Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act 1996 (Excellent Background for 2007-8)

TITLE I--IMPROVEMENTS TO BORDER CONTROL, FACILITATION OF LEGAL ENTRY, AND INTERIOR ENFORCEMENT

Sec. 101. Border patrol agents and support personnel. Sec. 102. Improvement of barriers at border. Sec. 103. Improved border equipment and technology. Sec. 104. Improvement in border crossing identification card. Sec. 105. Civil penalties for illegal entry. Sec. 106. Hiring and training standards. Sec. 107. Report on border strategy. Sec. 108. Criminal penalties for high speed flights from immigration checkpoints. Sec. 109. Joint study of automated data collection. Sec. 110. Automated entry-exit control system. Sec. 111. Submission of final plan on realignment of border patrol positions

from interior stations. Sec. 112. Nationwide fingerprinting of apprehended aliens.

Sec. 121. Land border inspectors. Sec. 122. Land border inspection and automated permit pilot projects. Sec. 123. Preinspection at foreign airports. Sec. 124. Training of airline personnel in detection of fraudulent documents. Sec. 125. Preclearance authority.

Sec. 131. Authorization of appropriations for increase in number of certain investigators. Sec. 132. Authorization of appropriations for increase in number of investigators of visa overstayers. Sec. 133. Acceptance of State services to carry out immigration enforcement. Sec. 134. Minimum State INS presence.

TITLE II--ENHANCED ENFORCEMENT AND PENALTIES AGAINST ALIEN SMUGGLING; DOCUMENT FRAUD

Sec. 201. Wiretap authority for investigations of alien smuggling or document fraud. Sec. 202. Racketeering offenses relating to alien smuggling. Sec. 203. Increased criminal penalties for alien smuggling. Sec. 204. Increased number of assistant United States Attorneys. Sec. 205. Undercover investigation authority.

Sec. 211. Increased criminal penalties for fraudulent use of government-issued documents. Sec. 212. New document fraud offenses; new civil penalties for document fraud. Sec. 213. New criminal penalty for failure to disclose role as preparer of false application for immigration benefits. Sec. 214. Criminal penalty for knowingly presenting document which fails to contain reasonable basis in law or fact. Sec. 215. Criminal penalty for false claim to citizenship. Sec. 216. Criminal penalty for voting by aliens in Federal election. Sec. 217. Criminal forfeiture for passport and visa related offenses. Sec. 218. Penalties for involuntary servitude. Sec. 219. Admissibility of videotaped witness testimony.

TITLE III--INSPECTION, APPREHENSION, DETENTION, ADJUDICATION, AND REMOVAL OF INADMISSIBLE AND DEPORTABLE ALIENS

Sec. 301. Treating persons present in the United States without authorization as not admitted. Sec. 302. Inspection of aliens; expedited removal of inadmissible arriving aliens; referral for hearing (revised section 235). Sec. 303. Apprehension and detention of aliens not lawfully in the United States (revised section 236). Sec. 304. Removal proceedings; cancellation of removal and adjustment of status; voluntary departure (revised and new sections 239 to 240C). Sec. 305. Detention and removal of aliens ordered removed (new section 241). Sec. 306. Appeals from orders of removal (new section 242). Sec. 307. Penalties relating to removal (revised section 243). Sec. 308. Redesignation and reorganization of other provisions; additional conforming amendments. Sec. 309. Effective dates; transition.

Sec. 321. Amended definition of aggravated felony. Sec. 322. Definition of conviction and term of imprisonment. Sec. 323. Authorizing registration of aliens on criminal probation or criminal parole. Sec. 324. Penalty for reentry of deported aliens. Sec. 325. Change in filing requirement. Sec. 326. Criminal alien identification system. Sec. 327. Appropriations for criminal alien tracking center. Sec. 328. Provisions relating to State criminal alien assistance program. Sec. 329. Demonstration project for identification of illegal aliens in incarceration facility of Anaheim, California. Sec. 330. Prisoner transfer treaties. Sec. 331. Prisoner transfer treaties study. Sec. 332. Annual report on criminal aliens. Sec. 333. Penalties for conspiring with or assisting an alien to commit an offense under the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act. Sec. 334. Enhanced penalties for failure to depart, illegal reentry, and passport and visa fraud.

Sec. 342. Incitement of terrorist activity and provision of false documentation to terrorists as a basis for exclusion from the United States. Sec. 343. Certification requirements for foreign health-care workers. Sec. 344. Removal of aliens falsely claiming United States citizenship. Sec. 345. Waiver of exclusion and deportation ground for certain section 274C violators. Sec. 346. Inadmissibility of certain student visa abusers. Sec. 347. Removal of aliens who have unlawfully voted. Sec. 348. Waivers for immigrants convicted of crimes. Sec. 349. Waiver of misrepresentation ground of inadmissibility for certain alien. Sec. 350. Offenses of domestic violence and stalking as ground for deportation. Sec. 351. Clarification of date as of which relationship required for waiver from exclusion or deportation for smuggling. Sec. 352. Exclusion of former citizens who renounced citizenship to avoid United States taxation. Sec. 353. References to changes elsewhere in division.

Sec. 354. Treatment of classified information. Sec. 355. Exclusion of representatives of terrorist organizations. Sec. 356. Standard for judicial review of terrorist organization designations. Sec. 357. Removal of ancillary relief for voluntary departure. Sec. 358. Effective date.

Sec. 371. Immigration judges and compensation. Sec. 372. Delegation of immigration enforcement authority. Sec. 373. Powers and duties of the Attorney General and the Commissioner. Sec. 374. Judicial deportation. Sec. 375. Limitation on adjustment of status. Sec. 376. Treatment of certain fees. Sec. 377. Limitation on legalization litigation. Sec. 378. Rescission of lawful permanent resident status. Sec. 379. Administrative review of orders. Sec. 380. Civil penalties for failure to depart. Sec. 381. Clarification of district court jurisdiction. Sec. 382. Application of additional civil penalties to enforcement.

Sec. 383. Exclusion of certain aliens from family unity program. Sec. 384. Penalties for disclosure of information. Sec. 385. Authorization of additional funds for removal of aliens. Sec. 386. Increase in INS detention facilities; report on detention space. Sec. 387. Pilot program on use of closed military bases for the detention of inadmissible or deportable aliens. Sec. 388. Report on interior repatriation program.

Sec. 401. Establishment of programs. Sec. 402. Voluntary election to participate in a pilot program. Sec. 403. Procedures for participants in pilot programs. Sec. 404. Employment eligibility confirmation system. Sec. 405. Reports.

Sec. 411. Limiting liability for certain technical violations of paperwork requirements. Sec. 412. Paperwork and other changes in the employer sanctions program. Sec. 413. Report on additional authority or resources needed for enforcement of employer sanctions provisions. Sec. 414. Reports on earnings of aliens not authorized to work. Sec. 415. Authorizing maintenance of certain information on aliens. Sec. 416. Subpoena authority.

Sec. 421. Treatment of certain documentary practices as unfair immigration-related employment practices.

Sec. 501. Exception to ineligibility for public benefits for certain battered aliens. Sec. 502. Pilot programs on limiting issuance of driver's licenses to illegal aliens. Sec. 503. Ineligibility of aliens not lawfully present for Social Security benefits. Sec. 504. Procedures for requiring proof of citizenship for Federal public benefits. Sec. 505. Limitation on eligibility for preferential treatment of aliens not lawfully present on basis of residence for higher education benefits.

Sec. 506. Study and report on alien student eligibility for postsecondary Federal student financial assistance. Sec. 507. Verification of immigration status for purposes of Social Security and higher educational assistance. Sec. 508. No verification requirement for nonprofit charitable organizations. Sec. 509. GAO study of provision of means-tested public benefits to aliens who are not qualified aliens on behalf of eligible individuals. Sec. 510. Transition for aliens currently receiving benefits under the Food Stamp program.

Sec. 551. Requirements for sponsor's affidavit of support. Sec. 552. Indigence and battered spouse and child exceptions to Federal attribution of income rule. Sec. 553. Authority of States and political subdivisions of States to limit assistance to aliens and to distinguish among classes of aliens in providing general cash public assistance.

Sec. 561. Increased maximum criminal penalties for forging or counterfeiting seal of a Federal department or agency to facilitate benefit fraud by an unlawful alien. Sec. 562. Treatment of expenses subject to emergency medical services exception. Sec. 563. Reimbursement of States and localities for emergency ambulance services. Sec. 564. Pilot programs to require bonding. Sec. 565. Reports.

Sec. 571. Short title. Sec. 572. Prorating of financial assistance. Sec. 573. Actions in cases of termination of financial assistance. Sec. 574. Verification of immigration status and eligibility for financial assistance. Sec. 575. Prohibition of sanctions against entities making financial assistance eligibility determinations. Sec. 576. Eligibility for public and assisted housing. Sec. 577. Regulations.

Sec. 601. Persecution for resistance to coercive population control methods. Sec. 602. Limitation on use of parole. Sec. 603. Treatment of long-term parolees in applying worldwide numerical limitations. Sec. 604. Asylum reform. Sec. 605. Increase in asylum officers. Sec. 606. Conditional repeal of Cuban Adjustment Act.

Sec. 621. Alien witness cooperation. Sec. 622. Waiver of foreign country residence requirement with respect to international medical graduates. Sec. 623. Use of legalization and special agricultural worker information. Sec. 624. Continued validity of labor certifications and classification petitions for professional athletes. Sec. 625. Foreign students. Sec. 626. Services to family members of certain officers and agents killed in the line of duty.

Sec. 631. Validity of period of visas. Sec. 632. Elimination of consulate shopping for visa overstays. Sec. 633. Authority to determine visa processing procedures. Sec. 634. Changes regarding visa application process. Sec. 635. Visa waiver program. Sec. 636. Fee for diversity immigrant lottery. Sec. 637. Eligibility for visas for certain Polish applicants for the 1995 diversity immigrant program.

Sec. 641. Program to collect information relating to nonimmigrant foreign students. Sec. 642. Communication between government agencies and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Sec. 643. Regulations regarding habitual residence. Sec. 644. Information regarding female genital mutilation. Sec. 645. Criminalization of female genital mutilation.

Sec. 646. Adjustment of status for certain Polish and Hungarian parolees. Sec. 647. Support of demonstration projects. Sec. 648. Sense of Congress regarding American-made products; requirements regarding notice. Sec. 649. Vessel movement controls during immigration emergency. Sec. 650. Review of practices of testing entities. Sec. 651. Designation of a United States customs administrative building. Sec. 652. Mail-order bride business. Sec. 653. Review and report on H-2A nonimmigrant workers program. Sec. 654. Report on allegations of harassment by Canadian customs agents. Sec. 655. Sense of Congress on discriminatory application of New Brunswick provincial sales tax. Sec. 656. Improvements in identification-related documents. Sec. 657. Development of prototype of counterfeit-resistant Social Security card. Sec. 658. Border Patrol Museum. Sec. 659. Sense of the Congress regarding the mission of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Sec. 660. Authority for National Guard to assist in transportation of certain aliens.

(e) Severability.--If <<NOTE: 8 USC 1101 note.>> any provision of this division or the application of such provision to any person or circumstances is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder of this division and the application of the provisions of this division to any person or circumstance shall not be affected thereby.

[emphasis added]

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION REFORM AND IMMIGRANT RESPONSIBILITY ACT OF 1996—CONFERENCE REPORT (Senate - September 26, 1996)

[Page: S11450]Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now turn to the consideration of the conference report accompanying the immigration bill, H.R. 2202.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The report will be stated.

The legislative clerk read as follows:

The committee on conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the amendment of the Senate to the bill (H.R. 2202) to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to improve deterrence of illegal immigration to the United States by increasing border patrol and investigative personnel, by increasing penalties for alien smuggling and for document fraud, by reforming exclusion and deportation law and procedures, by improving the verification system for eligibility for employment, and through other measures, to reform the legal immigration system and facilitate legal entries into the United States, and for other purposes, having met, after full and free conference, have agreed to recommend and do recommend to their respective Houses this report, signed by a majority of the conferees.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the Senate will proceed to the consideration of the conference report.

(The conference report is printed in the House proceedings of the Record of September 24, 1996.)

Cloture Motion

[Page: S11451]Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.

The legislative clerk read as follows:

Cloture Motion
We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate the conference report to accompany H.R. 2202, the illegal immigration reform bill.

Trent Lott, Richard Shelby, Jon Kyl, Craig Thomas, Bob Bennett, Slade Gorton, Mark O. Hatfield, Sheila Frahm, Orrin Hatch, Hank Brown, Dan Coats, Judd Gregg, Rod Grams, Frank H. Murkowski, Al Simpson, and Don Nickles.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the cloture vote occur on Monday, September 30, at a time to be determined by the majority leader, after consultation with the Democratic leader, and that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, in view of this agreement that has been worked out, I would like to announce there will be no further votes tonight. I know that there are a number of very important events occurring. I wanted to give that notice to the Senators as early as possible.

I have worked with Senator Daschle and Senator Kennedy to get an agreement to get this illegal immigration conference report considered. This will guarantee that we will get to a cloture vote on Monday, if necessary, and to final passage at a time after that, either Monday night or certainly not later than next Tuesday.

In the meantime, we continue to hope, and, I believe, maybe agreement can be reached to work out a compromise so that the illegal immigration legislation can be included in the continuing resolution which will be connected to the Department of Defense conference report.

There will be a meeting tonight, I think, at 9:30 of the Senators and Congressmen and administration officials who are interested in this area. We hope they can get it worked out and maybe it can be included in an agreed-to package tomorrow night just in case that doesn’t happen. Illegal immigration is such an important issue in this country and people expect us to act on it.

After the effort was made and agreement was reached to take out one provision that had been objected to by the President and others, we thought this legislation would move forward. It should. But there are some problems that are being expressed by the administration. We will work on those. If we don’t get it worked out, we will have a cloture vote on Monday.

END

The following was placed in the Congressional Record by Senator Lott.

The official public record of the business of the US Government.

CONFERENCE REPORT TO ACCOMPANY ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION REFORM AND IMMIGRANT RESPONSIBILITY ACT OF 1996 (Senate - September 27, 1996)

A Dangerous Immigration Bill

(NEW YORK TIMES, EDITORIAL)
As the White House and members of Congress make final decisions this week about a severely flawed immigration bill, they seem more concerned with protecting their political interests than the national interest. The bill should be killed.

Debate over the bill has concentrated on whether it should contain a punitive amendment that would close school doors to illegal -immigrant children. But even without that provision, it is filled with measures that would harm American workers and legal immigrants, and deny basic legal protections to all kinds of immigrants. At the same time, the bill contains no serious steps to prevent illegal immigrants from taking American jobs.

Its most dangerous provisions would block Federal courts from reviewing many Immigration and Naturalization Service actions. This would remove the only meaningful check on the I.N.S., an agency with a history of abuse. Under the bill, every court short of the Supreme Court would be effectively stripped of the power to issue injunctions against the I.N.S. when its decisions may violate the law or the Constitution.

Injunctions have proven the only way to correct system-wide illegalities. A court injunction, for instance, forced the I.N.S. to drop its discriminatory policy of denying Haitian refugees the chance to seek political asylum.

On an individual level, legal immigrants convicted of minor crimes would be deported with no judicial review. If they apply for naturalization, they would be deported with no judicial review. If they apply for naturalization, they would be deported for such crimes committed in the past. The I.N.S. would gain the power to pick up people it believes are illegal aliens anywhere, and deport them without a court review if they have been here for less than two years.

The bill would also diminish America’s tradition of providing asylum to the persecuted. Illegal immigrants entering the country, who may not speak English or be familiar with American law, would be summarily deported if they do not immediately request asylum or express fear of persecution. Those who do would have to prove that their fear was credible—a tougher standard than is internationally accepted—to an I.N.S. official on the spot, with no right to an interpreter or attorney.

Scam artists with concocted stories would be more likely to pass the test than the genuinely persecuted, who are often afraid of authority and so traumatized they cannot recount their experiences. Applicants would have a week to appeal to a Justice Department administrative judge but no access to real courts before deportation.

The bill would also go further than the recently adopted welfare law in attacking legal immigrants. Under the immigration bill they could be deported for using almost any form of public assistance for a year, including English classes. It would make family reunification more difficult by requiring high incomes for sponsors of new immigrants. The bill would also require workers who claim job discrimination to prove that an employer intended to discriminate, which is nearly impossible.

A bill that grants so many unrestricted powers to the Government should alarm Republicans as well as Democrats. This is not an immigration bill but an immigrant -bashing bill. It deserves a quick demise.

Mr. LOTT addressed the Chair.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.

[more from congressional record of 1996 congress]

CONFERENCE REPORT TO ACCOMPANY ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION REFORM AND IMMIGRANT RESPONSIBILITY ACT OF 1996 (Senate - September 27, 1996)

Immigration Politics
In an effort to salvage the illegal immigration reform bill, congressional Republicans finally backed off their plan to penalize the school children of illegal immigrants—and bucked Bob Dole, their presidential candidate, in the process. Unfortunately, the bill they struggled to save is still a severely flawed piece of work.

Though the proposal to allow states to deny public education to illegal immigrants was a cornerstone of the House-passed version, it faced a Senate filibuster and a presidential veto. Anxious to save both face and the remainder of the bill, Republicans agreed to uncouple the education proposal from the rest of the bill and vote separately on each.

Dole belatedly endorsed the move in a letter to conferees. But earlier this month, he tried to strong-arm his former colleagues into retaining the controversial amendment in an attempt to torpedo the immigration reform bill—one he had supported when he was in the Senate—to keep Clinton from scoring political points. That’s not just hard-ball. That’s irresponsible. Congressional Republicans deserve some credit for defying Dole, even if they acted out of political self-interest. The Republicans want to take an immigration bill, even a watered-down one, back home to their constituents before election time.

Though improved, the bill has other problems which still merit that presidential veto. The conference report gives virtually unchecked authority to the Immigration and Naturalization Service to turn away immigrants, with false papers or none, who seek asylum from genocide, political death squads or other forms of persecution. Though the conferees softened this summary exclusion procedure by inserting a meager administrative review, that is still not sufficient. Also included are restrictions on benefits to legal immigrants more onerous than those contained in the new welfare bill. These defects overshadow the bill’s constructive provisions, such as a doubling of the number of Border Patrol officers.

The Clinton administration has voiced tepid concern and has so far withheld its promise of support. But undoubtedly eager to claim victory himself, Clinton cannot be counted on to veto the bill even with these glaring problems. On illegal immigration reform , like welfare, he might not be that far behind Dole on the pander meter.

—

Immigrant Bashing
Congress is waging its usual election-year war on immigrants. Although we suspect, in this case, the real target of the new immigration `reform’ bill making its way through Congress is Bill Clinton.

Yes, Republicans have stripped from the bill—in the face of a Clinton veto threat—a provision that would allow states to throw the children of illegal immigrants out of school, presumably to run wild and ignorant in the streets.

But the measure that remains is still far too punitive in its treatment of both legal and illegal immigrants, too lenient on U.S. employers who hire illegals and too willing to grant the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service chilling new authority.

This week, legal immigrants around the nation were being told that they are no longer eligible for food stamps, thanks to the recently enacted welfare reform bill. The anti-immigrant measure would continue that trend of denying legal immigrants public assistance when they are in trouble. These are people who have permission to be here, who hold down jobs when they can get them and who pay taxes and otherwise support the economy.

One particularly mean-spirited provision, for instance, would even deny legal immigrants Medicaid assistance for the treatment of AIDS or HIV-related illnesses. Let them suffer, chortle the bashers in Congress.

And what about unscrupulous employers who hire illegal immigrants for slave wages, thus encouraging still more undocumented aliens to flock to this country? Congress couldn’t be bothered to crack down too hard on such practices. Tougher penalties for such practices were deleted from the bill.

One of the most ominous provisions of the bill would grant an unprecedented degree of autonomy to the INS. Under the measure, no court, other than the U.S. Supreme Court, would be authorized to grant injunctions against that police agency when it acts in a legally questionable manner. That’s an immunity not afforded the IRS, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency or any other federal police force. Giving it to the INS would constitute a frightening precedent.

The bill isn’t all bad. It authorizes a much-needed increase in the size of the U.S. Border Patrol. It would establish new, more efficient procedures for verifying the status of legal immigrants. It would provide tougher penalties for document fraud and for those who smuggle aliens into the country.

But there are so many harsh, immigrant -bashing provisions in the bill that, on balance, it deserves a veto. This is an issue that cries out for resolution after the election—when lawmakers are less inclined to use the immigration issue as a political football.

If President Clinton vetoes the measure, Republicans are sure to paint him as `soft’ on illegal immigrants. Indeed, Bob Dole is already hitting on that very theme because of the president’s unwillingness to purge the classrooms of the children of illegal aliens.

But as a matter of principle, Clinton should stand up to the Republicans this time and refuse to participate in their immigrant -bashing.

This is another case where politics makes for bad public policy.

—

IMMIGRATION REFORM (Senate - September 28, 1996)

Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, let me just relate a bit about the immigration legislation which is now on its way to us in the continuing resolution. After negotiations until about 2 a.m. two nights ago and then until this morning until 4:30 a.m., if I look bright and alert it is deceptive in every sense. One of my staff, John Knepper, a fine young man, spent all night here and all morning. We finally turned him back to his home in a zombie-like condition and thank him so much for his splendid work last night and this morning.

In the course of dealing with this huge bill, a very significant bill with regard to illegal immigration , we all were confronted with the reality that the purpose of leaders is to lead. Our leaders wanted to complete this session and do it this weekend. To do that, there were accommodations of varying degrees, obviously. Some disappointments, some victories, some defeats. We all know that feeling as we wind down a legislative year. It is the time when much can happen, and if one is not observing carefully, things are slid into a bill and things are slid out of a bill. We all, then, go home and say, `Wait, what happened here?’ Or, `Well, we got that in.’ That is the way legislating is, too.

I thought that the leadership, in pressing forward to meet the schedule that they set for themselves and the bipartisan way

... ... ...
Another member of the subcommittee is Dianne Feinstein. Senator Feinstein is a remarkable woman. It has been a great pleasure to work with her on illegal and legal immigration matters, and to see her learn the issues. The issues of immigration are emotion, fear, guilt, and racism. The only way to do it is to wipe those people away who talk like that and move on into the issue as it really is. Brush away emotion, fear, guilt, and racism. She has done that, and she is good.

Next year, either she or Senator Kyl will be the chairman of the subcommittee. If I may make a partisan statement, I hope it will be Senator Kyl because he would be, of course, the Republican majority member. If not, then Senator Feinstein will be the Chair. But either way, America will gain from these two people. They work together very well. They worked on the fence issue, on other issues in conference, and they have a duality of interest and regard and trust for each other. You can’t do this work without an element of trust.

So as I then finish
... ... ... .

An award winning series of articles was written about the 1996 legislation and how Simpsom was bullied into it after removing any ‘teeth’ so to speak. Everyone should read this, because the same players are the ones pushing this ‘reform’ today.

llegal-immigration bill weakened by unlikely alliance
By Marcus Stern
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
04-Nov-1997

WASHINGTON - After years of bitter losses, Sen. Alan K. Simpson thought the political tides finally favored his quest to create a way to keep illegal immigrants from getting jobs.

The issue had emerged as a hot-button during the 1996 campaign. This time, he would surely defeat the powerful and savvy pro-immigration lobby.

“As I look out on this sea of faces, there are some who have been cutting my bicycle tire for 17 years,” the now-retired Wyoming Republican said last year as the Judiciary Committee prepared to debate his proposals. “They’re sitting back there, hollow-eyed, twitching like dogs eating peach seeds and wondering if they can do it again. ... Well, I think that game is over.”

Simpson was wrong.

Once again, he had sorely underestimated the tenacity and cleverness of special-interest groups determined to preserve the flow of undocumented workers into the United States.

Yes, Congress eventually passed a new immigration law. But it was so weak it would do little to hasten the creation of a system to help employers quickly and reliably verify that the people working for them are in fact eligible to hold jobs in the United States. Such a system is a key to curbing illegal immigration, according to many experts.

The “twitching dogs” who dragged down Simpson’s initiative last year are Capitol heavyweights whose coalition on immigration falls into the unlikely bedfellows category. Among them: the National Federation of Independent Business, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Rifle Association, the Catholic church, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Bar Association and even some labor unions.

As these special interests swarmed all over Capitol Hill, however, no lobbyist represented millions of legal immigrants and other poor people, who, because of welfare reform, soon might need the low-skill jobs now being held by the rising number of undocumented workers.

“There’s no National Association of Working Poor,” said Robert Reich, who served as labor secretary during President Clinton’s first term. “There’s no special-interest lobbying group working on behalf of very poor people trying desperately to find and keep jobs.

“If a politician has to decide between the interests of small businesses seeking inexpensive help and the interests of poor Americans either seeking a job or afraid of losing a job or declining earnings, the chances are very good that the small business has far more clout.”

Special-interest clout

The clout displayed last year when the immigration lobby defeated Simpson’s plan is a textbook demonstration of how special interests have long dominated immigration policy in Washington.

Simpson wasn’t asking for anything remotely like a national ID card or national database of workers. He merely wanted the Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to authorize pilot projects to test methods for verifying employment eligibility.

One pilot would have required participating employers to check their new employees’ Social Security numbers. Because it would apply to all of their new workers, discrimination against “foreign-looking” job applicants would have been minimized.

But the anti-verification coalition painted the proposal as a sinister plot. It portrayed it as a retina-scan ID card, police-state power, the second coming of the Holocaust and even the fulfillment of a dark prophecy in the Bible’s Book of Revelation that people would be stamped with the “mark of the beast.”

At one meeting of the Judiciary Committee, an irritated and clearly frustrated Simpson indignantly waved a make-believe tattoo that looked like a grocery store bar code. He called it a ploy to kill his verification proposal. He was right.

Grover Norquist, a social conservative and anti-tax Republican lobbyist, reveled unapologetically in the tactics he used to undermine the verification initiative and to mock Simpson personally.

The peel-off bar-code tattoos were supposed to remind people of the way Nazis tattooed Jews during World War II.

“It was great,” recalled Norquist, who is close to House Speaker Newt Gingrich. “We had our guys walking around with tattoos on their arms. It drove Simpson nuts because the implication was he’s a Nazi.”

The truth, however, is that both the House and the Senate bills specifically barred the implementation of any kind of national ID card. Politicians view such a card as a political kiss of death; nobody expects Congress to seriously consider one.

Toward the end of the debate, Simpson decried the pranks and slurs.

“We have dealt with tattoos and Adolf Hitler,” he said. “It is the most offensive thing that I have ever heard. It’s disgusting and I’m sick of it.”

‘Mark of the beast’

Although voters tend to see Republicans as tougher than Democrats on illegal immigration, the weakening of the verification provisions was largely the handiwork of conservative Republicans and their behind-the-scenes strategists like Norquist.

Their success underscores how tough it is for Congress to do the one thing experts have said for decades is central to curbing illegal immigration: Establish a reliable, non-discriminatory employment verification system.

Norquist has strong ties to the business community. Mainstream firms like Microsoft paid him to lobby against other provisions of the bill, such as tighter restrictions on the immigration of computer programmers.

But his forte is mobilizing support among social or moral conservatives, including gun owners (Note: Norquist now on board of NRA), the religious right, home-schooling adherents and others he described as “anti-welfare and anti-police state.”

“A government powerful enough to find an illegal immigrant is also powerful enough to find your bank accounts,” he said.

Conveniently, he ignores the fact that the government long has been able to find bank accounts with ease while it still can’t reliably identify undocumented workers.

“Nobody really minds people sneaking across the border and working at 7-Eleven,” he added.

At one point during the debate, congressional offices received calls from fundamentalist ministers around the country asking about rumors that the verification provision would fulfill a prophecy in the Book of Revelation. Was it true, they asked congressional staffers, that people would be stamped with the “mark of the beast” under the new law?

“Six-six-six,” Norquist explained matter-of-factly during an interview. “That’s always been one of the arguments against the ID card. There’s something in Revelations about numbering people. The ‘beast’ could be a big computer.”

The National Rifle Association was told the bill would lead to a federal computer registry that the government could use to hunt down its members and seize their guns.

“Gun owners quite correctly understand that it would take Bill Clinton all of two weeks to add the question, ‘Got any guns? Could we have a list of them? Where do you keep them?’ “ said Norquist.

Verification opponents also circulated mock national identification cards bearing Simpson’s likeness. On the back of the cards was a retina scan diagram suggesting that the legislation called for everyone to carry such a card.

“That was a good one,” Norquist chuckled.

Anti-verification coalition Conservatives didn’t fight verification alone last year. They were part of a coalition of strange bedfellows involved in civil rights, ethnic and religious advocacy, anti-government politics and free-market ideology. They were also bolstered by powerful business groups.

The coalition was a juggernaut that fought virtually any verification initiative. Because Republicans control Congress, conservative lobbyists were especially influential. The fact that some limited, voluntary verification projects stayed in the bill at all outraged some conservatives.

“I view it as the camel’s nose under the tent for a national ID card,” said Stephen Moore, an economist with the Cato Institute who lobbied against the bill. “The theme we played to Republicans was that if you’re trying to roll back big government, you shouldn’t be instituting this new police-state power.”

Social conservatives like Norquist and libertarians like Moore don’t see illegal immigration as a major problem.

“Illegal immigration is part of the price we pay for being both a prosperous and a free country, and I’m not willing to sacrifice some of our freedoms to try to keep out immigrants, especially when I don’t think it’s going to work very well,” said Moore.

He added that spending $3 billion-plus a year to fund the Immigration and Naturalization Service “probably is a waste of money. But this is a political issue. And the way you deal with illegal immigration is you increase the INS budget. It doesn’t do a lot, but at least politicians on both sides can go home and say, `Well, how can you say I’m not doing anything about immigration? I increased the INS budget.’ “

What you don’t do, he said, is involve employers in enforcement.

“Sometimes in politics you pass feel-good measures,” Moore said. “And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Passing a bill that’s mostly window dressing is a way of defusing public alarm about something. And in states like California, illegal immigration is perceived as a big problem.”

The INS contends stronger border enforcement has served as a deterrent for illegal crossers and made once dangerous and chaotic border corridors safer and more calm.

But a better verification system is crucial, insists former Labor Secretary Reich.

“Congress has to act and Congress isn’t going to act if the only people it hears from are employers who don’t want to be sanctioned,” he said.

As long as jobs remain available, he added, efforts to stop illegal immigrants from streaming across the border are doomed to failure.

People will go on dying of exposure and exhaustion as they try to get to the jobs that are waiting for them. They instinctively understand that despite the proliferation of border guards and fences, powerful forces in our society still want them to get across.

“It gets back to the large issue haunting our democratic system right now the overwhelming dominance of special interests ,” Reich said.

http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/2006/01/llegal-immigration-bill-weakened-by.html

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