shusterman thinks nothing will happen this year....
1. Legislation: Comprehensive Immigration Reform Considered
During the past few months, both Congress and the President have turned their attention to immigration reform. In May, the bipartisan McCain-Kennedy bill was introduced in both Houses in Congress. See
http://shusterman.com/jun05.html#6
More recently, on July 20, the Senators Cornyn (R-TX) and Kyl (R-AZ) introduced the "Comprehensive Enforcement and Immigration Reform Act of 2005" ("CEIRA") (S. 1438) in the Senate. See Topic #7 below.
While both the McCain-Kennedy and the Cornyn-Kyl bills attempt to balance immigration enforcement with the needs of U.S. employers to hire "guest workers", the Cornyn-Kyl bill's emphasis is clearly on enforcement.
The bill would provide billions of dollars for increasing the size of the border patrol, hiring hundreds of new agents to conduct additional interior enforcement of the immigration laws and dramatically increasing the number of beds available in immigration detention facilities.
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a legislative hearing on "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" on July 26. We link to the testimony of the witnesses from our "Immigration Legislation" page at
http://shusterman.com/toc-leg.html#3
Unfortunately, both of the Administration's representatives, DHS Secretary Chertoff and DOL Secretary Chao, cancelled their scheduled appearances before the Committee, leaving the Administration's position on both the McCain-Kennedy and the Cornyn-Kyl bills a mystery.
The Committee Chairman, Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), clearly annoyed, stated that "the absence of the administration officials is not going to slow us down. We, of course, would rather have their input, but we are going to proceed to move here with legislation. When the administration wants to chime in, we'll be ready to listen."
The Cornyn-Kyl bill requires persons presently residing illegally in the U.S. to either leave the U.S. within five years or be ineligible to immigrate to the U.S. for ten years. Senator McCain, testifying at the hearing, called this requirement "totally impractical".
After the hearing, Senators McCain and Cornyn met with White House senior advisor Karl Rove.
I have been keenly observing the immigration debate for nearly 30 years, first as an INS Attorney (1976-82) and, since 1982, as a private immigration attorney.
I remember the prevailing wisdom when President Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA). Simply put, it was believed that the flow of illegal workers into the U.S. could be stopped by (1) granting amnesty to those undocumented workers who had already put down roots in the U.S. and by (2) placing the burden of immigration enforcement on U.S. employers who would complete an "I-9" form for each newly-hired employee.
Unfortunately, the prevailing wisdom turned out to be wrong. First, the "legalization" program was only available to persons who had continuously resided in the U.S. in illegal status since prior to January 1, 1981. This limitation left millions of undocumented workers in the U.S. unable to legalize their immigration status. Second, the "employer sanctions" program was a non- starter. The law failed to provide any mechanism to allow employers to check with the government to determine whether a particular document was genuine. IRCA spurred the growth of multi-billion dollar false documents industry. Today, the "employer sanctions" provisions of the law are rarely used by the federal government.
Since 1986, the government has spent billions of dollars in our tax money to double and then triple the size of the border patrol. Yet, the number of undocumented workers in the U.S. dwarfs the number present in 1986.
As the saying goes "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
What should we learn from the failed efforts of the past 20 years?
First, we won't solve the problem simply by increasing the size of the border patrol or adding thousands of new detention beds. There is no way to spend ourselves out of the problem. We cannot construct a moat around the U.S. and pull up the drawbridge.
Second, the government must provide U.S. employers with a simple, easy-to-use system to verify the immigration status of workers before they are hired. Biometrics must be a part of this system in order to prevent document fraud.
Third, as Senator Cornyn states on his website: "The vast majority of immigrants, documented or undocumented, are here because they want a piece of the American dream. Many of them risk everything they have to come to this country seeking a better life for themselves and their families. Neither blanket amnesty nor turning a blind-eye to our immigration problem will suffice. We must use common sense policies to address the need for better border security while acknowledging the important contributions that immigrants make to our economy, our culture and our society."
Common sense means that we must create an avenue for undocumented workers to obtain work permits, and eventually earn the right to reside permanently in the U.S. Those persons who have been waiting in line to become permanent residents for many years should be permitted to achieve their goal within a reasonable period of time.
What are the chances that a comprehensive immigration reform plan will be enacted into law anytime soon?
The Administration is forming a coalition to be called "Americans for Border and Economic Security". However, President Bush is planning to promote immigration reform not now, but in time for the 2006 elections.
The leader of this new coalition, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, acknowledges that the Republicans are a split party when it comes to immigration: "There's two voices right now, and the noisy one is what I call the slam-the-borders crowd... To me, Tancredo appeals to the more prurient character of our nature. We want to talk to the better angels of our nature."
For the record, Representative Tancredo (R-COLO) has introduced an immigration bill which emphasizes enforcement to the virtual exclusion of immigration benefits. He calls it the "REAL GUEST Act of 2005".
We link to the McCain-Kennedy, the Cornyn-Kyl and the Tancredo bills from our "Immigration Legislation" page at
http://shusterman.com/toc-leg.html#6D
We will continue to update our readers on this important subject.
