Deal struck on immigration bill (in the Senate, now over to the House for action)

WASHINGTON - A bipartisan group of senators reached agreement with the White House Thursday on an immigration overhaul to grant quick legal status to millions of illegal immigrants already in the U.S. and fortify the border against new ones.

One of the key negotiators, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said he expects President Bush to endorse it.

The deal came after weeks of painstaking closed-door negotiations that brought the most liberal Democrats and the most conservative Republicans together with Bush's Cabinet officers to produce a highly complex measure that carries heavy political consequences.

It set the stage for what promises to be a bruising battle next week in the Senate on one of Bush's top non-war priorities.

This is a breaking news update. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican and Democratic senators huddled Thursday trying to close in on an immigration compromise to grant quick legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants while fortifying U.S. borders against new ones.

A group of lawmakers that has been haggling over the terms of agreement for weeks were reviewing language negotiated Wednesday night in efforts to nail down a deal. Among the final sticking points was a stubborn dispute over how much family ties count toward green cards under a new "point system." The plan prioritizes advanced skills and education levels for future immigrants.

Two of the lead negotiators, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., booked time for Thursday afternoon in the Senate's radio-TV gallery for an announcement.

"There are just some people who don't want to close on this. There comes a time in every negotiation where people have to close," Kennedy said. "Today is it."

Kennedy said Thursday was likely the last chance for a compromise before senators scattered for a three-day weekend.

"The immigration reform legislation has come to a boiling point," Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., said just before going into Thursday's meeting. "We've tried to come to a consensus and I think we are very, very close, but every time we grasp it, it eludes a final resolution."

If no deal emerged, Senate Democrats were to vote Monday evening to bring up an immigration measure that passed last year over the objections of most Republicans, who have said they will block it. That would be a highly partisan start to the immigration debate, which divides the two parties and exposes fissures within their ranks.

Even with a bipartisan agreement, the immigration debate could easily devolve into a free-for-all in the unruly Senate.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), D-Nev., has said he wants to complete a bill before Memorial Day, and President Bush says he wants to sign one by summer's end.

WHO’S going to DEPORT all of the MILLIONS of illegal aliens who are NOT working and don’t qualify for a work visa???

Hi Kimberly, I received the following e-mail today, and perhaps it's time we, the citizens of the United States, demanded our government listen to the people to whom they owe their jobs and their allegiance!

Who SAYS it can't be done?

PRESIDENTS HOOVER & EISENHOWER DEPORTED MILLIONS OF ILLEGALS SO AMERICANS HAD WORK!

Here is something to pass around.

Back during the great depression, President Herbert Hoover ordered the deportation of all illegal aliens in order to make the jobs available to American citizens that desperately needed work. And then again in 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower deported 1.3 million Mexican nationals (called operation "Wetback") in order that returning American WWII and Korean veterans had a better chance at jobs. It took 2 years, but they deported them. If they could deport the illegals back then, they can sure do it today!! If you have doubts about the veracity of this information, just type Operation Wetback into your favorite search engine and confirm it for yourself.

Reminder: Don't forget to pay your taxes.....12 million illegal aliens are depending on you!

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Operation Wetback was a 1954 project of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to remove about 1.2 million illegal immigrants from the southwestern United States, with a focus on Mexican nationals. Mexican citizens residing in the U.S. were called wetbacks; this term is now used as a derogatory term for any Mexican or Central American immigrant.

The Costs of Illegal Immigration
Illegals Cost Feds $10 Billion a Year; Amnesty Would Nearly Triple Cost

Read the Report

WASHINGTON (August 25, 2004) — A new study from the Center for Immigration Studies is one of the first to estimate the impact of illegal immigration on the federal budget. Based on Census Bureau data, the study estimates that households headed by illegal aliens used $10 billion more in government services than they paid in taxes in 2002. These figures are only for the federal government; costs at the state and local level are also likely to be significant. The study also finds that if illegals were given amnesty, the fiscal deficit at the federal level would grow to nearly $29 billion.

Among the findings:

Illegal alien households are estimated to use $2,700 a year more in services than they pay in taxes, creating a total fiscal burden of nearly $10.4 billion on the federal budget in 2002.

Among the largest federal costs: Medicaid ($2.5 billion); treatment for the uninsured ($2.2 billion); food assistance programs ($1.9 billion); the federal prison and court systems ($1.6 billion); and federal aid to schools ($1.4 billion).

If illegal aliens were legalized and began to pay taxes and use services like legal immigrants with the same education levels, the estimated annual fiscal deficit at the federal level would increase from $2,700 per household to nearly $7,700, for a total federal deficit of $29 billion.

With nearly two-third of illegals lacking a high school diploma, the primary reason they create a fiscal deficit is their low education levels and resulting low incomes and tax payments — not their legal status or their unwillingness to work.

Amnesty increases costs because illegals would still be largely unskilled, and thus their tax payments would continue to be very modest, but once legalized they would be able to access many more government services.

The fact that legal immigrants with little schooling are a fiscal drain on federal coffers does not mean that legal immigrants overall are a drain. Many legal immigrants are highly skilled.

Because many of the costs are due to their U.S.-born children, who are awarded U.S. citizenship at birth, barring illegals themselves from federal programs will not significantly reduce costs.

Although they create a net drain on the federal government, the average illegal household pays more than $4,200 a year in federal taxes, for a total of nearly $16 billion.

However, they impose annual costs of more than $26.3 billion, or about $6,950 per illegal household.

About 43 percent, or $7 billion, of the federal taxes illegals pay go to Social Security and Medicare.

Employers do not see the costs associated with less-educated immigrant workers because the costs are spread out among all taxpayers.

Why Legalization Is So Costly. Costs rise unavoidably because amnesty will not change the low education levels of illegal aliens or the fact that the American economy offers such workers very limited opportunities, regardless of legal status. The vast majority of illegal aliens will continue to have very low incomes, and make very modest tax payments. However, legal status would allow them to use many more programs. We know that costs would rise dramatically because legal immigrants with the same levels of education make extensive use of public services. Thus, even though we estimate that average tax payments would rise by 77 percent, we also find that costs would rise 117 percent. To understand why this happens, it is helpful to consider a program like the Earned Income Tax Credit, which pays cash to low-income workers. Illegals currently account for only 1.5 percent of the program’s total costs, but if they were legalized their use of the program would grow tenfold because with legal status they would no longer need stolen or bogus Social Security numbers to get the credit. This dramatic rise in costs is not due to laziness on the part of immigrants. In fact, only those who work receive the EITC. The dramatic rise in costs simply reflects the low educational attainment of illegals and their resulting low incomes.

If Illegals Stay, So Will the Costs. To the extent that policy makers have considered the fiscal costs of illegal immigration, they have generally tried to reduce the costs while allowing illegals to remain. But this strategy has not been effective because the average illegal already receives less than half as much in services from the federal government as do other households. Moreover, many of the costs are due to their U.S.-born children, who are awarded American citizenship at birth under current law. Other programs are simply too politically sensitive to cut, such as the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program. And others costs are unavoidable, such as incarcerating illegals who have been convicted of crimes. Conversely, enforcing immigration laws is both popular with voters and administratively more feasible. There are really only two options: either we begin to enforce the law, significantly reducing the number of illegals in the country, or we accept the costs created by the presence of a large pool of unskilled workers.

Results Similar to Other Studies. A 1997 report by the National Research Council (NRC) on the fiscal impact of immigrants concluded that education levels and resulting income are the primary determinants of tax payments and service use, which is also a central finding of this report. The results of this study closely match the findings of a 1998 Urban Institute study. Our estimated average tax payment for illegal households in New York State is almost identical to that of the Urban Institute, when adjusted for inflation. The results of this study are also buttressed by an analysis of illegal alien tax returns done by the Inspector General’s Office of the Department of Treasury in 2004, which found that about half had no federal income tax liability, very similar to our findings of 45 percent.

Illegal Immigrants Arrange for Child Care If Parents Get Detained in Raids
Wednesday, May 16, 2007

CALHOUN, Ga. —

Increasingly fearful of getting swept up in a government raid, some illegal immigrants in this Georgia carpet-mill town and around the country are drawing up legal instructions designating someone to take care of their children if the parents are jailed or deported.

At the urging of activists, parents are authorizing, in writing, a friend, neighbor or relative to watch their children. And they are being advised to carry the paperwork with them at all times.

“We’re talking about it, and we say the documented ones will take the children, and it’s better to have a signed paper,” said a 32-year-old mother from Mexico who works in a store in Tifton and spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of deportation.

She said she has lined up an aunt to take care of her 2-year-old American-born daughter for a few days. Beyond that, she said, she would want to be reunited with the little girl, whether in this country or back in Mexico, if necessary.

During workplace roundups of illegal immigrants, youngsters sometimes become separated from their parents and are taken into government custody, in some cases because the parents fail to disclose they have children. The children can be held for days or weeks before they are reunited with their parents on one side of the border or the other.

The risk was illustrated recently by a federal raid in New Bedford, Mass., where state officials said dozens of children were left stranded at schools and with baby sitters when more than 300 workers were arrested at a leather factory.

As a result, Roman Catholic charities, unions and other groups are encouraging illegal immigrants to sign power-of-attorney forms and notarized custody instructions that also list information such as the children’s medications and what schools they attend.

“Undocumented parents need to have plans for their kids because they will lose contact with them,” said Flavia Jimenez of the National Council of La Raza, the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights group.

Under U.S. law, children born in this country to illegal immigrants are American citizens and cannot be deported. There are about 3.1 million such children in the U.S. There are also an estimated 1.8 million children in this country illegally.

Parents of children both legal and illegal are filling out the papers, specifying such things as whether they want their U.S.-born children to stay here or to be sent back to the country where the parent might be deported.

While lawmakers on Capitol Hill are said to be close to a deal this week on a sweeping immigration overhaul that would give millions of illegal immigrants a chance at legal status, the country is seeing increasingly restrictive state and local laws and a recent surge in federal immigration raids.

Fear is particularly strong in Georgia, where many young mothers work in the fields, carpet mills and produce-packing houses, and where one of the nation’s strictest immigration-control laws, passed last year, will go into effect July 1.

Among other things, the law requires state agencies to check the immigration status of all adults asking for taxpayer-funded benefits such as food stamps and extends to some local law enforcement the authority to enforce federal immigration laws.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they coordinate with state social service agencies and occasionally release illegal immigrants who need to take care of their children. But they noted that having children is no guarantee against deportation.

One especially detailed form distributed in Kentucky asks parents to list the children’s school and teacher; the names, phone numbers, workplaces and relationships of those who are allowed to pick children up; the names of those who should not be allowed to get the children; even the veterinarian for family pets.

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