ImmigrationProf Blog

Shumer: CIR Bill Will Be Ready by Labor Day

Suzanne Gamboa writes for the Associated Press:

The lead Democrat steering an immigration overhaul through the Senate said Wednesday he expects to have a bill ready by Labor Day that is more generous to highly skilled immigrant workers than those who are lower skilled and is tough on future waves of illegal immigration.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Sen. Chuck Schumer said an immigration bill can be done by the end of the year or early next year that works out disagreements between labor and business interests on the flow of legal foreign workers.

"I think we'll have a good bill by Labor Day," said Schumer, D-N.Y. "I think the fundamental building blocks are in place to do comprehensive immigration reform." Click here for the rest of the piece.

bh

Media's Immigration Language

From USA Today:

Dear friends:

Please Join us Monday, July 13, at 3:45 p.m. ET for a live video discussion on the language of immigration. We will talk about the words journalists use to describe illegal immigrants, and why they use them.

The panel discussion, hosted by the International Center for Journalists in Washington, D.C., will be led by USA TODAY immigration reporter Emily Bazar. It will include journalists and experts from around the country. To link to the discussion, click here. 

The event will stream into the video player, and you can participate by posting or e-mailing questions ahead of time, or by clicking on the Chat button during the discussion.

bh

Senate Fence Vote Criticized

From the Border Action Network:

US Senate Disdains Border Communities and Votes to Continue Dysfunctional Border Wall
Concerns Expressed by Border Sector Were Ignored by Majority of Senators

El Paso, Texas, July 8th, 2009. The Border Network laments the lack of seriousness showed by the US Senate when a majority of the Senators, Republicans and Democrats, passed an amendment to keep building a border wall at the expense and against the will of border communities.

“It seems that senators have decided to ignore the basic mandate expressed in the last elections, which was to change ill-conceived immigration policies,” said Fernando Garcia, Executive Director of the Border Network for Human Rights, a community organization based in El Paso and Southern New Mexico.  “Instead of working hard to find comprehensive, practical and efficient solutions for our broken immigration system, senators have decided to continue with dysfunctional and fiscally irresponsible border enforcement policies,” added Garcia.

The Bush administration initiated the construction of the Border Wall as a result of a political decision, sacrificing elemental security procedures and alienating border communities which have continually mounted legal challenges to the wall’s construction.  Based on conservative estimates, when the wall is complete, it will have cost tax-payers more than $9 million dollars per mile. The Senate amendment calls for an additional 700 miles of double-layer border wall to be constructed by December 31, 2010.

“A minority of anti-immigrant senators have hijacked national security policy.  It appears that rhetoric, hate, and fear are still driving the immigration policy and that nothing has changed from the previous administration and Congress that scape-goated border residents and immigrant communities at a huge cost to the American taxpayer,” concluded Garcia.

bh

Republican Antics on Immigration Reform

From America's Voice:

Senate Antics Underscore Need for a Real Debate On Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Washington, DC  -  Today, the Senate is considering the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill and predictably, Republican Senators who blocked comprehensive immigration reform in the past are trying to weigh the bill down with a litany of piecemeal, deportation-only measures.  Amendments by Senators Sessions, DeMint, Grassley, and Kyl offer the false promise of control and order, when they would actually cause chaos in U.S. workplaces and take us further from an immigration system that works for America.  So far, a Sessions amendment expanding employment eligibility verification and a DeMint amendment requiring further construction of the border fence have passed, with some bipartisan support.

“I’m disappointed to see that it’s politics as usual for Senators Sessions and his crew when it comes to the issue of immigration reform,” said Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice.  “Instead of coming to the table to work on practical solutions to the nation’s broken immigration system, these politicians are hijacking the appropriations process to try to appear tough on immigration.  But poll after poll has shown that the American people want policymakers to solve illegal immigration with comprehensive reform, not piecemeal measures and empty promises.”

While the Senate was debating (and in some cases approving) these measures, the Administration was also sending mixed messages on the issue of effective immigration enforcement.  On the one hand, the Department of Homeland Security took a huge step forward by deciding to rescind the Bush era “no match” letter rule that would have forced hundreds of Americans to prove yet again that they are legally authorized to work.  On the other, the Administration recommitted to expanding the flawed work authorization verification program known as E-Verify.

Meanwhile, the Council on Foreign Relations’ Independent Task Force on Immigration issued a groundbreaking report that offers a serious way forward on the issue.  In recommending a robust overhaul of immigration enforcement and visa programs, as well as a program that requires undocumented immigrants to legalize their status, the task force highlights the security imperatives behind comprehensive reform and why it is in the national interest.  In a prescient comment on today’s antics in the Senate, the task force’s report states: “No enforcement effort will succeed properly unless the legal channels for coming to the United States can be made to work better.”

“The need for comprehensive immigration reform could not be clearer,” continued Sharry.  “The American people want the immigration system fixed, bi-partisan commissions are recommending that it be fixed, and our economic recovery demands that we get all workers and all employers onto the tax rolls through comprehensive immigration reform.  The House, Senate, and Administration must move forward on common sense immigration reform this year as promised, because America needs a real solution to this important issue, not more fiery floor speeches,” said Sharry.

bh

Asylum Grant to Filipino Gay Professor Final

The federal government has decided not to appeal the political asylum granted a gay Filipino professor who claimed in immigration court that he was repeatedly abused as a child in the Philippines. For the full story, clik here.

ra

New Jersey Sets Higher Bail for Undocumented Immigrants

New Jersey's Supreme Court has ruled that bail can be set higher to prevent illegal immigrants facing deportation from escaping justice. For the full story, click here.

ra

Missouri Restricts College Financial Aid to Undocumented Students

Governor Jay Nixon signed several bills into law Tuesday, including one that bars undocumented immigrants from receiving various forms of financial aid at Missouri colleges and universities. For the full story, click here.

ra

Bipartisan Task Force to Recommend More Flexible Work Visas

A bipartisan task force will recommend today that the United States overhaul its immigration system in response to national security concerns, saying that the country should end strict quotas on work-based immigrant visas to maintain its scientific, technological and military edge. For the full story, click here.

ra

U.S. Accepts as many as 1350 Iraqi Palestinians as Refugees

The State Department confirmed today that as many as 1,350 Iraqi Palestinians – once the well-treated guests of Saddam Hussein and now at outs with much of Iraqi society – will be resettled in the US, mostly in southern California, starting this fall. For the full story, click here.

ra

DHS to Require E-Verification for Federal contractors

The Department of Homeland Security said it would implement a regulation requiring federal contractors and subcontractors to ensure that their employees are legally authorized to work inside the U.S. The Obama administration had delayed implementation of that program, saying it was under review. For the full story, click here.

ra

Question of the Day: If Sheriff Arpaio doesn't racially profile Latinos, why are the majority of his inmates legal Hispanic residents?

For more on this, see Latina Lista..

KJ

Interview with David Bacon

"Illegals" of the World Unite? - an interview with David Bacon Against the Current, July/August 2009.

 THIS INTERVIEW WAS conducted on April 10, 2009 by Star Murray and Charles Williams on behalf of the Against the Current editorial board. Photojournalist David Bacon spent 20 years as a labor organizer and immigrant rights activist. He hosts a show on KPFA-FM in Berkeley, CA, and his writing and photographs are online at http://dbacon.igc.org/. His book, Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants was published by Beacon Press in 2008.

KJ

Napolitano: No-Match Rule to be Rescinded

By Charles M. Miller , as posted at  Immigration Employment, an immigration blog found online at http://immigrationemployment.blogspot.com/

Homeland Security Secretary Jane Napolitano announced on July 8, 2009, that it was the agency’s intention to withdraw the Social Security No-Match Regulation, which has never been implemented and has been blocked by court order, in favor of the E-Verify system. http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1247063976814.shtm .

The AFL-CIO, ACLU, National Immigration Law Center, US Chamber of Commerce, and other plaintiffs, were successful in obtaining a preliminary injunction in October 2007 stopping DHS from implementing this regulation. (AFL-CIO v Chertoff, ND Cal, No 3:07-cv-04472-CRB). In November 2008, DHS had filed a motion asking Judge Charles Breyer of the Northern District of California to lift the preliminary injunction on the federal agency's much beleaguered no-match regulation after publication of the agency’s No -Match supplemental final rule had been published in the Federal Register. Found online at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-25544.pdf.

District Court Judge Breyer delayed the hearing on the merits of the litigation until the Obama administration had the opportunity to develop its own position, as reflected in the Napolitano press release. Judge Breyer had indicated that SSA had been prepared to send 140,000 letters concerning 8 million employees for Tax Year (TY) 2007. However, SSA No-Match letters for recent tax years have been in a holding pattern because of the litigation, with no current announcement as to the plans for their resumption.

Employers are reminded that the no-match letters represent only one form of constructive knowledge; ICE Worksite Enforcement cases maybe based on other forms of constructive knowledge. As a practical matter, an employer may obtain constructive knowledge that unauthorized aliens may be employed by a variety of other circumstances, including: (1) where the employer fails to complete or improperly completes the Form 1-9; (2) from information obtained from a labor certification application or visa petition; (3) rejection of an alien worker as an applicant due to employment authorization and/or identity document deficiencies, who later appears as an employee of an independent contractor; (4) local law enforcement advice after criminal and civil processes involving off-worksite activities of such a worker, and (5) adverse publicity following a contractor's worksite enforcement problems at another company.

bh

Happy 25th Birthday to the AALS Immigration Law Section

Steve Legomsky (Wash U) reminds us that this year is the 25th anniversary of the Immigration Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools.  See the attached missive proposing the new section -- and emphasizing just how important immigration law has become.  Download AALSimmigrationsection.1984 How times have changed!

KJ  

Council of Foreign Relations Report

We reported earlier today and yesterday about the Independent Task Force Report on U.S. Immigration Policy sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations. Jeb Bush (former governor of Florida) and Mack McLarty (former White House chief of staff) served as co-chairs. The report is available on CFR's website: http://www.cfr.org/immigration_policy.

bh

NY Supreme Court: Bail for Undocumented Immigrants Can Be Higher

 AP reports that the New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled that bail can be set higher to prevent undocumented immigrants facing deportation from absconding.

KJ

Center for Immigration Studies, Tanton and White Supremacists

Jill Garvey writes on the white supremacists links that organizations like the Center for Immigration Studies and NumbersUSA have with John Tanton:

One man is at the heart of the most influential anti-immigrant network in the country. This man, John Tanton, has created an empire of organizations consisting of lobbyists, lawyers, legislators, and “experts” that have permeated the very depths of social and political debate.

What appears to the public as a myriad of voices advocating for severe immigration enforcement is nothing more than a series of front groups, “coalitions,” and spin-offs seeking to overwhelm reasonable debate on immigration. Tanton founded the Federation for American Immigration Reform 30 years ago and shortly thereafter U.S. Inc. These two groups jointly fund and support most of today’s national anti-immigrant groups.

Groups like the Center for Immigration Studies, also founded by Tanton, which serves as a quasi-think tank to the anti-immigrant movement. Or the Coalition for the Future American Worker which pretends to be the voice of American workers. Progressives for Immigration Reform, NumbersUSA, Immigration Reform Law Institute, United to Secure America Coalition are a few more of the innocuous sounding groups. The sheer number of them is dizzying. The names themselves are meant to deceive.

But that is hardly the most sinister aspect of John Tanton’s Network.

Respected civil rights groups - including the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League - have uncovered troubling associations with racists, white supremacists, and political extremists. One is the Pioneer Fund, a foundation committed to eugenics and “scientific racism”. The Pioneer Fund provided John Tanton with the early funding he needed to build a multi-million dollar operation. Click here for the rest of the piece.

bh

DREAM Act Endorsed by Council on Foreign Relations

We reported yesterday on the Council on Foreign Relations and Jeb Bush's endorsement of comprehensive immigration reform. Mary Ann Zehr of Education Week reports on the DREAM Act aspect of their recommendations:

A task force of the Council on Foreign Relations just released recommendations for comprehensive immigration reform that endorse the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors, or "DREAM" Act. The press release for the task force's report says, "The DREAM Act, reintroduced in the 111th Congress, provides the right model by requiring that young people without status who wish to remain in the United States must attend college or perform military service and demonstrate good moral character in order to earn their eligibility for permanent residence."

While critics call the DREAM Act a form of "amnesty" for people who have broken this country's laws, the task force describes the act as "a policy of earned legalization." Click here for the rest of the piece.

We need the DREAM Act!

bh

E-Verify Amendment Vote This Morning

From the National Immigration Law Center

ACTION ALERT: SENATE VOTING ON MANDATORY E-VERIFY AMENDMENT THIS MORNING

CALLS NEEDED VOTING TO START AS EARLY AS 10:30AM EST

OPPOSE SESSIONS AMENDMENT 1371 to H.R. 2892,
The Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2010

Senator Sessions has introduced an amendment to the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2010 that would make E-Verify mandatory for all federal contractors.  If implemented, it would affect almost 4 million workers. 

The amendment would:

•    Make the notoriously flawed E-verify program permanent.

•    Require all federal contractors and subcontractors to use the program to verify all employees including existing employees.

•    Harm U.S. workers, citizens and non-citizens alike, who are falsely denied work.

ACTION NEEDED:

1.    Call both of your Senators THIS MORNING (Click here to find your Senator)

2.    Tell them:
•    You OPPOSE the Sessions amendment (#1371) to make E-Verify permanent and mandatory for federal contractors.
•    You SUPPORT having a real debate about immigration issues and the only way for that to happen is by starting comprehensive immigration reform this year.

For more information about the problems with E-Verify, see http://www.nilc.org/immsemplymnt/ircaempverif/e-verify-facts-2009-01-29.pdf.

bh

Health Care Reform Update

From the National Immigration Law Center:

Tell Congress This Week to Include in Health Care Reform the Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2009 (H.R. 3090)

On June 26, 2009, the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced the Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2009 (H.R. 3090) on behalf of the Tri-Caucus which also includes the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC). H.R. 3090 focuses on addressing health disparities in coverage and access and aims to create an equitable health care system that works for everyone in the U.S.

The House will be reviewing H.R. 3090 this week. Because the Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2009 (H.R. 3090) addresses many of the barriers faced by low-income immigrants in seeking health care (see below) which have not yet been addressed by any of the other current health care reform legislation, Congress must include H.R. 3090 as part of health care reform to address the inequities of our health care system and to achieve real reform.

Please contact the Members in the House listed below IMMEDIATELY to let them know you support H.R. 3090 and that it must be included in any comprehensive, health care reform legislation.

Suggested Message:
"[My organization and state] supports H.R. 3090 which provides equity in coverage and access in the health care system that is needed for real health care reform. We urge you to include H.R. 3090 in any final health care reform legislation that Congress passes this year."

Key Provisions of the Act that will address the needs of low-income immigrants include:

Restoring Medicaid and CHIP to otherwise eligible, lawfully present immigrants without a waiting period and sponsor-related barriers;
Ensuring that otherwise eligible, lawfully present immigrants can buy into Medicare and can qualify for the Medicare Savings Programs (administered under Medicaid);
Ensuring that ALL children, regardless of status, can receive Medicaid or CHIP (if otherwise eligible);
Ensuring that ALL pregnant women, regardless of status, can receive affordable prenatal care for a healthy pregnancy through Medicaid or CHIP (if otherwise eligible);
Ensuring that lawfully present immigrants have access to nutrition assistance;
Improving federal investment and standards for cultural competency and language access for providers and public health programs;Requiring more comprehensive collection of data on race, ethnicity, and language in all federal health programs as a strategy for addressing health disparities.

H.R. 3090 is available at http://thomas.loc.gov/

Please immediately contact the following members of leadership in the House of Representatives and Chairs of the three key House health reform committees by email or phone at 866-210-3678:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi: (202) 225-0100; http://speaker.gov/contact/

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer: (202) 225-3130; http://majorityleader.gov/email_and_rss/email_the_leader/

Representative Henry Waxman, Chair of House Energy and Commerce Committee: (202) 225-3976; Henry.Waxman@mail.house.gov
          E&C Committee: (202) 225-2927
Representative Charles Rangel, Chair of House Ways and Means Committee: (202) 225-4365; https://forms.house.gov/rangel/forms/contact.shtml
         Committee: (202) 225-3625; http://waysandmeans.house.gov/contact.asp
Representative George Miller, Chair of House Education and Labor Committee: (202) 225-2095; http://georgemiller.house.gov/contactus/2007/08/post_1.html
          Committee: (202) 225-3725

 Letters of Support
You may also send a letter of support of H.R. 3090 to the Tri-Caucus:
U.S. Representative Barbara Lee, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)
http://thecongressionalblackcaucus.lee.house.gov/
U.S. Representative Nydia Velázquez, Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC)
http://velazquez.house.gov/chc/
U.S. Representative Mike Honda, Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC)
http://honda.house.gov/capac/

Make sure Congress knows that federal health care reform must include EVERYONE and that true reform will not work for all of us unless immigrants are also able to contribute and have access to coverage and care!

bh