Posted on 12/07/2005 9:40:00 AM PST by Smogger
WASHINGTON -- Setting the stage for a bitter pre-Christmas fight, top House lawmakers introduced legislation Tuesday that would make it easier to deport legal -- as well as illegal -- immigrants and mandate a $360 million employee verification program. But despite insistence from President Bush that any immigration measure must also create a way for America's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants to temporarily live and work in the United States, the bill does not include such a provision. And while Democrats and some Republicans assailed the bill -- by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., and Peter King, R-N.Y. -- as impractical, they acknowledged the House will likely pass it.
Meanwhile, the Senate is expected to pass its own immigration legislation -- including a guest-worker provision that would address Bush's demands -- virtually ensuring an even more acrimonious debate next year when the House and Senate try to mesh legislation.
"The House may very well pass a totally unworkable proposal that will make some people feel good and give them a platform to demagogue on," said Rep. Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys.
But immigration-control advocates hailed the measure -- particularly its employment verification provisions -- as long overdue.
"This bill is actually worth talking about because it's not a smoke screen," said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank that advocates a reduction in immigration.
"If it didn't have this but it had increased penalties for things like alien smuggling, it would be irrelevant, a cover for amnesty," he said.
"This bill does all the right things," added Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks.
Under the House bill, all business owners would be required to verify the eligibility of every employee.
Federal, state and local government employers -- as well as the military and private employers at critical infrastructure sites like power plants -- would have three years to check the eligibility status of their employees.
All other businesses would have six years. Verification would be done through the Department of Homeland Security.
Gallegly said he will introduce an amendment that would force employers at critical infrastructure sites to start verifying within six months.
Sensenbrenner aides said creating mandatory employee verification, which now exists as a voluntary pilot program, would cost about $60 million a year over six years.
The bill also contains several provisions that would make it easier to deport illegal immigrants, including making illegal presence in the United States a felony.
Currently, while entering the United States illegally is a crime, merely being in the country illegally is only a civil offense. Aides said approximately 40 percent of all illegal immigrants entered legally and overstayed visas.
The House Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on the bill Thursday. But advocates on both sides of the issue are questioning why GOP leaders are insistent on pushing through legislation now on an issue that has raised hackles for decades.
"The leadership wants Republican congressmen to go home over Christmas break and be able to say they're doing something about this," Krikorian said.
Start building the fence.
It should be made a felony for Criminals who overstay their visas and Invaders.
I believe we should give amnesty to these poor CRIMINALS or INVADERS.
This should be a 2 week amnesty to get the heck out of our Country.
The ones who ignore this amnesty should be buried in a tent city jail and fined $10,000 or buried elsewhere.
All aiders and abettors of these CRIMINALS or INVADERS should get 1 year in a tent city jail and a $10,000 fine for each CRIMINAL aided.
Those in government should be the first ones charged.
See post 41
There are some 18 to 25 million illegals in this country who own doc a big thank you. After all he and other legal immigrants are the ones jumping through the hoops and paying the cost so the illegals can ignore the law.
So if everyone wanted in regardless, illegal or not, they should be let in????
GWB had the "political capital" after 9/11 to do something about this abomination. He did not and by all measures made it far worse.
What a slap in the face to legal immigrants going through the legal process!
Illegals should be given 180 days to get out. After that, no welfare, no SS, no education, no medication, no subsidies, out. Go home, apply legally, wait in line like everyone else.
If a few landscape contractors are upset about it, who cares?
If so how? I'm not against making illegal immigration a felony, at least if the immigrants don't immediately turn themselves in if they are comming to seek aslyum.
I just don't see how making it a felony will reduce the many bottlenecks in deporting illegal aliens.
Under the House bill, all business owners would be required to verify the eligibility of every employee.
They already are. Why is this proposal going to work better than the last ones in that area? The IRS already knows when they are given a invalid Social Security Number or one that doesn't match the name, but they don't do anything about it, and if they did our courts don't have the ability to process more deportation hearings.
Sounds like more meaningless pandering to the anti-business crowd.
All other businesses would have six years. Verification would be done through the Department of Homeland Security.
More bloat and beaurocracy. You should need a SSN and a valid government ID to get a job, and that's it.
Make the IRS do their job and make the government do it's job when issuing identification and the problem is solved. We don't need the DHS collecting more data about citizens.
The bill also contains several provisions that would make it easier to deport illegal immigrants, including making illegal presence in the United States a felony.
I guess I need to find a copy of this bill and read it. I just don't see how making illegal immigration a felony makes it easier to deport illegal immigrants. It's probably not a bad idea, though I distrustful of the government's tendency to make more and more things felonies.
I find it really irritating that the media doesn't like to a copy of the bill in question or at least provide a bill number. I suspect they don't even read the bill and just write their stories based or press releases and statements by legislators which are often misleading.
Journalism appears to have become nearly a lost art.
Aides said approximately 40 percent of all illegal immigrants entered legally and overstayed visas.
That's something I didn't know. It means that border security imporvements can help significantly, but without efforts in the interior of the country as well, we're not going to make the kind of progress we need to make.
The House Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on the bill Thursday. But advocates on both sides of the issue are questioning why GOP leaders are insistent on pushing through legislation now on an issue that has raised hackles for decades.
Maybe they started listening to their constituants. Maybe the Minutemen have been successful at getting the public focused on this issue.
In a bid to bypass critics, the Senate will pass the plan and then merge it with a House bill, observers say.Washington - Republican leaders will try to pass President Bush's controversial guest-worker proposal without putting it to a direct vote in the House.
Observers say the new GOP strategy that begins today is for the House to deal only with the more politically palatable issue of increasing border security and clamping down on employers. Republican leaders then will let the Senate pass some form of a guest-worker plan.
[snip]
I talked to a 60 something Russian woman the other day on the internet. She was madder than hell because she travels to Florida from Russia twice a year and nobody speaks english.
It's sad but funny. She said she wasted a heap of money to learn english so she could get along where everybody speaks spanish.
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Support our Minutemen Patriots!
Be Ever Vigilant ~ Bump!
No Shiite! I am so sick of these damned people changing this culture. English is the language of business and commerce yet we have to endure such obscenities on a daily basis.
Again????????????????
I heard a guy on the radio the other day say we should use illegals (because of their construction skills) to build the wall across our southern border. Last one out, shut the door!
"So if everyone wanted in regardless, illegal or not, they should be let in????
GWB had the "political capital" after 9/11 to do something about this abomination. He did not and by all measures made it far worse."
""Bill would speed up deporting illegal migrants (makes illegal entry a FELONY!)""
This is the title of this article, WHO passes legislation and WHO allocates the funding???? Constitutionally speaking the Congress does, if the President has no authority or no dollars he can't do squat.
Congress could demand that every illegal be shipped out tomorrow, however thy must provide the funding for the shipping to take place. Have you contacted your congressperson and your senators???? Let them know how much they have screwed up this country????
It is fruitless. I live in NY and my congressscum is Nita Lowey.
The president can propose legislation and lobby for it. Remember the Drug Bill and No Child Left Behind???
Isn't it wonderful.
Sadly, I agree with you. He turned his back on America long ago.
I thought it was already a felony.
Thanks for the comments. The frustrating part is that my labor certification was shunted to a backlog reduction center and it's been almost a year without even getting a reciept. Turns out that the funding for the backlog reduction center has been divereted to cover the mandated 60 day processing of the new PERM system. Can't switch to the new system until the receipt has been issued (300,000 people waiting, too) and the process would cost me $5K just to re-initiate under the new system and that's after almost $5K has already been spent. Plus, my wife can't work until we get our EAD's so, like it or not, I'm the sole bread winner until the immigration stuff gets settled. At least she can go to school to keep busy.
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