Greg Siskind on Immigration Law and Policy

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: CHARLES SIMONYI - MS OFFICE'S FATHER AND SPACE TOURIST

If you typed a document using Microsoft Word today or sent an email using Outlook, you owe a little hat tip to the Hungarian-born Charles Simonyi who oversaw the creation of Microsoft's Office suite of applications. He earned a fortune at Microsoft and is now a billionaire. Simonyi is still in the business world and runs Intentional Software, a company he created in 2002. But he's also using his fortune for philanthropy and adventure. He has endowed professorships at Oxford and Stanford. And he has now visited space - twice! - as a tourist on the Russian Soyuz rocket.

MORE TOP POLICE CHIEFS BACK IMMIGRATION REFORM

From the NY Times:

Seeking to inject their views into the revived debate over immigration overhaul, several big-city police chiefs urged Congress on Wednesday to draft a new policy that improves public safety by bringing illegal immigrants out of the shadows.

The chiefs — updating recommendations made in 2006 by the leaders of more than 50 urban police departments — called for an overhaul that would integrate immigrants into the legal system, possibly with driver’s licenses, and separate the local police from immigration enforcement.

“We’re in the business of delivering a police service whether the person has had a car accident, been a victim of a crime, or been a witness to a crime,” said Chief John Timoney of the Miami Police Department.

He added that immigrants needed to come forward without fearing “that they are going to wind up being reported to federal authorities and deported.”

For all the rhetoric about law and order you hear from the antis, there seem to be a lot of police departments that just want these folks legalized and integrated into their communities.

POLL: MOST GOP VOTERS SUPPORT IMMIGRATION REFORM

A new poll from Benenson Strategy Group (commissioned by America's Voice), has a surprising finding - the vast majority of self-identified GOP voters support immigration reform. The poll found the following:

• When asked whether they support Congress passing “comprehensive immigration reform,” without hearing details about what the plan includes, 63% of Republicans said yes and 22% said no.   


• When given the details behind reform, and asked whether they support Congress passing a law that would: “Secure the border, crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants, and require illegal immigrants to register for legal immigration status, pay back taxes, and learn English in order to be eligible for U.S. citizenship,” 89% of Republicans said yes and 11% said no.


• When given three choices for how to deal with the 12 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, 62% of Republicans said “They should be required to register, meet certain conditions, and eventually be allowed to apply for citizenship.”  Eight percent of Republicans said “They should be legally allowed to stay on a temporary basis but not allowed to become U.S. citizens,” and 28% said “They must leave the country.”


• The survey also tested support for an enforcement-only approach, and found that 62% of Republican voters prefer a comprehensive approach the enforcement-only alternative (36%).  This is especially notable given the fact that the enforcement-only option included a promise to deny taxpayer funded benefits to illegal immigrants, which was these voters’ top issue of concern.

This tells me that the vocal critics of reform in the GOP fall in to one of three groups -

1. Those that genuinely oppose immigration reform and simply don't care what their constituents think;

2. Those that understand the numbers but are elevating in importance the vocal minority that spends their days faxing, emailing and calling the Hill.

3. Those that are misreading the sentiment of the bulk of their supporters and falsely assume that the faxers represent the typical voter.

I suspect most of them are in the third category and if they don't wake up soon, they'll find themselves in even worse political shape than they are today.

FRANKEN LIKELY TO BE A YES VOTE FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM

America's Voice does the research.

ICE LAUNCHES SHOCK AND AWE I-9 AUDIT CAMPAIGN

If anyone doubts Secretary Napolitano was serious when she talked about ICE going after employers through investigations, they'll likely be convinced by this press release:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is launching a bold, new audit
initiative today by issuing Notices of Inspection (NOls) to 652 businesses nationwide - which is
more than ICE issued throughout all of last fiscal year. The notices alert business owners that ICE will be inspecting their hiring records to determine whether or not they are complying with
employment eligibility verification laws and regulations. Inspections are one of the most powerful tools the federal government has to enforce employment and immigration laws. This new initiative illustrates ICE's increased focus on holding employers accountable for their hiring practices and efforts to ensure a legal workforce.

ICE I-9 Audit campaign -

OMBUDSMAN ISSUES ANNUAL REPORT

The USCIS Ombudsman's office has released its 2009 report to Congress. It's got a lot of analysis of problems at USCIS, some interesting statistics not previously available and a number of useful recommendations.

FRIEDMAN: INVENT, INVENT, INVENT

Thomas Friedman has a great op-ed piece in today's NY TImes that emphasizes that the US is going to have to innovate like crazy if we're going to emerge from this recession on top. And a liberal skilled immigration policy has got to be part of our strategy. Here are some of the key quotes:

I still believe that America, with its unrivaled freedoms, venture capital industry, research universities and openness to new immigrants has the best assets to be taking advantage of this moment — to out-innovate our competition. But we should be pressing these advantages to the max right now.

***

Now is when we should be stapling a green card to the diploma of any foreign student who earns an advanced degree at any U.S. university, and we should be ending all H-1B visa restrictions on knowledge workers who want to come here. They would invent many more jobs than they would supplant. The world’s best brains are on sale. Let’s buy more!

WASHINGTON STATE GRANTING IN STATE TUITION TO NIV KIDS

I just had a consultation this week with an engineer working on an H-1B for several years with one of America's best known companies. He's got an unusual skill set that makes him highly valuable to the company and he is a good candidate for eventually getting a green card, something he and his company both want to see happen. Unfortunately, he's in a green card category that will be backlogged for several yaers.

But this fellow is facing a real problem. He has three teenage children and is facing paying out of state tuition costs for the universities in his state, something that will end up costing him more than his house by the time he's finished paying. Private universities are even more expensive.  And he's not interested in saddling his kids with massive debt. But until he gets the green card, this is what he's facing.

It's not a dilemma that is very unusual in this country. But at least American citizen and permanent resident parents have the option of claiming in state tuition rates. My taxpaying engineer client doesn't get that choice.

And that's why I was really happy to hear Washington state gets the problem and is now going to treat non-immigrant workers, such as those on H-1Bs, who have been in the state for at least a year, as residents for purposes of claiming in state tuition rates. Companies like Microsoft and Amazon will have a major new incentive to help them recruit top talent. And Washington state's universities will now have a bumper crop of extremely talented kids (I can tell you from experience that these families produce a lot of very gifted children).

Hopefully, other states will take note and pass similar measures.

[hat tip to Dan Kowalski for the link].

HIV TRAVEL BAN CLOSE TO ENDING

This is a long time coming and wonderful news for many who have been waiting for years for this. The Office of Management and Budget has completed review of a regulation which will remove HIV from the list of communicable diseases barring admission to the US. DHS will publish the rule for comment before it goes final, but the end is now in sight.

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: LAKSHMANAN SATHYAVAGISWARAN - CORONER TO THE STARS

Okay, I was trying to come up with some kind of Michael Jackson tie in for my IOTD and nothing was coming to mind until a helpful reader suggested Dr. Sathyavagiswaran, an Indian native, who is the Chief Medical Examiner at the Los Angeles Coroner's office. The doctor appears to be quite a character in movieland with his debut in the OJ trial. More recently, he testified in the Phil Spector murder trial. And now he will help the world find out exactly what happened to the King of Pop.

I have to say that even though yesterday's news was depressing (to be honest, I was a lot more upset about Farrah Fawcett dying than Michael Jackson), I laughed out loud when I saw various news correspondents standing in front of the coroner's office. The office has a video billboard attached to the official sign that posts various inspiring quotations as well as warnings on activities to avoid (drunk driving, etc.) that presumably keep the coroner busy. So when I heard about Dr. Sathyavagiswaran, I decided to go to the Coroner's web site to learn a little bit more and found that the Coroner's office has an online gift shop (!) that actually sells souvenirs from the coroner's office. It even has a clever name - Skeletons in the Closet.

Ya gotta love LA.