Posted on 06/16/2007 2:18:15 PM PDT by Baladas
If The Bipartisan Immigration Reform Bill Now Being Considered By The Senate Is Not Passed, The U.S. Will Be Left With A Status Quo That Is Unacceptable. The current immigration system is broken:
Border security and interior enforcement laws need to be improved.
Employers do not have the tools they need to verify the work eligibility of their employees with assurance.
As many as 12 million illegal workers remain in the shadows.
Only around 13 percent of green cards are awarded each year based on employment-related criteria, and far too little emphasis is placed on the skills and attributes necessary to fill the needs of our growing economy and further the national interest.
There is no efficient mechanism by which willing foreign workers may be hired for jobs Americans are not doing. This Bill Represents The Best Chance To Move Forward On Fixing Our Broken Immigration System
1) The Bill Contains Tough New Border Security And Enforcement Measures.
The Bill Commits The Most Resources To Border Security In U.S. History. The bill includes border security triggers such as: increasing border fencing and vehicle barriers at the Southern border; increasing the size of the Border Patrol; installing ground-based radar and camera towers along the Southern border; and ensuring that resources are available to maintain the effective end of "Catch and Release" at our border.
The Bill Improves Our Laws To Better Safeguard National Security And Prevent Future Illegal Immigration. The bill:
Allows the government to detain dangerous criminal aliens who cannot be removed from the U.S. because no other country is willing to accept them. Under current law, they must be released back into society after just six months.
Gives the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice tools to keep certain aliens out of the U.S. solely on the basis of their participation in a gang. No conviction is required – if an individual has participated in a gang and helped "aid" or "support" its illegal activity, then he or she is not eligible for admission to the U.S.
Substantially increases criminal penalties for repeated illegal border crossings.
Imposes substantial new criminal penalties for passport, visa, and other immigration fraud.
Includes several provisions that would improve coordination between Federal, State, and local governments in enforcing immigration laws and expeditiously deporting criminal aliens.
2) The Bill Will Give Employers The Tools They Need To Verify The Work Eligibility Of Their Employees. Today, we have an entire underground industry dedicated to producing fake IDs and fraudulent Social Security numbers. If this bill is not passed, the problems of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act would persist – employers would continue operating under a system in which they have only a limited ability to tell whether documentation is authentic.
The Bill Requires The Establishment Of A Reliable Employment Eligibility Verification System (EEVS) To Help Employers Verify The Work Eligibility Of All Employees. All workers will be required to present stronger and more readily verifiable identification documents.
EEVS Will Allow Employers To Verify The Authenticity Of Documents By Providing Access For The First Time To Identification Photographs In Government Databases. EEVS Will Be Founded On Unprecedented Verification Of Information Across Numerous Electronic Databases. These include:
Department of Homeland Security records; Social Security Administration records; State Department passport and visa records (including photographs); Birth and death records maintained by State vital statistics agencies; and State driver's license information.
3) The Bill Will Bring As Many As 12 Million Current Undocumented Workers Out Of The Shadows. If the bill is not passed, these workers would remain in the shadows of our society, where they are often exploited, underpaid, and afraid to go to the police for fear of deportation.
The Senate Bill Provides A Mechanism For Undocumented Workers With Clean Records And Steady Jobs To Come Out Of The Shadows And Be Accounted For In A Regulated System, On A Probationary Basis. This will help keep our Nation secure by letting law enforcement officials know who is in the country and allowing immigration enforcement officers to focus their resources on apprehending violent criminals and terrorists. The Senate Bill Provides Greater Incentives For Employers And Workers To Follow The Law By Implementing Much Tougher Worksite Enforcement Measures. EEVS will give employers the tools they need to verify the status of workers they hire. Employers who continue to hire illegal workers will face stiff new criminal and civil penalties – for example, the maximum criminal penalty for a pattern or practice of hiring illegal workers will increase 25-fold, from $3,000 per alien to $75,000 per alien.
4) The Bill Will Clear The Current Family Backlog And Reform The Immigration System To Better Balance The Importance Of Family Connections With U.S. Economic Needs. Currently, applicants wait up to 30 years for green cards. In addition, our immigration system places far too little emphasis on the skills and attributes necessary to fill the needs of our growing economy and further the national interest.
The Senate Bill Will Clear The Current Decades-Long Backlog Of Family-Based Applications Within Eight Years. During this time, there will be a surge in family reunification, as more than two-thirds of green cards issued will go to family members. Even after family backlogs are cleared and the rebalancing of visas is complete, there will be more family-based green cards issued than merit-based green cards.
The Bill Will Help Keep The U.S. Competitive In The Global Economy By Establishing A New Merit-Based System For Immigration That Is Similar To Those Used By Other Countries. Under the merit-based system, future immigrants applying for permanent residency in the U.S. will be assigned points for attributes that further our national interest, including: skills and work experience, with added points for U.S. employment in a specialty or high-demand field; education, with added points for training in science, math, and technology; employer endorsement; ability to speak English; and family ties to the U.S.
Once The Backlogs Of Employment-Based Applicants And Family-Based Applicants Are Cleared, There Will Be 380,000 Green Cards Available Under The Merit-Based System – Up From 140,000 Employment-Based Green Cards Today. This is a 170 percent increase over the current level of employment-based green cards, reforming our system from one in which about 13 percent of green cards are employment-based to one in which about 32 percent of green cards are issued through the merit-based system. The Bill Includes A Large, Immediate Increase – From 65,000 Today To 115,000 For The First Year – In The H-1B Visa Cap For Skilled Foreign Workers. After the first year, the cap will rise and fall based on economic need, allowing it to adjust up to as high as 180,000.
5) The Bill Will Create A Temporary Worker Program To Alleviate Pressure On The Border And Provide The U.S. Economy With An Efficient Mechanism To Match The Skills Of Willing Foreign Workers To The Demands Of Available Jobs.
Under The Senate Bill, A Temporary Worker Program Will Allow U.S. Law Enforcement To Focus More Of Its Resources On Apprehending Violent Criminals And Terrorists Who Pose A Threat To Our Security. The temporary worker program will help reduce the number of people trying to sneak across our borders by providing a lawful and orderly channel for foreign workers to fill the jobs that Americans are not doing.
This Temporary Worker Program Has The Toughest Labor Standards And The Most Robust Protections For U.S. Workers Of Any Existing U.S. Nonimmigrant Worker Program.
Before hiring a temporary worker under the bill, an employer must first try to recruit U.S. workers for 90 days – three times longer than any other temporary worker program.
Temporary workers under the bill must be paid the prevailing competitive wage, which is based on the wages paid to U.S. workers, and ensures that the wages of U.S. workers cannot be undercut.
It's blackmail and he hardly even attempts to conceal it.
If he would have said: "Give me my amnesty bill or I will refuse to enforce immigration laws and jeopardize the nation's security", it would have meant the same exact thing.
Has he not read this d*mn bill? Or is he just lying again?
Bush = miserable failure (libs got that right ... but for all the wrong reasons, imnsho)
Good idea. Or maybe he should spend a night IN the shadows of some neighborhood overrun by illegals.
BARF ALERT!!! Sorry George, but NO SALE!! You are a disgusting New England elitest of the worst order. You used the people of TEXAS to get what you wanted—no borders and the ruination of America.
Shame on you.
My “tar and feathers” comment is obviously too much for the moderator. Why? I know why. So should you.
My “tar and feathers” comment is obviously too much for the moderator. Why? I know why. So should you.
Illegal Aliens contributions to the U.S.A.:
1. Diseases
2. Gangs
3. Drugs
4. Crime
5. Poverty
6. “Press 1 for English”
Declaring them legal won’t fix this!
The REAL Top 5 reasons President Bush, Ted Kennedy, and assorted leftist Democrats and RINOs want this abominable bill passed:
1) Passage will allow the fat cats, whose opinions are more important than those of the average American citizen, to save a lot of money by employing ever cheaper labor.
2) Passage will speed up the day when it will be nearly impossible to elect actual conservatives to office, other than in a handful of isolated districts. We’ll become more like California, where hardcore leftist Democrats are dominant, other than the occasional election of a moderate-to-liberal Republican such as Governor Arnold. Actual conservatives now can only win in California in a few districts. Thus, the state which once elected Ronald Reagan twice as governor, and which went GOP in every presidential election from the end of the New Deal to 1988 (except for 1964), is now a Marxist enclave within our borders. Won’t America be a better place if the other states follow California’s example?
3) Passage will drive racism and bigotry from our political arena, replacing the ugly, hateful voices of nativists with those of La Raza, MECHA, and assorted Muslim groups.
4) Passage will help unify America and Mexico (as well as Canada) into a North American Union. Once enough Mexicans populate the Southwest, and dominate politics from Texas to California and all points in between, we can announce that America and Mexico are already de facto merged. Why not bring the merger out of the shadows and make the union de jure?
5) Passage will prompt tens of millions of minorities to vote Republican. Okay, actually it won’t, but it will earn everyone who votes for passage a nice, favorable write-up in the New York Times for helping to destroy the Republican Party.
I am a natural citizen of the US of voting age and have served honorably in our armed forces. I have voted Republican my entire voting life (I am currently registered with the Constitution Party) and I voted for you twice. I have supported most all of your policies.
First and foremost, The bill is at best, at odds with itself as it combines enforcement with amnesty, and at worst, is a give away of US sovereignty and American tax dollars.
I should like address a few items listed in you your speech that I have deep concerns with. There are many.
1) The Bill Contains Tough New Border Security And Enforcement Measures.
a) America presently has legislation in place which addresses every item the point addresses with fines and penalties that are NOT enforced - Please enforce them.
b) This bill transfers a substantial amount of power to the DHS.
2) The Bill Will Give Employers The Tools They Need To Verify The Work Eligibility Of Their Employees. Today, we have an entire underground industry dedicated to producing fake IDs and fraudulent Social Security numbers. If this bill is not passed, the problems of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act would persist – employers would continue operating under a system in which they have only a limited ability to tell whether documentation is authentic.
a) This point should not be addressed in an illegal immigration bill as it should be part of enforcement.
3) The Bill Will Bring As Many As 12 Million Current Undocumented Workers Out Of The Shadows. If the bill is not passed, these workers would remain in the shadows of our society, where they are often exploited, underpaid, and afraid to go to the police for fear of deportation.
a) These people are in the "shadows" because they are lawbreakers. They are not "Undocumented Workers", they are ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS" and, according to your very own words, "We are a nation of laws" are subject to prosecution.
b) This entire point as stated is nothing less amnesty for 12 million illegal immigrants.
c) Point "a" render the remainder of your point unpalatable for discussion.
4) The Bill Will Clear The Current Family Backlog And Reform The Immigration System To Better Balance The Importance Of Family Connections With U.S. Economic Needs. Currently, applicants wait up to 30 years for green cards. In addition, our immigration system places far too little emphasis on the skills and attributes necessary to fill the needs of our growing economy and further the national interest.
a) Declaring our immigration laws null and void will do this for you. It is beyond my comprehension how something like this can even be thought by an American let alone enacted by a sitting president - I am embarrassed for you.
5) The Bill Will Create A Temporary Worker Program To Alleviate Pressure On The Border And Provide The U.S. Economy With An Efficient Mechanism To Match The Skills Of Willing Foreign Workers To The Demands Of Available Jobs.
a) If it is necessary to increase the number of workers in America, a very simple solution is increase the number of "green cards" issued. Again, we have existing legislation to allow for this.
In conclusion Mr. President, having read this bill and listened to your speech, I have come to the realization that this bill will in my opinion open the way for abuse by the DHS, gut the People's treasury, destroy the sovereignty of the US and open the way for the American Union (conspiracy theory right Mr. President), which the People do not want.
I mean to say Mr. President, I disagree with this legislation and I will fight you over this.
Reason # 6: I don’t get my cushy “consultant” gig with Big Business if I don’t get this passed on my watch.
BUSH NEEDS TO STFU AND SEAL THE BORDERS. WE WERE ALL DUPED INTO VOTING FOR THIS GLOBALIST WHO COULD CARE LESS ABOUT AMERICA, ITS CITIZENS AND OUR SECURITY/WELFARE FROM TERRORISTS AND CRIMINAL ALIENS.
“Nobody listens to me any more; my duck is lame; I want to be remembered fondly; my daddy needs me to help him and Bill raise money; I’m getting senile.”
PS... when the light bulbs quit shining it's time to replace those burned out lamps.
Need to be improved? President Bush how can you possibly know that existing laws that are not being enforced need to be improved?
How 'bout living up to the oath of office you took and just enforcing the existing laws? You might be surprised at how much that would help.
I agree with the President.
The status quo we would be left with is a President who will NOT ENFORCE THE LAWS ON THE BOOKS! This is clearly an unacceptable status quo. But the solution is to not reward his bad behavior by giving him what he wants. It’s to stop him hopefully long enough until he’s forced to make way for the new occupant.
Until then, JUST SHUT UP, Mr. President. I don’t think I’ve ever told a sitting President to do that before, and I despised Clinton. BUT I’ve had it with Bush. i just want him to go live in those Shawdows he speaks of and let the rest of us have some peace.
We read the words of President Bush regarding the Secure Fence Act 2006. I thought Texans pride themselves in keeping their words? Your words and promises are in vain today El Presidente...read and weep. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061026-1.html
At this point, I want to hear only two things from Bush: 1. He's pulling the bill and building the fence and 2. The bombing of Iran starts in 5 minutes, preferably with the parody of the Beach Boys "Barbara Ann" playing in the background.
Otherwise, tread water and shut up.
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