[IMMIGRANT’S LIST reports]  Last week, Congressman Lamar Smith from Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, wrote an Op-Ed in Politico that should make everyone working for immigration reform take notice. Rather than lay out a plan to address the unsustainable immigration system in this country, he uses the words “amnesty,” “illegal-immigrant lobby” and “open-borders crowd” (24 times by our count) to scare readers.

We’ve included the text of the article from Politico.com.  When you read it, do what I did — ask yourself: “Okay, what’s your plan? How do we fix our broken system?”

We concur with immigrant’s List, “Governing means being responsible. But too many elected officials think screaming “AMNESTY” over and over passes for honest debate. They’re loud and they’re going to use every scare tactic in the book to get re-elected. Don’t let them get away with it. With your help, Immigrants’ List will work to elect members of Congress in 2010 who actually want to tackle the problems we face, and who actually want to govern.”

…what do you think?   info@immigrationsolution.net

Today we participated in a very informative conference sponsored by the Immigration Policy Center, the research division of the American Immigration Law Foundation, where they introduced a Special Report that addresses what’s wrong with our immigration system and how to fix it.

This special report looks at the impact our outdated and inefficient immigration system is having on our nation and discusses the failures of the system under two broad categories: structural failure and inadequate responses.

“We are embarking on a new round of immigration reform debates and to accomplish genuine reform, we must understand that immigration is about more than the 11-12 million people living without status in our country” said Mary Giovagnoli, Director of the Immigration Policy Center. “That group is a symptom of our failure to create an immigration system that works for the needs of America. It is time to shift the terms of the debate. We need to begin a discussion about what living without a functional immigration system has done to our nation over the last 20 years. We need to begin to ask the question: how is it in all our interests to reform immigration?”

We link to the Report above and encourage your comments

We’ve had several blog posts on the reverse brain drain issue.  This is a very interesting post that we found on TechCrunch today by Vivek Wadhwa, an entrepreneur turned academic who is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Executive in Residence at Duke University.  The writer expresses concerns as to what is occurring in the IT sector today and why the brightest and the best are deciding not to put down roots in the USA.

Vivek spent Columbus Day in Silicon Valley meeting a roomful of new Indian arrivals to the USA. The event was organized by Think India Foundation, a think tank that seeks to solve problems that Indians face.

When introducing the topic of skilled immigration, the discussion moderator, Sand Hill Group founder M.R. Rangaswami asked the obvious question. How many planned to return to India?  He was shocked to see more than three-quarters of the audience raise their hands.  One has to ask why would such talented people voluntarily leave Silicon Valley, a place that remains the hottest hotbed of technology innovation on Earth? Or to leave other promising locales such as New York City, Boston and the Research Triangle area of North Carolina?

What they learned was that the average age of the Indian returnees was 30 and the Chinese was 33. They were really well educated: 51% of the Chinese held masters degrees and 41% had PhDs. Among Indians, 66% held a masters and 12% had PhDs. These degrees were mostly in management, technology, and science. Clearly these returnees are in the U.S. population’s educational top tier—precisely the kind of people who can make the greatest contribution to an economy’s innovation and growth. And it isn’t just new immigrants who are returning home, we learned. Some 27% of the Indians and 34% of the Chinese had permanent resident status or were U.S. citizens. That’s right—it’s not just about green cards.

We link to a letter co-authored by the Semiconductor Industry of America (SIA) and the Industry of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) to the Congressional Subcommittee on Immigration.  The letter calls for sensible immigration reform – reforming quotas to match industry needs – reducing the ever-growing visa wait times for green-cards for skilled worker.

At a rally Oct. 13th on the west lawn of the United States Capitol, U.S. Congressman Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) addressed a crowd of thousands who demanded change to our nation’s broken immigration system. Rep. Gutierrez’ address responded to a recent call from the immigration advocacy community to introduce comprehensive immigration reform in the House of Representatives. Rep. Gutierrez has been actively talking to advocacy and civil rights groups, faith-based groups, labor groups and his colleagues on the Hill to identify the most essential components of such a comprehensive bill. Today, he presented a broad outline of those core principles.

In a statement Rep. Gutierrez said, “We simply cannot wait any longer for a bill that keeps our families together, protects our workers and allows a pathway to legalization for those who have earned it.  It is time we had a workable plan making its way through congress that recognizes the vast contributions of immigrants to this country and honors the American Dream.  I am preparing such a plan, and will introduce  it in the near future.  It will include the following core principles”:  A pathway to legalization, effective border enforcement, humane interior enforcement, protects workers, verifies employment, addresses family unit, Ag Jobs, Dream Act, establishes a future flow of foreign workers that is fair to employers and workers, and promotes immigrant integration. For more, we link to the Press Release

Other rallies took place across the country as well, demanding that Congress enact a broad and humane solution to fix the nation’s broken immigration system. Families, spiritual leaders, and community members gathered to encourage members of Congress and the Obama administration to follow in Rep. Luis Gutierrez’s (D-IL) footsteps and make family unity, workers’ rights, and a commitment to workable solutions fundamental parts of their collective vision for comprehensive immigration reform.

“Immigrants are an integral part of the fabric of American society,” said Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center. “For too long, the flawed and ineffective immigration system has kept them apart from loved ones and made it difficult for them to fully participate in the communities they live and work in.”

Newspapers are reporting today that during the official Q&A session following the  Chicago bid for the Olympic Games, I.O.C. member, Syed Shahid Ali, from  Pakistan , asked President Obama how smooth it would be for foreigners to enter the United States for the Olympic Games because doing so can sometimes be “a rather harrowing experience.”

While this I.O.C. member’s concerns raise a red flag about the need for a change in our immigration
policies, a litany of voices have been warning for years that the  U.S. is slowly adopting an anti-visitor policy that is harming business, higher education and families. Stories in the press and report after report have all highlighted how our broken immigration system is hampering our nation’s ability to attract the best and the brightest and stay competitive with other nations around the world.  For more on this

How many of you picked up on this during the week? Let’s hear your thoughts…

“The longer the healthcare debate drags out not only does it make it harder to get healthcare passed, it makes it harder to get immigration passed,” says Mark Krikorian, executive director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies.

As the House begins its August recess today (the Senate goes home next week), Members of Congress are returning home to kiss babies and meet with constituents on a host of issues. We are betting that some of those visits will be about this country’s broken immigration system.

Nothing moves members of Congress more than face-to-face meetings with constituents letting them know what they care about. So in honor of summer recess, the IPC is reminding you of our top resources that can be used when paying a visit to your local legislator.

We link to Immigration Impact

SAN DIEGO — President Obama recently reignited the immigration debate when he told reporters that congressional leaders of both parties were ready to “actively get something done and not put it off until a year, two years, three years, five years from now, but to start working on this thing right now.”

In the months ahead, keep an eye on two things: the calendar and the issue of guest workers.

The calendar: “Right now” might not be soon enough. The conventional wisdom is that the longer Obama waits, the harder it will be to pass any immigration reform legislation. One immigration activist I spoke with even had a deadline in mind: March 2010. Congress has to discuss the bill this fall, he said, and pass it no later than next spring. His thinking — and that of many others — is that the 2010 midterm elections might cut into the Democratic majority in Congress, and then the chance for immigration reform could slip away.

We link to The Washington Post article.

We link to a list of immigration-related legislation introduced into the House of Representatives and the Senate during June 2009 for your reference.  Each Bill has a link for you to follow for more information.

There is a new, potential plan in the works for comprehensive immigration reform that could involve a major change in strategy. In a recent report in the LA Times, the CIR bill would look very similar to prior years, but a new independent commission would be created to assess employment-based visa numbers.

The new commission would assess labor and industry data to decide how many foreign workers should be allowed into the country. The system would replace a maze of special temporary worker visas that are granted each year to high-tech specialists, agriculture workers and other foreigners brought into the U.S. by foreign and domestic firms, according to the article.

This potential proposal could cause a disruption among Republicans like John McCain to drop their support for CIR.

For more information on this article:
Read this story from the LA Times