FReeper Amendments to the Immigration Reform Bill

Free Republic ^ | Thursday, January 8, 2004 | Free Republic

[Momaw Nadon]

On Wednesday, January 7, 2003, President Bush proposed a reform of our nation's immigration system. It is clearly obvious that the immigration plan proposed by the President has not been received well at all by most conservatives and Republicans.

The bad news is that the plan proposed seems to be a backdoor form of amnesty for illegal immigrants.

The good news is that this is not an Executive Order. It is instead a request to the Congress to come up with a bill that addresses the problem of illegal immigration. The silver lining is that President Bush has put the illegal immigration problem on the table.

Our Founders wisely chose to form a government with the separation of powers, where the Congress writes and passes laws. It is not done just by a proclamation of the President.

President Bush has proposed an outline of an immigration plan to Congress. The bill has not yet become law.

Here are some highlights of the President's proposal:

• America must control its borders.

• Our borders should be open to legal travel and honest trade.

• Our borders should be shut and barred tight to criminals, to drug traders, to drug traffickers and to criminals, and to terrorists.

• New immigration laws should serve the economic needs of our country.

• We should not give unfair rewards to illegal immigrants in the citizenship process or disadvantage those who came here lawfully, or hope to do so.

• New laws should provide incentives for temporary, foreign workers to return permanently to their home countries after their period of work in the United States has expired.

• All who participate in the temporary worker program must have a job, or, if not living in the United States, a job offer.

• The legal status granted by this program will last three years and will be renewable -- but it will have an end.

• Participants who do not remain employed, who do not follow the rules of the program, or who break the law will not be eligible for continued participation and will be required to return to their home.

• Employers who extend job offers must first make every reasonable effort to find an American worker for the job at hand.

• Employers must not hire undocumented aliens or temporary workers whose legal status has expired.

• Employers must report to the government the temporary workers they hire, and who leave their employ, so that we can keep track of people in the program, and better enforce immigration laws.

• There must be strong workplace enforcement with tough penalties for anyone, for any employer violating these laws.

• Undocumented workers now here will be required to pay a one-time fee to register for the temporary worker program.

• Those who seek to join the program from abroad, and have complied with our immigration laws, will not have to pay any fee.

• All participants will be issued a temporary worker card that will allow them to travel back and forth between their home and the United States without fear of being denied re-entry into our country.

• This program expects temporary workers to return permanently to their home countries after their period of work in the United States has expired. And there should be financial incentives for them to do so.

• The President will work with foreign governments on a plan to give temporary workers credit, when they enter their own nation's retirement system, for the time they have worked in America. The President will also support making it easier for temporary workers to contribute a portion of their earnings to tax-preferred savings accounts, money they can collect as they return to their native countries.

• Some temporary workers will make the decision to pursue American citizenship. Those who make this choice will be allowed to apply in the normal way. They will not be given unfair advantage over people who have followed legal procedures from the start.

• The administration will work with the Congress to increase the annual number of green cards that can lead to citizenship.

• In the process of immigration reform, we must also set high expectations for what new citizens should know. We must ensure that new citizens know not only the facts of our history, but the ideals that have shaped our history. Every citizen of America has an obligation to learn the values that make us one nation: liberty and civic responsibility, equality under God, and tolerance for others.

• Our homeland will be more secure when we can better account for those who enter our country, instead of the current situation in which millions of people are unknown, unknown to the law.

• Decent, hard-working people will now be protected by labor laws, with the right to change jobs, earn fair wages, and enjoy the same working conditions that the law requires for American workers.

• Temporary workers will be able to establish their identities by obtaining the legal documents we all take for granted. And they will be able to talk openly to authorities, to report crimes when they are harmed, without the fear of being deported.

• The best way, in the long run, to reduce the pressures that create illegal immigration in the first place is to expand economic opportunity among the countries in our neighborhood.

Above are the basic elements of President Bush's proposal for immigration reform, the good, the bad, and the ugly. NOTHING IS SET IN STONE.

When this Immigration Bill gets to Congress, it will need to be heavily amended.

I am asking my fellow FReepers to propose Amendments to the Immigration Reform Bill that will transform the bill from a disaster to a fine piece of legislation.

I am aware that several members of Congress, and their staffs, as well as members of the media read Free Republic.

Let us use our imagination and creativity to set forth ideas and Amendments that will guide our Representatives in Congress to crafting and passing an Immigration Reform Bill that we can all be proud of.

IF YOU HAVE AN IDEA OR SUGGESTION THAT WILL IMPROVE THE IMMIGRATION BILL, PLEASE CONTRIBUTE THEM, AS THEY ARE WELCOME.

This is intended to be a constructive thread. Personal attacks, racism, insulting or flame baiting ARE NOT WELCOME.

[WOSG]

Great thread!

Bump for inputs later.

[The_Eaglet]

The Immigration Bill must be enforceable. If an individual or a corporation violates the law, appropriate punishment MUST happen. This bill must be properly funded to ensure enforcement.

A baby born to an illegal immigrant should not automatically be granted citizenship.

Once the time has passed for guest workers to officially register to be in the United States legally, all other illegals who did not register must be deported immediately.

I agree with these points above. I don't disagree with the items that I didn't paste. They aren't bad ideas, but I agree much more strongly with the quoted points.

I agree with the Constitution Party that the federal government should restore immigration policies based on the practice that potential immigrants will be disqualified from admission to the U.S. if, on the grounds of health, criminality, morals, or financial dependence, they would impose an improper burden on the United States, any state, or any citizen of the United States.

[stopem]

May I suggest that social security be taken off the table and not awarded to them under any circumstances. Perhaps a privatized program would be in order since it would involve other countries participants.

I am assuming that SS would be deducted from their paychecks.

Social security is a main issue for me and my family and as legal citizens in this country we feel strong about its survival as we are senior citizens.

I beleive that there should be some sort of limit as to how many illegals will be allowed into our country.

They should be investigated before acceptance into any worker program.

The jobs that will be posted should be visible for all Americans for a certain period of time.

Jobs outsourced to other countries such as mexico should be made to pay the same wages as American wages and be reciprocal in that if the companies will outsource they should have to abide by American laws.

Quite frankly I feel that the millions who are here should be made to go back home as it would be to costly to try to investigate each one who is here already, so if we would make the ones who are here to leave and than have some kind of program that would only allow ex amount to enter at a time, than investigated and than put to work and make the employers send in reports on these individuals as to work ethic, wages paid.

Our biggest concerns are that the ones who are here and the millions entering daily are a threat to national security and something must be done to stop them from entering right now.

Than I would ask how much this proposed program would cost.
And where is the money coming from?

I just heard on TV that immigration doesnt know how to make people leave, there is ONE CLEAR ANSWER to this and it is:
Tell all employers that they will be the ones to be arrested if they currently have an illegal worker working for them. Believe me that would flush them out immediately, than put them on a bus and get them out of here.

I dont beleive that they should be able to start out with a job being paid $12 an hour. American Teens start out working for $7 an hour

[hawk1]

1) No pseudo amnesties.
2) Could not obtain citizenship.
3) Only the worker, no families.
4) Employer pays for healthcare and other social costs.
5) Vigorous interior and border enforcement.
6) Caps.
7) Reduce legal immigration as well.


The list could go on and on. This would seem to be a good start.

[WOSG]

Great idea to post this - I have my own list, here it is.

Enforcement:
1. Abolish the EOIR, it is a failure of an agency; abolish the BIA that handles immigration 'appeals' as well. This system is not designed to deport aliens that deserve to be deported, it's designed to frustrate the enforcement of immigration law. Michelle Malkin suggests in her book "Invasion": "Finally, Attorney General John Ashcroft should abolish the Executive Office for Immigration Review and the Board of Immigration Appeals and transfer their functions to existing law enforcement officers within the immigration bureaucracy. ... Restoring integrity to the immigration process will require closing the loopholes and black holes into which so many fugitive absconders, criminal aliens, and unwelcome guests have disappeared. " - Michelle Malkin INS and Border Patrol Counsels could replace this byzantine process and administrative removal orders could simply be given administratively. Replace the agencies with law enforcement agents and lawyers who prosecute and win deportation cases rather than drag them out. Use the powers of Article III section 2 to repeal through law the ability to appeal deportation orders to death (and to the Supreme Court).
2. Fund the FBI's enforcement of immigration law so that it is a priority for the agency.
3. Increase funding and manpower of U.S. Border Patrol; If needed, assign US. military troops to help the Border Patrol regain control of our border. Use whatever is necessary and practical - fences, UAVs, motion detectors - to manage the borders so there are less border crossings.
4. Increase funding to enforce laws against employing illegal aliens
5. Create verifiable documentation for use in employment to stop documentation fraud. Set up a national database for document verification so document fraud is tracked down. Require employers to verify employment and hold employers responsible for hiring illegal aliens. " One simple change could put teeth into the law. Employers should be required to confirm that the Social Security number presented by a worker has in fact been issued to that worker. A computerized database, much like the nationwide instant-background check used to verify gun buyers, could handle that job easily. Such a database already exists, but it is seldom used. " - Jay Bookman
6. Pass laws and use verifiable documentation to end immigration benefit fraud as well. It is rampant (see the GAO, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0266.pdf)
7. Increase alien detention space so that aliens ready for deportation are held in detention and not released to the streets where they merely evade deportation.
8. Abolish 245(i) and other provisions of stealth amnesty that have been put there through law or court rulings. Criminal aliens should be deported without exceptions. For example, a loophole that gives women citizenship or LPR status for "spousal abuse" is an open invitation for fraud. Many men's lives have been destroyed by fraudulent allegations designed by illegal aliens to gain citizenship. End that loophole in 204(a)(1)(A)(iii) of the immigration act.
9. Give incentives and rewards to private citizens who turn in or report illegal aliens who are subsequently deported.
10. Encourage local law enforcement to enforce immigration law as well. (The CLEAR Act sponsored by Lamar Smith).

Changing the incentives for illegal aliens and immigration:
1. Granting automatic citizenship to the children of illegals born in the US must end. Children born here of foreigners should not automatically become US citizens, unless their parents are *legal* residents of this country.
2. End all federal public assistance to non-citizens except emergency health care Abolish requirements that hospitals must serve all those, including illegal aliens, who show up at emergency rooms. Per federal law (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act), no one can be turned away for basic emergency services. Amend it so labor (and health) services are not a Federal requirement unless the woman can show legal residency status. Having a child is not a life-threatening condition.
3. Abolish the adult parents and siblings of immigrants from getting in on family sponsorship and getting at the head of the line. End chain migration.
4. Defund federal bilingual education programs.
5. Prohibit affirmative action benefits for non-citizens

Lastly, follow the Tancredo bill in setting up any guest worker program. Make it a non-amnesty guest worker program, where the individual has to apply from the home country.

[Luis Gonzalez]

This is a great post, and a good thread. I disagree with you on two issues.

One is the idea that English should be made the "official" language of the United States. It should be made the official language of the U.S. government, but other than that, making it the official language of the nation would be challenged as unconstitutional, as First Amendment protection of freedom of speech extends itself unto idiom, not only that, but what purpose would it serve?

Immigrants wishing to become citizens should exhibit some level of English proficiency.

The second is the idea of redefining the Fourteenth Amendment, it would bog the bill down in legal challenges.

[WOSG]

"A law cannot even begin to shut down the borders any more than a law against murder stops murderers. We have immigration laws now that are being ignored."

Correction, we have laws on the books, but they are not being enforced - not by local law enforcement, not by the INS, not through a deportation system that literally makes a federal case out of every deportation, etc.

See my many points on how we can fix both the law and administrative enforcement in a previous post.

"You have to post armed guards all along that wall 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Those guards need vehicles, shacks & supervisors. Those supervisors need Managers. Those Managers need Directors, Those Directors need a Cabinet Level Secretary of the Border. That wall needs Maintanance."

Correct. But your scary scenario of a guard 'shack' every 500 feet is absurd. A secure fence that has motion-detectors and cameras doesnt need people so close, you just need to patrol to make sure the integrity of the fence is maintained. A force of 10,000 on a fence, along with the current 10,000 patrolling today (who have no fence to simplify their patrolling task) would do wonders. You only need the southern border covered (2,000 miles) and all but about 100 miles of that is very remote and very easy to manage IF THERE IS A FENCE (so the open borders creeps use the bogus arguments you use to defeat the sensible idea - had it been done when Buchanan suggested it in 1992, we likely would have a few million less illegal immigrants and tens of billions less in public services strain and costs.) And the cost of that fence, perhaps $500 million/year, would be a fraction of the $70 billion in welfare spent on immigrants overall and the several tens of billions spent on *illegal* immigrants and their families on public services.

Let me add a simple point: If all you did was create a system where a *verifiable and reliable* check of the validity of social security numbers, you could find literally hundreds of thousands if not millions of the working illegals. The law-breaking is so open and so widespread because the enforcement is so lax.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_16/b3829136.htm

It is a MYTH that this is about our borders alone. NOPE. The problem starts at the borders but doesnt end there. It's about how we FORCE hospitals and schools to treat and teach illegals without tracking them down or asking them to go back to their home country. It's about how many cities REFUSE to cooperate with federal law enforcement then turn around and DEMAND Federal compensation for the illegals in their cities (here that SanFran???). Its about an INS that is perverted in such a way to never want to deport *anyone*, even criminal aliens. Its about sanctions against employers that have become a JOKE and are never invoked and about rampant documentation fraud that is never enforced, corrected. Its about catch-and-release of visa overstayers that just makes the problem worse.

If we change the laws and the enforcement, we change behaviors.

[WOSG]

Right, but most of the specifics are statutory and there should be some way to introduce if not 'english-only' at least a pullback of our miseducation of children through bilingual education.

[WOSG]

I think jailing repeat border crossers may be expensive but it would increase the deterrent effect. probably best would be an agreement with Mexico where *they* hold them for some time, say a few months, if they try a repeated crossing.

[WOSG]

3. Mexico must reimburse the U.S. for any health benefits they receive in the United States (such as emergency trips to the hospital).

This is a good one. We should bill the country of origin for the healthcare of non-Americans. Good idea.

[WOSG]

"Maybe the way to defeat it is to rewrite the bill and amend it to the point that it effectively closes our borders to illegal immigrants."

Yes, that would be the Tancredo bill.
It has a guest worker provision, so we shouldnt consider that a terrible thing by itself... it combined with enforcement and changes to the incentives in immigration law (eg ending chain migration and 'anchor babies') would end the abuses in the system that seem to perplex the elites so.

The additional provisions that I enclosed wouldnt hurt either as complementing any guest worker proposal.

[WOSG]

I guess a simple corrective would be to NOT give it to the Mexican govt, but give it to the people themselves.

[WOSG]

Anyone who has contributed to social security or medicare using a phony social security number or based on fraudulent documents FORFEITS any benefit or right to that social security etc.

[WOSG]

But what would be nice is if the bill had attached to it strong provisions for enforcement like the CLEAR Act, otherwise the rhetoric of tightening up the system is just that... hot air. Also they should look to Tancredo's guest worker program where illegals do not get citizenship, guests cannot bring in their entire families, and they must go home. For those who violate any of the provisions they forfeit their right to stay in the program, period. And then enforce it.

I agree.

[WOSG]

YES, it is important to repeal the 1965 immigration law that Ted Kennedy created and implement the immigration law reforms proposed by the Jordan commission.

[WOSG]

One is the idea that English should be made the "official" language of the United States. It should be made the official language of the U.S. government, but other than that, making it the official language of the nation would be challenged as unconstitutional, as First Amendment protection of freedom of speech extends itself unto idiom, not only that, but what purpose would it serve?"

Agree. In some ways, it's a semantic point: The "official" language means the govt's language - in no way can nor should it prohibit any private business, entertainment, interaction or association from using any other language. eg Univision and Korean newspapers and Hebrew classes go unhindered.

So this has the practical effect only of making it easier for the Govt not to be *obligated* to make some things billingual... but since some court decisions have forced some of this, I dont think it would make much difference except to codify 'expectations', such as: "Immigrants wishing to become citizens should exhibit some level of English proficiency." I think that is an agreeable expectation.

As for the 'babies of illegal immigrants should not be citizens', I agree with the proposal and I am sure it does not contradict the 14th Amendment, as such illegal aliens are *not* 'in the jurisdiction of the United States' according to the meaning of the writers of the 14th, who placed that phrase for exactly that purpose of making that kind of exception! So I again have to disagree with "The second is the idea of redefining the Fourteenth Amendment, it would bog the bill down in legal challenges." It would be challenged, but IMHO it would be upheld.

[DoctorMichael]

"...repeal the 1965 immigration law that Ted Kennedy created..."

......We can only hope.

I wish we WOULD assess old laws like this, that were bad then, and are still bad now.

[nonliberal]

Be it RESOLVED that Tijuana is to be bombed for a Fourth of July celebration.

[azhenfud]

It'd be less expensive than the current or proposed mess; wonder if Felon corporations can get Illegaliens to work on it for us?