration bills that could be used against them by far right candidates.
We will continue to keep you posted.
For more reading: LA Times, Washington Post
Back in October of this year, President Obama stated “Immigration reform may not pass, but that’s no reason to give up the fight.”
The pro-immigration reform movement has united in a strong front and is the most broad and diverse that we’ve ever observed. The strategic and impassioned outcry from immigration activists are being heard in the hallways of Congress, in state offices across the country, groups fasting for immigration reform, holding prayer vigils, outbursts taking place in the middle of President Obama’s speeches, protestors chaining themselves to gates of federal buildings, and more – a full court press on the GOP. “The immigration reform movement has emerged as a relentless force that is prepared to hold all parties accountable in 2014,” states Julia Preston in her NY Times article.
The Background
In June 2013, the Senate passed their version of Comprehensive Immigration that doesn’t please everyone, but its passage was a victory for those who have been working on the issue for years and watched immigration reform fail many times over. It addresses undocumented immigrants, legal immigration, border security, employer hiring and an entry-exit system so the government knows if foreign nationals leave the country when their visa expires. The path to citizenship is long — 13 years or more — and arduous, but advocates are pleased that it would exist at all, given opposition from many Republicans and the failure of bills to carve out such a path in the past. Dreamers, young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, would be able to earn green cards in five years, as would some agricultural workers. The bill adds huge increases in border security that catered to unsure Democrats and Republicans.
Although 3 out of 4 Americans want Congress to pass immigration reform with a path to citizenship, Speaker John Boehner and the House Republican Leadership are using stalling tactics and excuses to block reform from getting a vote on the House floor. There’s been no progress – total gridlock in the House of Representatives, while we’re told repeatedly that they are approaching CIR in a piecemeal manner and that all the individual bills will eventually be rolled into one comprehensive bill. The president recently commented, “If they want to chop that thing up into five pieces, as long as all five pieces get done, I don’t care what it looks like.” We ask, when will his happen? Sadly, not this year.
The question is will the Tea Party continue to set the agenda for the House GOP? Mounting frustration with the Tea Party may lead mainstream Republicans to move forward on immigration reform without them. In order for the GOP to win Hispanic and Asian voters, it is mandatory that they address the broken immigration system. There has been little to no (and at times incredibly awkward, contradictory and antagonistic) outreach and messaging to the immigrant community by the Republican Party. At this point in time, there is fear that if 11 million are granted citizenship, they’ll vote Democratic. We will have to see how this continues to play out moving into 2014.
Recently, On December 3, 2013, Speaker John Boehner announced the hiring of Rebecca Tallent to serve as immigration advisor in his office. Tallent worked as a staffer and later as Chief of Staff for Sen. John McCain. She left McCain’s office earlier this year to become the immigration policy director for the Bipartisan Policy Center where she also chaired the organization’s immigration task force. She’s helped draft amnesty bills for Sen. McCain in the mid-2000s and, in her role at the Bipartisan Policy Center, helped develop an immigration framework that includes amnesty for illegal aliens and massive increases in legal immigration. Her new appointment in Speaker Boehner’s office does send a positive signal that he’s laying the ground work to pass massive immigration reforms in 2014. However, NumbersUSA President Roy Beck said. “His new hire has done almost nothing the last decade except work for giant increases in foreign labor. But Boehner still has to persuade at least 118 Republican House Members that their constituents would be okay with an expansion of immigration. We are hopeful that the appointment of Rebecca Tallent will play an essential role in lifting immigration reform over the finish line in early 2014.
More reading…
Video: “Congress Fails to Tackle Immigration Reform”
Immigration Reform Advocates Descent on Capitol HIll; visiting 200 Offices
Other Articles on Immigration Reform
The Senate’s immigration bill takes us a small step closer to a less punitive and more open immigration policy. It legalizes most of the unlawful immigrants here and provides pathways for legal immigration in the future. It’s not a perfect bill – there are flaws such as the $46 billion border surge that just about militarizes the border with technology and fencing (the passing of the Hoeven-Corker amendment), and mandatory E-Verify for all employers – the result of the political tug-of-war surrounding immigration reform and the “poison pill” that had to be added to attract sufficient Republican votes to pass the bill.
The good news is that it’s a huge “win” on many fronts – to name a few:
The House has announced that it will not take up or vote on the the Senate Bill. “For any legislation — including the conference report — to pass the House it’s going to have to be a bill that has the support of the majority of our members,” Boehner told reporters last Thursday. Here is a video of the House Speaker. As Latino Decisions writes in a new analysis, “The Republican Party is at a crucial crossroads. If House Republicans stall or block immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship to millions of undocumented immigrants, it will be almost impossible for the party to recover on many fronts and to compete nationally for Latino votes. We shall see how all this progresses and will continue to keep you well informed.
After considering some 200 amendments to the Gang of 8’s immigration bill entitled the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 (a/k/a CIR, or Comprehensive Immigration Reform), it survived the Senate Judiciary Committee overhaul and has been introduced onto the floor of the Senate for further debate taking place this month. It is the goal of the Senate to complete their work on the Bill by the July 4th recess. On the weekend talk show circuit, Lindsay Graham (S-SC) told conservatives who are trying to block the measure that they will doom the party. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., went a step further and predicted “there will never be a road to the White House for the Republican Party if immigration overhaul fails to pass.”
The big question is – will the House of Representatives cooperate and pass a bill? The theory on this is that the purpose of the legislative process right now is for the House to get a bill passed. It could be a good or bad bill; it just has to be an intact bill because once something makes it through the House, it will go to conference with the Senate and the Committee will compare the two bills and draft a compromise bill that both chambers can accept
The Temperature on Immigration Reform in the House of Representatives:
While many House conservatives agree immigration reform is a critical priority for Congress, they part with President Obama, Senate Democrats, and some in their own party who believe allowing eventual citizenship to those in the country illegally is part of the solution. They vow that they won’t support any bill that adds to the deficit and they want to see a tougher approach to border security and to the benefits issue.
Not only has the federal government consistently increased spending on border enforcement, it has also met the border-security benchmarks laid down in the three immigration-reform bills introduced in the Senate since 2006. Read more on border security here
The GOP insists that newly legalized workers now working in the shadows have no access to government-sponsored health care during their 15-year pathway to citizenship. Democrats say that since these newly legalized immigrants would be paying taxes (millions already do pay taxes), they should be eligible for benefits.
In the end, both chambers of Congress must eventually pass the identical legislation for the bill to make its way to the President’s desk to become law. The question is…Will House Republican leadership pass a bill or fail?
White House Official stated to the Daily Caller, “If a Gang of Eight-style bill is signed into law by the President, it will probably be one of the top five legislative accomplishments in the last twenty years.”
For a Summary of S 744 refer here. Refer here for more on the progress of S. 744 in the Senate, the text of bill, the summary and the proposed amendments.
The House Judiciary Committee markup of the bill starts this week, and will start with SAFE Act (H.R. 2278), a bill to improve the interior enforcement of our immigration laws and strengthen national security and will then take up the AG Act (H.R. 1773), a bill to provide American farmers with a workable temporary agricultural guest worker program that will help provide access to a reliable workforce. Read more here
The proposal, which is expected to be officially unveiled this week is titled the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013.”
Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) — members of the bipartisan group that crafted the bill — will go to the White House today to meet with President Barack Obama about the immigration bill, according to a source familiar with the meeting.
The legislation would have a far-reaching impact on virtually every corner of the American economy.
In other compromises, the bill would reduce the categories of family members eligible for green cards, eliminating siblings of United States citizens and limiting sons and daughters of citizens to those under 31 years of age. It would eliminate a lottery that has distributed 55,000 visas each year. Those visas would be used to reduce backlogs of applicants elsewhere in the system. Republicans have sought to limit what they call family chain migration and to accomplish changes without increasing the overall number of visas.
Undocumented Immigrants
There would be two tracks: one based on the number of points immigrants could accumulate, with a fixed annual numerical cap, and another for immigrants who have been legally employed and living in the United States in good standing for 10 years or more. The second track would not have a cap. Formerly, undocumented immigrants would be eligible to apply for initial adjustment of status referred to as “Registered Provision Immigrant” (RPI) legal status following the filing of the Notice of Commencement of Completion by Secretary Napolitano (DHS) for each of the border security and fencing strategies. Only undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country before Dec. 31, 2011, would be eligible for RPI status. After 10 years, aliens in RPI status may adjust to Lawful Permanent Resident Status through the same Merit Based System everyone else must use to earn a green-card. They must also wait until all people currently waiting for family and employment green-cards have been cleared through the system.
The border security programs would be required to evidence a 90% effectiveness rate before any immigrants who have been here illegally would be able to apply for permanent resident green cards, achieving a series of border-security benchmarks that would require the Department of Homeland Security to spend as much as $5.5 billion over 10 years to increase enforcement and extend fencing along the Southwest border.
Undocumented immigrants would be ineligible if they have been convicted of a felony, aggravated felony, three or more misdemeanors, an offense under foreign law or unlawfully voted.
Undocumented immigrants who were deported for non-criminal reasons would be able to apply to re-enter the country if they are the spouse or parent of a child who is a citizen or lawful permanent resident, or they arrived during childhood and are eligible for the DREAM Act. People in DREAM Act Status and the Agricultural Program can obtain their green cards in 5 years and DREAM Act kids will be eligible for citizenship immediately after they get their green cards.
High Skilled Visas
The legislation would give employers in technology and science fields tens of thousands of new temporary and permanent resident visas annually, which they have been urgently seeking for tech workers and foreign graduates with advanced degrees from American universities. It immediately raises current annual caps on temporary high-skilled visas, such as H-1Bs, to 110,000 from 65,000, while adding 5,000 more of those visas for the foreign graduates. The cap would gradually rise to 180,000 annually.
Start-Up Visa
The legislation would create a “start-up” visa for foreign entrepreneurs who want to come here to establish companies that employ Americans.
Two New Guest Worker Programs
The bill also responds to the demands of American farmers and other employers of seasonal workers by creating two new guest-worker programs, one for farmworkers and another for low-wage laborers.
One major overhaul is the new classification for low-skilled workers. Called the W-visa, a new independent statistical agency is created — the Immigration and Labor Market Research Bureau — which is to be headed by a commissioner appointed by the president and with the consent of the Senate. The new bureau would get $20 million to devise a method to calculate the low-skilled worker visa cap, determine worker shortages, survey the unemployment rate of construction workers every three months and give annual recommendations on how to improve the programs. Employer fees and other fees for hiring undocumented workers will also be used to fund the bureau.
The number of low-skilled visas available starts at 20,000 in its first year, followed by 35,000 in the second, 55,000 in the third year and 75,000 the following year. Employers must hire W-visa holders at the same wage of other employees of similar experience, or at the prevailing wage. The bill also requires that companies have not laid off an employee 90 days prior to or after hiring a guest worker.
The program also singles out the construction industry, saying no more than 33 percent of the W-visa positions would be granted to the construction industry, capping it at 15,000 per year.
Mandatory Employer Verification System
A significant change for employers would be a mandatory employer verification system to check the immigration status of their employees. With a five-year phase-in period based on size of the business, employers would be required to certify that non-citizen workers presented a “biometric green card” that matches a photo stored in an e-verify system.
Highlights Regarding Legal Immigration
The bill repeals the availability of immigrant visas for siblings of U.S. citizens once 18 months have elapsed since the date of enactment; amends the definition of “immediate relative” to include a child or spouse of an alien admitted for lawful permanent residence; amends the existing category for married sons and daughters of citizens of the United States to include only sons and daughters who are under 31 years of age.
For Employment Green-Card Categories: The bill exempts the following categories from the annual numerical limits on employment-based immigrants: derivative beneficiaries of employment-based immigrants; aliens of extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics; outstanding professors and researchers; multinational executives and managers; doctoral degree holders in any field; and certain physicians.
The bill will allocate 40 percent of the worldwide level of employment-based visas to :
1) members of the professions holding advanced degrees or their equivalent whose services are sought in the sciences, arts, professions, or business by an employer in the United States (including certain aliens with foreign medical degrees) and
2) aliens who have earned a master’s degree or higher in a field of science, technology, engineering or mathematics from an accredited U.S. institution of higher education and have an offer of employment in a related field and the qualifying degree was earned in the five years immediately before the petition was filed.
The bill increases the percentage of employment visas for skilled workers, professionals, and other professionals to 40 percent; maintains the percentage of employment visas for certain special immigrants to 10 percent and maintains visas for those who foster employment creation to 10 percent.
For more on the bill, please refer to the 17-page Senate Outline referenced below.
In closing, the NY Times states:
“The senators are gambling that the bill will repair enough longstanding problems in the system to attract support from a broad array of groups who will benefit from those changes, including Latinos, religious groups and labor unions who support the path to citizenship for those here illegally; big technology companies like Microsoft and Facebook, which have been clamoring for more visas for engineers and computer specialists; agricultural growers and other employers in labor-intensive businesses; and immigrant families who stand to be united more quickly with family members coming here legally.”
Article Resources:
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2014. USCIS has also received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the advanced degree exemption. After today, USCIS will not accept H-1B petitions subject to the FY 2014 cap or the advanced degree exemption.
USCIS will use a computer-generated random selection process (commonly known as the “lottery”) for all FY 2014 cap-subject petitions received through April 5, 2013. The agency will conduct the selection process for advanced degree exemption petitions first. All advanced degree petitions not selected will be part of the random selection process for the 65,000 limit. Due to the high number of petitions received, USCIS is not yet able to announce the exact day of the random selection process. Also, USCIS is currently not providing the total number of petitions received, as we continue to accept filings today. USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap.
USCIS will provide more detailed information about the H-1B cap next week.
We are disheartened to see that USCIS is not basing their count on a first come first serve basis. If the cap is open and your case is received before the cap is exhausted, you should be guaranteed that your case has been accepted for processing. We are not in favor of the computer-generated random selection lottery approach that USCIS has taken this filing season, where all cases received through April 5th will be put into a lottery. This creates tremendous uncertainty for employers who planned in advance…Just another sign that we are seriously in need of H-1B reform and a process that permits business and the economy to regulate the process.
We will keep you posted as more information is released.
House Judiciary Committee holds Hearing Feb 27, 2013 on E-Verify to determine how it works and how it benefits American employers and workers
Areas of discussion were:
Further discussion ensured regarding the “phase in” process and whether or not the national usage mandate should become effective with the existing system while changes are implemented or wait until the system is further perfected. Additional discussion took place around establishing an official procedure for those workers who have been terminated due to incorrect Final Non-Confirmation (FNC) notices so that they can rectify the incorrect data.
The following is a statement by Rep. Gutierrez:
“Today’s hearing is remarkable because we are talking about employment verification systems in their proper context. We are discussing how to actually make them work and work for American workers with the right sorts of protections and appeals processes that make sure any errors are corrected in a timely manner. And we are talking about electronic verification systems as part of a broader reform that legalizes the current workforce and allows for legal immigration in the future.”
There’s certainly more to track as discussions ensue, and we will keep you posted on this topic.
A group of 8 bipartisan senators have reached a deal on the outline of a comprehensive immigration overhaul, a development that is long overdue and will assist in framing the forthcoming immigration debate in Congress. Senator Schumer has stated that it is their plan that this can be turned into legislation by March and put into law by mid-late summer 2013.
According to a five-page document released today, the proposal provides a broad-based approach, agreed to in principle by eight senators, that seeks to overhaul the immigration system and create a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s roughly 11 million illegal immigrants.
Although all that we have focused on for years now is nothing else but border and enforcement issues and employment verification, the proposal takes enforcement to the next level by perfecting an entry/exit tracking system, and greater usage of E-Verify or a new and improved E-Verify system that is referred to as “fast and reliable.”
Legislators will create a commission comprised of border governors, attorneys general and community leaders living along the southwest border to monitor the progress of securing the border and to make a recommendation regarding when the bill’s security measures outlined in the legislation are completed.
While security measures are put in place, those who came and remained in the USA without permission, will be required to register with the government. This will include background checks, paying a fine and back taxes to earn probationary legal status to continue to live and work legally in the USA.
Once enforcement measures have been completed, those in probationary legal status will be required to go to the back of the line to wait their turn, pass an additional background check, pay taxes, learn English and civics and demonstrate a history of work in the US and current employment, among other requirements, to earn the opportunity to apply for lawful permanent residency (green-card) status. Those who successfully complete these requirements can eventually earn a green-card (legal permanent residence).
Special provisions will be accorded to the Dreamers (minor children who did not knowingly choose to violate any immigration laws) who will have different requirements that will include a pathway to citizenship.. Individuals who have been working illegally in the agricultural industry performing difficult work for low wages to ensure the safety of the food supply of the US will also be provided special requirements and will have a pathway to citizenship.
Those who graduate from an American University with a Ph.D or Master’s Degree in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM), will be awarded permanent residency (green-card status) to keep the best and brightest talent in the USA.
There are also provisions for a guest worker program referred to as “lower-skilled workers” in the proposal that will meet the needs of employers, the agricultural industry, including dairy, to find agricultural workers and lower skilled immigrants when the economy is creating jobs and fewer when the economy is not creating jobs. If this is the H-2B program, we sincerely hope that it gets an overhaul – it’s entirely too complicated, takes too long and completely discourages employers by overburdening them with excessive details.
Resources
Please see the senator’s attached Transcript. It’s certainly a an introduction to a long-awaited immigration conversation that is achievable – but difficult. A link to a transcript from the President’s speech in NV; and the President’s Immigration Fact Sheet.
What are the differences between the Senate and Obama Plan?