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Subcommittee takes testimony on the issue despite earlier failure of a similar bill. WASHINGTON - Although the debate about a comprehensive immigration overhaul was stopped cold in the Senate earlier this year, the House immigration subcommittee held a hearing on the issue Thursday. The session, called by subcommittee Chairwoman Rep. Zoe Lofgren, came as a surprise because there is nearly no possibility of an immigration bill getting through Congress before the 2008 presidential election. The hearing examined the STRIVE Act, which would toughen the nation's borders, create a new guest worker program, require employers to verify the legal status of...

The STRIVE Act may still be in play and, with it, higher H-1B caps It appears that the STRIVE (Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy) Act of 2007 isn't quite dead after all. On Thursday, the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees Border Security, and International Law convened and on its first day took written statements from witnesses on the bill. The comprehensive immigration bill that caused such a furor earlier this year, mainly over the issue of whether it was offering amnesty to illegal immigrants, also addressed the H-1B visa cap. The cap, now set at 65,000, with...

H.R. 1645 offers a path to legalization for all the 25 million plus illegals -- workers AND their families -- in the USA. The main requirements are that each applicant has to "touchback" in any country for a day, and then may return to the U.S. permanently with his or her family, provided he has not committed "three crimes or more". Here is a cynic speaking, but the "touchback" requirement would soon, probably, be interpreted to mean visiting a consulate of one’s choice. Mexican consulates are located in most U.S. metropolitan areas. Also, the Bill includes a NEW Permanent "Guestworker"...

HOUSE IMMIGRATION BILL - PUTTING LIPSTICK ON A PIG The House immigration bill that contains a ‘path to citizenship’ is a stealth amnesty that rewards illegal aliens for breaking our laws. Though not publicized, the motive behind the bill is to provide an endless supply of cheap labor for business plus gardeners, maids and nannies for the rich. If wages are suppressed, profits go up and the rich get richer. As an aside, most of the politicians that support the bill are well off---some are millionaires many times over. Unfortunately legal immigrants, African-Americans and other low income wage earners have...

Three months into the new Congress, immigration legislation is hitting some unexpected roadblocks. A mix of presidential politics and unforeseen fissures between Democrats and their Republican allies has stalled movement in the Senate. Key lawmakers in both chambers seem to be moving to the right to assuage conservatives who helped derail immigration legislation last year. Now there are doubts as to whether Congress will actually send an immigration bill to President Bush this year. Only a few months ago, Democrats and Republicans alike were predicting that immigration legislation would move relatively smoothly — with bipartisan support — through the new...

IN 2005, when he was wearing only his senator's hat, Arizona Republican John McCain fearlessly filed a comprehensive immigration bill with Senator Edward Kennedy. But now that he's a presidential candidate wooing conservative voters, McCain appears hesitant to stand next to his liberal colleague from Massachusetts. Now is a good time for the two senators to file an updated immigration bill. The country desperately needs reform. President Bush says he wants it. And Democrats control Congress, creating a political opportunity that didn't exist a year ago. But McCain and Kennedy have failed to reach agreement. Aides say they are arguing...

(March 21, 2007)--A bill in the US House proposes that illegal immigrants leave America and then re-enter legally before becoming eligible for permanent residency. The plan by Congressmen Luis Gutierrez of Illinois and Jeff Flake of Arizona is expected to be announced Thursday. The measure calls for illegal immigrants in the US as of June 1 of 2006 to remain on six-year work visas. During those six years, they must learn English and civics, pay a $2,000 fine and settle back taxes. At some point during the six years, they must leave the US and re-enter legally with their work...

The provisions of the Gutierrez/Flake Amnesty: Every illegal alien who could produce marginally plausible “evidence” that he/she had been illegally present in the United States since June 1, 2006, would get amnesty and be put on the path to US citizenship. In exchange for the highest honor our country has to bestow, the illegal alien would have to pay $2,000, pass a criminal record check, pay at least some of any income taxes he/she had chosen not to pay while working illegally, and learn some English. The already overburdened and error-prone U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) would be responsible...

Hoping to jump-start the debate on immigration, two lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle introduced a bill Thursday that would prop up President Bush's call for comprehensive immigration reform and mirror a Senate bill that ultimately failed last year. Reps. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said their legislative package includes a guest worker program that would allow new workers and current qualifying "undocumented workers" to stay in the United States and work for up to six years. The bill would specify that immigrants couldn't take jobs from U.S. workers. The Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant...

From the desk of Roy Beck at NumbersUSA: From the desk of Roy Beck at NumbersUSA: This year's official push for nearly open borders in the United States is expected to begin later this morning. Honestly, your collective reaction to the introduction of the Gutierrez/Flake amnesty bill in the U.S. House of Representatives will have great influence on whether national political leaders try to force this through. We need to do this primarily with phones today. We need the phones in all 435 offices of U.S. Representatives to be ringing all day in vehement opposition to what is being proposed...