The Immigration Policy Center reported today that President Obama will be meeting with Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on Thursday, June 3rd to discuss border security and Arizona’s controversial new immigration law SB 1070.  While both opponents and proponents are attempting to assess the impact the new law may have on residents of Arizona-citizens and immigrants alike, some  22 states (at last count) are considering similar legislation. Multiple lawsuits have been filed challenging the constitutionality of the law, opponents are mounting a boycott, and numerous polls show that a majority of the public both supports the Arizona law and comprehensive immigration reform.

The Immigration Policy Center has put together a Special Report on “What you Need to Know about the New Law and How it Can Impact your State”.  One of the opening statements of the Guide reads as follows:

“SB 1070 represents, among other things, a growing frustration with our broken immigration system.  Ultimately, the courts will decide the constitutionality of the law, while time will answer many questions about its impact.  In the short term, as other states contemplate copying Arizona’s version of immigration reform, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that an enforcement-only approach – whether attempted at the federal or state level – does not solve the immigration problem.”

Partisan haranguing took place yesterday with the Senate Democrats’ release of their version of a 26-page comprehensive immigration reform Draft for overhauling the nation’s immigration laws entitled “Conceptual Proposal for Immigration Reform“.  The Republicans immediately attacked it and criticized the Democrats for taking a partisan approach.

The draft includes a proposal to create a process to legalize an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States and overhaul U.S. visa programs to bring foreign workers into the country to meet business needs. It also calls for a new visa class specifically for provisional workers.

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the president telephoned some Republican senators this week to ask them to support immigration reform. The calls were to keep a promise he made to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C, stating “We are going to need both Republicans and Democrats”.  However, Democratic leaders appear increasingly to be laying the groundwork to bring an all-Democratic immigration reform bill to the Senate floor.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, said lawmakers will not be intimidated by Graham’s threats to walk away from negotiating other legislation if immigration reform advances.

“I will say to him, ‘So what?’ ” she said. “We will not be intimidated by you.”

As we’ve all expected, the stage is set for quite a dramatic and compelling uphill road where immigration reform is concerned.  We will continue to report on this regularly.

Immigration Impact Reports

The positive impact of Sunday’s rally on the mall for immigration reform is already in evidence.  Yesterday, after months of pressure, Senators Schumer and Graham finally released their blueprint for immigration reform and President Obama immediately pledged to help push bipartisan legislation forward. Next was Senator Reid who promised to make time for legislation on the floor this year and Senator Leahy also pledging his support. It’s hardly a coincidence that these statements all came days before the rally, which organizers predict will bring tens of thousands of people to Washington for an interfaith prayer service, three hours of speeches, and a peaceful march for change.

Cynics may ponder whether these are simply more empty promises, but that would ignore just how hard it is to get commitments from politicians on anything relating to immigration. The prospect of thousands of people calling you out on national TV has a way of focusing the political mind.

Immigration Solutions will re-visit this topic on Sunday.

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The 2 senators today released their plan to mend immigration in the Washington Post.  The announcement was praised by the President in this statement.  The Post article, authored by both senators, agrees that:

1. the system is broken
2. although our borders are more secure, there are still millions that enter the USA illegally with no way of tracking if they leave when their visas expire
3. employers are overburdened with a complex employment verification system for their workers
4. Most Americans oppose illegal immigration and support legal immigration

They further discuss continuing to hold employers accountable for the employment verification of their workforce and implementing a tamper proof ID system to decrease illegal immigration.

This is what Schumer and Graham propose and seek support on:

1. To introduce a biometric social security card to ensure that illegals cannot get jobs where each card would have its own unique identifier on the card and not in government databases.  Employers would swipe the card to confirm a person’s identify
2. Strengthen border and interior enforcement
3. Create a process for admitting temporary workers and allowing more lower skilled immigrants to come to the USA when the  economy is creating jobs and fewer in a recession.  Will also permit those who have put down roots in the USA  and succeeded in the workplace to obtain a green-card
4. Implement a path to legalization for those already here
5. Zero tolerance on gang members, felons, smugglers and terrorists and increase internal enforcement to apprehend and deport them
6. Complete an entry-exit system that tracks those that enter the USA on visas and report those who overstay to law enforcement databases
7. Increase the border patrol

The article closes with the following:

“For the 11 million immigrants already in this country illegally, we would provide a tough but fair path forward. They would be required to admit they broke the law and to pay their debt to society by performing community service and paying fines and back taxes. These people would be required to pass background checks and be proficient in English before going to the back of the line of prospective immigrants to earn the opportunity to work toward lawful permanent residence.

The American people deserve more than empty rhetoric and impractical calls for mass deportation. We urge the public and our colleagues to join our bipartisan efforts in enacting these reforms.”

We will continue to keep you informed and will report in more detail on the immigration plan in our April newsletter.

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The petitions of applicants who will be processed at an overseas US Consular post are forwarded by USCIS to the Department of State (DOS).  Applicants in categories subject to numerical limit are registered on the visa waiting list.  Each case is assigned a priority date based on the filing date of the initial petition.  There are about 3.5 million on this list.  This is positively disastrous when you consider that our current laws permit 376,000 people to immigrant to the USA each year under the family-based and employment-based systems, with the average wait being over 10 years long!

There are probably another 1 million in the USA waiting to adjust their status and these numbers aren’t even reflected in the DOS report.

About 95% of the people on the list are in the family-based categories and more than 1/2 of these are  in the brother-sister 4th preference category.  At the 65,000 number level for this category, this is a wait time that averages 10-26 years!

The total employment numbers waiting a priority date:  130,509 including 119,759 in the EB-3 category.  This is a 3-4 year wait, ignoring per country limits.  The countries with the largest backlogs are the Philippines (45,331 – mostly nurses and their families.  Yes, there’s something wrong with this picture!) and India (20,467 – mostly IT professionals and their families – something is wrong with this picture, too!).  Then we hear politicians and uninformed folks saying “get in line and wait your turn”  – like the line is actually moving!

It’s a sad state of affairs that points squarely at the fact that we must first focus on legal immigration reform – getting these wait times down to something reasonable.  Do we have any representatives courageous enough to vote for legal immigration reform so that we have a system that doesn’t punish people who play by the rules?

As reported by ImmigrationImpact.com

This month marks the 7th anniversary of the DHS which is home to the nation’s three immigration agencies (ICE, CBP and USCIS).  It also marks the end of a sweeping internal review ordered by DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano which has not been made public.

The Immigration Policy Center has released a report entitled DHS Progress Report: The Challenge of Reform to assess the 1st year of the Obama Administration’s immigration policy.

On the plus side, there has been more public engagement and discussion of DHS priorities. ICE has announced, although not fully implemented, numerous detention reforms. It has done away with the massive worksite raids of the past few years, placing greater emphasis on employer violations. The Obama Administration and USCIS have made some genuine inroads into immigration fee reform, backlog reduction, and expanded naturalization and integration efforts. Secretary Napolitano has also invested significant time and resources into developing plans for comprehensive immigration reform.

These are just some of the examples of changes within the last year. Ultimately, this first year was mostly frustrating—a year where the promise of reform seems to fight daily with the dynamics of an entrenched belief in an enforcement driven culture. For every two steps forward, it seems that the Department takes one steps backward.

It has been reported that today President Obama is scheduled to meet with two key congressional players in the movement for immigration reform—Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC)—who are working together behind the scenes to draft a bipartisan immigration bill. The President is expected to ask the Senators to produce a reform bill blueprint that “could be turned into legislative language.” Some think that the meeting is another positive signal from the White House, and others view it as a “last-ditch effort in an election year.” Although interpretations are mixed, a spokesman for the White House affirmed that the President is still committed to reforming our immigration system.  More on this

The Immigration Policy Center has assembled a top 10 list of resources for 2009.

For those of you not familiar with the IPC, their staff regularly serve as experts and leaders on Capitol Hill, opinion-makers and the media.  Their mission:  To provide policy makers, the media and the general public with accurate information about immigrants and immigration policy on US society.  Their studies and reports are widely disseminated and relied upon.

Here’s their list.  What are your thoughts?

There’s been alot of chatter today about the introduction of Rep. Gutierrez’ (D-IL) immigration bill that is called Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Safety and Protection (CIR ASAP).

Yesterday, Rep. Gutierrez stated, “We have waited patiently for a workable solution to our immigration crisis to be taken up by this Congress and our President.  The time for waiting is over.”

To address some of the key points:

Backlog Reduction: This would be  a recapture of unused employment-based visas from  previous years (1992 – 2008) with an allowance for future unused visas to roll over the next year; exempting spouses and children from the annual cap; increasing the country quotas; the ability to file for AOS (adjustment of status; i.e. green-cards) before a visa number is available by paying a fee of $500, even thought a visa cannot be issued until a visa number is available.  This does, however, allow for work authorization, travel authorization and maintenance of status.

Employment Verification: Would make E-Verify work verification mandatory for all employers by phasing in current employees and new hires; would impose additional pealties on employers’ failure to follow the E-Verify program.

H-1B and L-1 Nonimmigrant Visas: Would impose requirements on employers to recruit US workers before applying for an H-1B and would increa3se penalties for H-1B violations.  Would create penalties for L-1 violations.

The Undocumented: Would create a 6-year ‘conditional’ non-immigrant status for undocumented (illegal) foreign nationals in the USA.  This would include work authorization and travel authorization; would waive unlawful presence bars and provide a path to permanent residence (green-card) and citizenship.

The Immigration Policy Center has an excellent 6-page more detailed review of the bill which we link to.

AILA applauded the introduction of Rep. Gutierrez’ Bill and stated, “We know how dedicated Rep. gutierrez is to immigration reform,” commented Bernie Wolfsdorf, president of AILA.  “Gutierrez has long been a strong and vocal leader in the CIR movement.  We look forward to analyzing this new CIR bill and hope to work with him and other members of Congress to fix our nation’s dysfunctional immigration system and help spur the country back to economic recovery.”

AILA further stated:  Already, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and members of the Congressional Black Caucus have endorsed the bill as a solution to both stem illegal immigration and promote legal migration that will protect and strengthen our nation’s economic and national security.

Gutierrez explained at his press conference yesterday that the Senate will still take the lead on debating immigration reform with a bill to be introduced by Sen Charles Schumer (D-NY), Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration.  Janet Napolitano (DHS Secretary) has indicated that they have provided extensive technical assistance to Schumer and his staff as they draft the bill that is predicted to be introduced early 2010.

We will continue to report on any and all news and progress on the immigration reform front.

If you’re interested in more reading….Homeland Security Today NY Times ABC News The Hill

Today, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (R-IL) announced that on Tuesday, December 15th he will introduce a Comprehensive Immigration Bill.  Congressman Gutierrez stated, “We have waited patiently for a workable solution to our immigration crisis by this Congress and the President.  The time for waiting is over.  This bill will be presented before Congress recesses for the holidays so that there is no excuse for inaction in the New Year.”  He further states, “This bill is ‘enough’ and presents a solution to our broken system that we as a nation of immigrants can be proud of”.

In light of the debate still raging on health care, coupled with high unemployment, we have concern about timing.  We’ll see how this is received and will, of course, continue to report on this.  The good news is that the stage is being set for a conversation – hopefully early next year.

As reported by the American Immigration Council, Janet Napolitano delivered her first detailed speech today on immigration reform.  She indicated that the security and enforcement measures that have been undertaken have revealed that “the more work we do, the more it becomes clear that the laws themselves need to be reformed.”

She further commented, “DHS is ready to implement reform”, according to the Secretary who noted,  “We’ve ended a year-long backlog for background checks on applicants for green-cards and naturalization.  We’ve expanded the opportunity for a widow to gain legal status here, despite the untimely death of her US citizen spouse.  We’ve launched a new interactive website that allows people to receive information about the status of their immigration cases by email or text message, and we have reduced the time it takes to process those cases.”

Another positive message she conveyed was: “Businesses must be able to find the workers they need here in America, rather than having to move overseas.  Immigrants need to be able to plan their lives – they need to now that once we reform the laws, we’re going to have a system that works, and that the contours of our immigration laws will last.  And they need to know that they will have as many responsibilities as they do rights…This Administration does not shy away from taking on the big challenges of the 21 Century, challenges that have been ignored too long and hurt our families and businesses.”

An interesting comment by Ben Johnson, Executive Director of the American Immigration Council who attended the speech today noted, “Napolitano’s speech today evidenced a real understanding by the Administration of the comprehensive policy prescriptions necessary to reform a broken system…..Her clear statement on the value of immigrants to our society and economy, and the important role that immigration reform can play in building a foundation for growth and prosperity is a welcome response to the angry, misinformed rhetoric that has otherwise clouded the debate on immigration.”

We link to the video of Secretary Napolitano’s speech