Comprehensive Immigration Reform Legislation Discussions

[for_ac21]

All,

It looks like the comprehensive immigration bill is going to be discussed starting tomorrow (monday 5/15/06). Wanted to have all our input into,
one top level thread.

Please post as you hear. This bill will be the topic for the next 2 weeks on the floor of the senate. And might get passed within the same time period,
hopefully before memorial day.

Thank you
ac

 

[gcstrat]

CIR votes - from immigration-law.com

FYI -----

CIR votes - from immigration-law.com

Regards
GCStrat
======================================

05/16/2006: Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill, S. 2611, Voting Activities and Results Today

Senate had the four roll calls to vote on the CIR. All these votes were related to either Temporary Guest Worker Program or Legalization of Undocumented Aliens. Two votes involved motions to table and other two votes involved amendments.
(1) Motion to Table Rejected that attempted to reduce the number of Guest Workers (H-2C) nonimmigrants to 200,000 during each fiscal year. In other words, the attempt to put a 20,000 cap on the number of Guest Worker visas per year was defeated today.
(2) Motion to Table Agreed that proposed to prohibit aliens who are currently outside the U.S. from participating in the Guest Worker Program (H-2C). Accordingly, this motion will be dated and voted on the floor. If this proposal is accepted, the aliens outside of the U.S. will be deprived of the H-2C visa program.
(3) One Amendment Agreed Today: To prohibit implementation of the Title IV (H-2C) and the Title VI (Adjustment) until the President determines that implementation of such titles will strengthen the national security of the U.S. Backlog reduction and legal immigration is Title V.
(4) One Amendment which practically attempted to kill the Guest Worker Program and Legalization Program was rejected by the Senate today. The amendment would have prohibited the granting of legal status, or adjustment of current status to individual who enters or entered the U.S. in violation of federal law unless the border security measures authorized under Title I and section 233 are fully completed and fully operational.
Overall, from the perspectives of Guest Worker Program and Legalization of Illegal Aliens, the result was more or less positive. The Senate will continue the CIR debate throughout next week and today's floor actions have enhanced the optimism that the Senate may indeed pass the CIR before the Memorial Day.

 

[purplehazea]

Does AILA really care about legal immigrants?

Quote from njboy:

"come to think of it, ofcourse it makes sense..assuming even a nominal fee of 1000 dollars each from the 13 million illegal immigrants, adds up to a pot of 13 billion USD...but, 5000 dollars each for say 200,000 families (that too paid by the company in most cases) adds up to only a billion dollars.
Also think about it..our money is locked in..whereas, the 13 billion dollars (conservative estimate) is a new market, money that is available for immigration attorneys only if the illegal immigrants are given a chance to become legal. So, except for a few altruistic immigration lawyers who will be concerned about our plight, it does not make much economical sense for AILA to put their weight behind our cause."

 

[saras76]

Lawyers have nothing to gain from us ...

Quote from njboy:

"come to think of it, ofcourse it makes sense..assuming even a nominal fee of 1000 dollars each from the 13 million illegal immigrants, adds up to a pot of 13 billion USD...but, 5000 dollars each for say 200,000 families (that too paid by the company in most cases) adds up to only a billion dollars.
Also think about it..our money is locked in..whereas, the 13 billion dollars (conservative estimate) is a new market, money that is available for immigration attorneys only if the illegal immigrants are given a chance to become legal. So, except for a few altruistic immigration lawyers who will be concerned about our plight, it does not make much economical sense for AILA to put their weight behind our cause."

njboy,

You have hit the hammer on the nail my friend. Lawyers are the last people to care for legal immigrants. We are actually a burden on them now because we keep asking questions and they stand to make little money from us. What they are looking for is the "illegal alien" cash cow. If 11 million illegals are given a way to legal residency or citizenship then lawyers will rejoice for years because of the guaranteed income. Another sad aspect is that most of the illegal aliens will be overcharged and exploited by crooked lawyers. A lot of these immigrants probably can't speak good english and lawyers will pounce on them. I guess its the way of the world .. sad but true ..

saras

 

[for_ac21]

This has to be good news for eb3 india right, reg. S. 2611 ?

Hello all, I wish I can pick all +ve things for eb3 india from,
the comprehensive immigration bill, but here is a posting from
immigraion-law.com and I think it is definitely good news, if these,
items make it into the final act.

STEM will exempt eb1 & eb2 types of people from gc quota,
pl. correct me if I am not understanding this correctly.

>>>>>


05/26/2006: Semi-Conductor Industry Association Hails Passage of S. 2611

* The Senate bill increases the annual cap on H-1B visas from 65,000 to 115,000, creates a market-based cap to allow for future increases if market condition warrant, and raises the green card cap to 650,000 for fiscal years 2007-2016. The bill also exempts from the H-1B cap for workers who have earned a masters or Ph.D degree in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and exempts from the green card cap those workers with masters and Ph.D STEM degrees who have worked in the U.S. for at least three years. The current limits on H-1B visas were reached in August 2005, preventing U.S. employers from utilizing H-1B visas to hire workers with critically needed advanced skills until October of 2006. According to figures supplied by the USCIS, by the end of this month we will also have a backlog that, absent an increase in the cap, will use all of next year's available H-1B visas by the end of the month!
* The SIA urges the Congress to quickly pass legislation to keep foreign-born, U.S. educated talent working for U.S. companies. Leadership in technology has been critical to driving economic growth, enhancing productivity, improving our standard of living, and ensuring national security. Leadership is not a birthright -- it must be earned, and it takes highly skilled scientists and engineers to earn leadership.

 

[baby_mde]

Is this bill covers recapturing left over from prevous years. If not this not a good bill, because again USCIS will not use man power to process 485 applications

Do we have approved house version bill. Any time schedule on this???

 

[for_ac21]

house & senage bills

Hi,

Here is the House bill - H.R.4437
Here is the Senate bill - S 2611
(Pl. feel free to correct me on the House bill no.
I saw 4 versions of it, picked the latest one).

Type the bill number at
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/c109query.html
to get the documents

Other resources,
http://www.nilc.org/immlawpolicy/CIR/cir002.htm
http://www.nilc.org/immlawpolicy/CIR/index.htm#cira

Time line - I asked this questions and somebody replied,
saying that this process usually takes time and by the time,
this becomes a law it, it will be November this year.

Personally, I am learning this process myself.
It will be nice if someone with knowledge can post what and
how long it takes precisely.

 

[marianop]

I hope that this bill does not pass. The bill is the devil disguised as a blonde in a red dress. Many immigrants will automatically be disqualified under section 18 U.S.C. This section states that any person who has used fake documentation or false information in order to obtain work will be automatically disqualified. In other words, the majority of the undocumented population will literally be disqualified due to this provision. Really, how else do they think that immigrants were able to obtain work? If this bill passes, a large portion of immigrants will lose their jobs because their employers will be forced to fire them. In addition, they will have little chance of getting new work given that employers will be using the new employment verification system. This so called comprehensive bill is bad, bad, and bad to say the least.

 

[Sumanitha]

I dont think so

Hi..

How can a legal immigrant have produced illegal documents.. So this bill cannot be bad for legal immigrants..

For illegal immigrants, I am not sure..

 

[immi2006]

Are u an illegal Alien ?

Are u an illegal ? if not why are u so worried ??

I sympathise all Illegal workerrs, yet they have broken the law for sure, I do not see anything unreasonable for them to go back to borders and get a valid visa and come back to work, instead of getting chained to their fate as of now ?

As far as legal immigrants are concerned, the system should honour those who have been maitaining legal status, and respect the priority dates for issuing Green Cards

I hope that this bill does not pass. The bill is the devil disguised as a blonde in a red dress. Many immigrants will automatically be disqualified under section 18 U.S.C. This section states that any person who has used fake documentation or false information in order to obtain work will be automatically disqualified. In other words, the majority of the undocumented population will literally be disqualified due to this provision. Really, how else do they think that immigrants were able to obtain work? If this bill passes, a large portion of immigrants will lose their jobs because their employers will be forced to fire them. In addition, they will have little chance of getting new work given that employers will be using the new employment verification system. This so called comprehensive bill is bad, bad, and bad to say the least.

 

[jynger]

This bill will never pass in its current form both for the illegal amnesty and the legal immigration expansion regardless of how much money is thrown at lobbyists. Its just too open borders and loaded with foreign special interests. I think the senate went too far (such as retro-active social security benefits for illegals) and may have increased opposition in the house.

 

[saras76]

Likely outcome ..

Guys and Gals,

I have been following this issue closely through several media sources (both liberal and conservative alike) and what I get from them is that "some" bill will defenitely make it to law. Lawmakers on both parties do not want to seem as if they did nothing about immigration in an election year. The question is exactly what the final bill will look like. It will probably be nothing even remotely similar to what the Senate bill currently looks like. From a legal immigrant perspective we have to hope that most of the provisons catering to us make it through. In one of the Radio programs I heard Bill Frist being questioned about increasing the number of legal immigrant quotas in this bill. His politically correct reply was that all these issues will be closely debated during conference. This is a little troubling because it proves that there are a lot of forces that are opposing legal provisions in this bill.

It will all come down to politics in the end. Other issues such as more scandals, bad press about Iraq and White House Admin problems may play a huge role to. Right now we just have to hope that we get lucky. Its about time we did ...

regards,

saras

 

[Yooklid]

I think you're right Saras - some bill will have to make it through because they don't want to look like they've done nothing.

What I suspect will happen is that most of the fighting will be around provisions for illeagal immigrants. Anyone who fights provisions for legal immigrants will come off looking like a racists and no one wants to look like that in an election year.

Question is, could we be victims of crossfire?

Thoughts?

 

[for_ac21]

just a thought

What would it take to separated legal immigrant provisions,
in S 2611 and have the House pass it into law asap just for
legal immigrants.

Almost all the issues that may make the CIR S 2611 delayed,
are related to undocumented applicants.

So, why not we try, if at all possible to ask/request/lobby
to have these two separated ?

Is this not realistic ?

Can immigrationvoice help us ?

Saras, please present your thoughts.

regards,

 

[saras76]

Divisions in the House and Senate ..

What would it take to separated legal immigrant provisions,
in S 2611 and have the House pass it into law asap just for
legal immigrants.

Almost all the issues that may make the CIR S 2611 delayed,
are related to undocumented applicants.

So, why not we try, if at all possible to ask/request/lobby
to have these two separated ?

Is this not realistic ?

Can immigrationvoice help us ?

Saras, please present your thoughts.

regards,

for_ac21,

What you have stated makes a lot of sense but there is very little political will to handle "legal" immigration issues. Lets be honest here, the only reason our provisions are even being considered is because illegal immigration has become a huge issue and they cannot ignore that. The Senate firmly believes in "Comprehensive" immigration reform. They are not willing to tackle different immigration issues in different bills. They insist on one bill for immigration and that is the root of all our problems. I think the political thinking is that Senators can slip away with a little more on a comprehensive bill rather than separate bills. This is a classical political ploy.

The best thing would be to tackle these issues separately but no one is really interested in fixing the legal immigration system in this coutry. Its all lip service.

regards,

saras

 

[maxblacks]

Nice info from immigration-law...

Q 5(05-29-06): I obtained the PERM labor certification of EB-3 in July 2005 and I-140 petition has also been approved. I am an Indian. However, because of the visa retrogression, I am unable to file I-485 applications. How would the S. 2611 affect my chance of applying for I-485 during the period of visa retrogression? A 5: S. 2611 allows the people in the following list to file I-485 applications during the period of visa retrogression if they pay $2,000 special fees: *EB-11 Extraordinary Worker petition, *EB-12 Outstanding Researcher or Teacher petition, *EB-13 Multinational Corporate Executive/Manager petition, *EB-2 petition, *EB-3 petition beneficiaries, who has either obtained the required labor certification application or who has filed I-140 petition which is pending or I-140 petition has already approved. In all of the above-listed situation, the alien beneficiary and his/her family members will be able to file I-485 application even if the visa number is not available during the visa retrogression. However, such I-485 applications cannot be approved until the visa number becomes available for the specific individual beneficiary. Probably, this is one of the most helpful laws that will help practically all the employment-based immigrants.

 

[for_ac21]

separate bill/law for legal immigrants - so it can pass quickly

Thank you Saras. Nice viewpoint.
I would like to contact immigrationvoice and see what those nice people think about it.

regards,

 

[for_ac21]

separate bill/law for legal immigrants

All,

I have created a poll to see how many of us feel that there should be a separate bill/law for legal immigrants so it passes quickly.

Otherwise, as it is the CIR S.2611 bill might take longer and longer.

Also wanted to see how many of us feel strongly, to somehow lobby,
for such a separation of legal provisions into a separate law.

regards,

 

[for_ac21]

where to get latest about CIR

Where do we get the latest happenings on CIR, the house conference proceedings ?

regards,

 

[gravitation]

Where do we get the latest happenings on CIR, the house conference proceedings ?

regards,

/dev/null