Posted on 05/18/2007 7:48:14 PM PDT by neverdem
Here’s the section-by-section breakdown of the just-announced Senate deal on illegal immigration given to us by a Senate source. We haven’t had the time to analyze it yet, but we’ll be back with the fast, concise and hard details on what appears to be an horrifically bad deal.
Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2007
Title I Title I requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to certify that the triggers are met before the Title IV (Guest Worker) and Title VI (Z visa ) programs can begin, with the exception of probationary status for Z workers and the programs for agricultural workers.
• Triggers include: o 18,000 (CBP) Border Patrol hired o Construction of 200 miles of vehicle barriers and 370 miles of fencing o 70 ground-based radar and camera towers along the southern border o Deployment of 4 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and supporting systems o The ending of catch-and-release o Resources to detain up to 27,500 aliens per day on an annual basis o The use of secure and effective identification tools to prevent unauthorized work. o The receiving and processing and adjudicating of applications for Z status.
• Title I also includes authorities and resources to augment border security including: o physical infrastructure along the border o additional field and investigative agents o comprehensive plans and studies of the border region o revisions to law enforcement techniques and enhanced authorities.
Title II Title II provides for interior enforcement of immigration laws.
• The stiffening of laws and penalties relate to: o the detention of criminal aliens o the definition of aggravated felony o gang violence o passport, visa, and immigration fraud, including marriage fraud o the streamlining of background checks for immigration status
• Other provisions include language regarding: o Increased penalties for illegally entry and reentry o encouraging aliens to depart voluntarily o prohibiting aliens to possess firearms o alternatives to detention o state and local law enforcement reimbursement and training
Title III Title III addresses workplace enforcement by increasing penalties, revising and making mandatory a system of electronic employment verification, and promoting information sharing.
• This Title designs a worksite enforcement system that relies on electronic employment verification and a reduced list of documents that may be presented to employers to prove identity and work eligibility. o Also increases penalties significantly over current law for unlawful hiring, employment, and recordkeeping violations.
• Verification of employees: As of the date of enactment, employers in national security-related industries, industries involving critical infrastructure, and federal contractors to electronically verify employees, including new hires and/or current employees may be required to verify individuals, with additional employers or industries added after 6 months. o All employers would be required to electronically verify new hires within 18 months of enactment, or on the date on which the Secretary certifies that the system is operational. o Once the system is implemented, all employers would be required to verify all current employees within by 3 years after enactment.
• Structure of the EEVS: After the date of hire but no later than the first day of employment, the employer must transmit to the EEVS via the Internet the data that the employer has taken from the worker’s identity and work eligibility documents.
• Inconclusive determinations: Where the EEVS cannot conclusively determine the status of a worker’s eligibility, a further action notice is issued and the individual must contact the appropriate federal or state agency to initiate resolution of status and the individual continues to work while the agency resolves his or her status.
• Final nonconfirmation: If the employer has received a final non-confirmation regarding an individual, the employer must terminate the employment of the individual, unless the individual files an administrative appeal of a final non-confirmation notice within 15 days.
• Data and Information Sharing: The Commissioner of Social Security must provide the following information to the Secretary of DHS regarding data contained within the Social Security database as in relates to employment verification.
• Fraud and tamper resistant social security cards: Not later than 180 days after date of enactment, the Commissioner is required to begin work to administer and issue fraud-resistant, tamper-resistant Social Security cards.
Title IV Title IV establishes a new temporary Y worker program to address future labor needs of temporary foreign workers and discourage future illegal employment of undocumented individuals. The title also includes measures to protect the rights of U.S. and foreign workers and prevent the U.S. employer from abusing the program.
• Structure of new visa programs: This title creates a new future temporary worker program for workers who are coming to the U.S. to perform temporary job that the U.S. employer is unable to fill. It provides for: o non-seasonal Y temporary worker (Y-1 visa) o seasonal temporary worker
Y-2A for agricultural workers, sheepherder, goat herders, and dairy workers
Y-2B for non-agricultural workers; and
o their spouses and minor children (Y-3 visa).
• Matching Willing Workers with Willing Employers: All Y workers must be matched to a “willing employers” through an electronic database in order to qualify for a Y worker visa.
• Families of Y visa holders: can only accompany Y workers if the worker can: o show proof of valid medical insurance and o demonstrate that the wages of the principal Y nonimmigrant(s) are 150% above poverty level for the household size. o Spouses and children who do not qualify for Y-3 visa may be admitted under other nonimmigrant status.
• Period of admission: A Y-1 worker can be admitted for a two year period that can be renewed twice if that worker spends a period of one year outside the United States between each admission. o A Y-1 accompanied by dependents are afforded a single two year visa, non-renewable. o Workers with Y-2A and Y-2B visa qualify for 10 month visas; no extensions may be granted.
• Permanent Bar: Y worker who fails to timely depart is permanently barred from any future immigration benefit.
• Wage: The employer must attest that the Y worker will be paid not less than the greater of the actual wage paid by the employer to all other similarly situated workers or the “prevailing competitive wage.”
• Numerical Limitation: The Y-1 visa program has an initial cap of 400,000 with yearly adjustments based on market fluctuations. o There are no numerical limitations for Y-2A while the Y-2B visas are initially capped at 100,000 with yearly adjustment based on market fluctuations. o The market-based fluctuation is adjusted every 6 months during the fiscal year. o The Y-3 visa for spouses and minor children limit may not exceed 20% of annual limit for Y-1 visas. o A newly created Standing Commission will make recommendations to Congress regarding the Y visa numerical cap for each fiscal year following the initial year of the program
Title V Title V restructures and rebalances the current system by which green cards are distributed.
• Rebalancing of Immigrant Visa Allocation: Resets the number of family-based, family backlog, merit-based immigrants, and eventual Z immigration green cards. o The family categories are less than under current law since several of the extended family categories are reduced, while the merit-based is increased over the current employment-based levels after the processing of the family-based backlog. o An annual total of 440,000 visas are allotted to process the backlog of family-based categories eliminated. o It is estimated that the family backlog cases can all be processed in 8 years. o An annual total of 10,000 visas are set aside for exceptional Y workers.
• Merit Based Points System: The current employment based green card system will be replaced by a merit based points system.
• Reducing Chain Migration and Permitting Petitions by Nationals: Elimination and reconfiguring of the following family-based preference categories: o First: Unmarried Sons and Daughters of Citizens o Second: Unmarried Sons and Daughters of Permanent Residents other than spouses and minor children of permanent residents o Third: Married Sons and Daughters of Citizens o Fourth: Brothers and Sisters of Adult Citizens o Sets cap of 40,000 per fiscal year on category for parents of U.S. citizens. o Sets cap of 87,000 per fiscal year on the second preference category for spouses and children of permanent residents.
• Elimination of Backlog: If the family-based visa petition in the eliminated category is filed before May 1, 2005, the petition can be processed under the prior law within 8 year.
Title VI This title provides a new visa for most individuals currently living within the U.S. illegally.
• Creates a new four-year, renewable “Z” nonimmigrant visa to address the undocumented population within the U.S. The visa is split up into three groups: o a principal or employed alien (Z-1), o the spouse or elderly parent of that alien (Z-2), o and the minor children of that alien (Z-3).
• Cut off Date: In order to be eligible for this visa, one must have been illegally present within the U.S. before January 1, 2007.
• Fees and Penalties: To apply, an alien seeking Z-1 status must be currently employed and pay fees and penalties totaling $5,000 (less for derivative Z’s) to be eligible for a green card under the merit-based system.
• Probationary, the Permanent Z Status: Once an applicant submits a completed application, fingerprints, and is cleared by one-day background checks he will receive probationary benefits which can eventually be converted to a Z nonimmigrant status after all background checks are clear and the triggers set forth in Title I are achieved.
• LPR Status: A Z-1 nonimmigrant may adjust status to lawful permanent residence after the family backlog under Title V is eliminated if the Z applicant: o Satisfies the merit requirements in the points schedule set forth in Title V. o files the application for adjustment in the Z-1’s country of origin and o pays a penalty of $4,000.
• DREAM ACT: Individuals under the age of 30 that were brought to the United States out of their own control as a minor are eligible to receive their green card after 3 years rather than 8.
Title VII Title VII includes a number of miscellaneous provisions involving assimilation, including increased funding for the office of citizenship and integration ($100M)
Mr. Babbin is the editor of Human Events. He previously served as a deputy undersecretary of defense in President George H.W. Bush's administration. He is the author (with Edward Timperlake) of "Showdown: Why China Wants War with the United States" (Regnery, 2006) and "Inside the Asylum: Why the UN and Old Europe are Worse than You Think" (Regnery, 2004). E-mail him at jbabbin@eaglepub.com.
It’s what he did at the start of his Presidency....on education.
The writing should have been on the wall then, but for many, it wasn’t....he snookered so many (including myself); but, I’ve long shaken myself out of that stupor.
He’s a traitor to the Constitution, in many ways. I am only thankful for one thing: Alito and, so far, Roberts...and that was through arm-twisting.
Where are the details on who’s going to pay for the increased Social Security, medical care, Welfare, schools, prisons, insurance (due to more un-insured)? Will a 100% increase in our current tax rates cover it? I doubt it.
Do you know how many times President Bush and Chertoff have stood before news cameras saying they had already ended catch and release?
I believe that if Fred came out swinging in opposition to this Bill, his ratings would skyrocket. Seeing the groundswell of support, other candidates would fall in line and also come out in opposition. With this kind of public opposition, the Bill would wither and die in a matter of weeks.
George Bush is doing more damage to the GOP for 2008 than anything the Democrats can muster. To distance themselves from Bush (and his low public support), a Republican candidate for President needs to come out in STRONG opposition to this Bill.
First, enforcement is up to the executive branch. The 'machinery' would have to do away with our current political system....Dems and REpubs...shake 'em up and they all come out the same.
Do you know who destroyed Prop. 187? And the reform of 1996? The very same people who have crafted this legislation for the Bush Administration.
Namely Cesar Conda, former domestic policy advisor for Cheney
and Grover Norquist, Bush's main immigration man, whose brother David Norquist is Chief Financial Officer at the Department of Homeland Security. His wife also works for Bush at USAID, a palestinian Muslim.
And that's the sad truth of it.
Cesar Conda earned the wraith of the Ludwig von Mises Institute: “Joining in this richly-funded campaign of hysteria and smear was the entire official libertarian (or Left-libertarian) movement, including virtually every “free-market” and “libertarian” think tank except the Mises Institute. ... For their part, the neo-conservative and official libertarian think tanks joined the elite condemnation of Prop. 187. Working closely with Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute, Cesar Conda of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution circulated a statement against the measure that was signed by individuals at the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Manhattan Institute, the Reason Foundation, and even the Competitive Enterprise Institute.” [13]
(http://www.mises.org/econsense/postscript.asp#p407) _____________________
In a letter to the WSJ signed with Grover Norquist, Tamar Jacoby, Newt Gingrich, Cesar Conda and others he promoted Bush/Kennedy Amnesty as the only workable approach.
snip] The Wall Street Journal February 6, 2004 Welcome to America
President Bush has proposed a new legal path to work in the U.S. through a temporary worker program that will match willing workers with willing employers. We applaud the president and believe his approach holds great promise to reduce illegal immigration and establish a humane, orderly, and economically sensible approach to migration that will aid homeland security and free up border-security assets to focus on genuine threats. The president has shown courage by calling on Congress to place reality over rhetoric and recognize that those already working here outside the law are unlikely to leave. Congress can fulfill its role by establishing sufficient increases in legal immigration and paths to permanent residence to enable more workers to stay, assimilate, and become part of America.
Immigrants are crucial to our competitiveness and future labor and economic growth, as well as our military strength. Our country’s welcoming attitude to immigrants will permit the U.S. to grow and prosper, as the populations of many other nations stagnate and decline.
Co-authored by Stuart Anderson, Jeff Bell, Linda Chavez, Larry Cirignano, Cesar V. Conda, Francis Fukuyama, Richard Gilder, Newt Gingrich, Ed Goeas, Tamar Jacoby, Jack Kemp, Steve Moore, Grover Norquist, Richard W. Rahn and Malcolm Wallop http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/2007/02/newt-gingrich-conservative-not-on.html
Why does every "solution" lately out of Washington sound like something that a police state would be enacting?
This is putting the cart before the horse. We have all of these illegals here, and the only solution is that we have to prove we are legal (probably by means of our biometric Real-ID, I bet) or be fired?
"Your papers, please, 'citizen'."
After a while, probably not. In the beginning it will be the status symbol for drug smugglers and terrorists.
For then $5,000.00 is nothing. They will snap them up.
This July, Georgia will have the toughest illegal alien bill in the country. It is already proving to work, the illegals are leaving because the jobs are going away. If this bill passes, it will supercede the Georgia bill and render it useless. Enforcement of the current laws works, we just don’t do it.
Triggers include: 18,000 (CBP) Border Patrol hired — This provision is not funded. It is meaningless. They have had problems hiring and training 3,000 new agents in a year. About 1,000 is all they can manage. Meanwhile, agents are quitting faster than they’re being hired because of the danger of being prosecuted for doing their jobs. This cannot occur as promised. There is simply no way they can hire and train that many new agents so quickly.
Resources to detain up to 27,500 aliens per day — Again, this is not funded. Another totally empty promise. Where are the holding facilities?
Increased penalties for illegally entry and reentry — the existing penalties aren’t being enforced. Why should anyone believe the “increased” penalties will be?
...designs a worksite enforcement system that relies on electronic employment verification — Ha, ha. the government has been trying to do this for more than 10 years, spending billions, and none of its sytems work. Although credit card companies can manage to do basically the same thing, government can’t. This is more pie-in-the-sky.
The employer must attest that the Y worker will be paid not less than the greater of the actual wage paid by the employer to all other similarly situated workers or the “prevailing competitive wage — Oh, yeah. This was the whole premise of the H1B visa, and it IS A BIG LIE. Hundreds of thousands of Americans, perhaps millions, have been laid off after training their visa-holding replacements who work for a third of the salary, isn’t that right, Bill Gates?
In order to be eligible for this Z visa, one must have been illegally present within the U.S. before January 1, 2007. — Whole new industry in fraudlent documents showong illegal presence prior to 1-1-07.
Individuals under the age of 30 that were brought to the United States out of their own control as a minor are eligible to receive their green card after 3 years rather than 8. — Just more incedntive for illegals to bring their benefit-sucking kids along.
What a bill of goods.
Alternatively, "Your papers, please, 'subject'."
Either way, how would you propose to deal with Mohammed Atta's crew from September 11, 2001 to the Fort Dix Six, three of whom being illegal aliens? I don't like it, but what else can we do? I don't see how we can turn back the clock/calendar. Isn't the first duty of government to defend and protect the people? Globalization is here. What do you propose? I'm not trying to be a smart@ss.
This title creates a new future temporary worker program for workers who are coming to the U.S. to perform temporary job that the U.S. employer is unable to fill.
Oh great! Ask any IT person what the H1-B visas have done to wages in that industry. Now we will have equivalent visas for unskilled workers.
You are not being one. I don't have any pat answers, but I think that actions that smack of imposing a police state are wrong: I don't want our children to grow up in a country that once was free, but became a police state.
If it means that they will be somewhat more vulnerable to terrorists who exploit the openness of a free society, then that seems better to me than the alternative --- at least they can defend themselves better against a few terrorists than against a repressive government.
I would rather trust my fellow citizens in a free country and be wrong about some minute percentage than put my trust in an all-encompassing, repressive government.
The employer can hire them if he has advertised the jobs at a fair wage.
Ask any IT pro how this has been abused by companies who hire under an H1-B visa.
My son was interviewing for a summer job with a local attorney. He went to court with him on Fri. The case was an illegal who had been arrested for driving without a license (second offence BTW) and was being held without bond while awaiting INS to come get him. The hearing was to try to get bond set. The attorney was arguing that it was against the illegals constitutional rights to be held without bond and the prosecutior said we’re not here to do INS’s job. My son left in disgust. No job there.
We live in a small town in NC and we’re over run with them.
Well I'm willing to give up in the war on drugs, which happens to be financing the Islamists. What I don't think we can do is ignore the fact that they want to destroy us. They seem perilously close to destroying Europe. With both Sunni and Shia chanting "Death to America," I don't see how we can avoid them.
My information is that Prop 187 was declared unconstitutional by our liberal courts out here, and when the Democrats took control of the Governship, they declined to continue the fight up to the Supreme Court. Governor Gray Davis said he was just going to accept the decisions that stood at the time he took office.
All those other people you blame in the Bush administration ... well, the "Bush's fault" mantra won't work here with me as Bush wasn't involved in the decision of Gov. Gray Davis (Democrat) back in the 1990's.
Your local population in Georgia is willing to back law enforcement. We don’t have that advantage here.
But you do point to a keep factor in the enforcement of laws, that first the local population has to be convinced and behind it, and willing to call in tips to the police or ICE, and then willing not to hassle the cops or the local politicians when they do enforce the law.
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