BILLS ARE MOVING IN CONGRESS

As the August recess approaches (and with the reality of few bills likely moving once the presidential campaign gets in to full swing), immigration bills are seeing some progress. Here's what to watch -

1. HR 6034 - eliminates the widow penalty in family immigration cases. The House subcommittee has approved and the full Judiciary Committee is scheduled to move this week.

2. HR 5924 - the nurse immigration bill would temporarily allocate green card numbers for nurses and create a training fund to increase the number of American nurses. Markup could happen this week as well.

3. PEPFAR AIDS relief bill - there will be an attempt in the Senate possibly today to strike a provision in the bill that would eliminate the HIV ground of removal (I've been writing about this if you follow this blog).

4. S. 3257 - the extension bill. The bill, sponsored by Senators Leahy (D-VT) and Specter (R-PA), would extend the life of the EB-5, special immigration religious worker, Conrad 30 and E-Verify programs. The bill has only been introduced, but as none of the bills make serious substantive changes to these programs, it could move quickly.

Though I'm on holiday, I'm keeping an eye on these and will report as there is news.

Comments

[George Chell]

No use arguing. The stock market will not settle down until after the elections. No immigration bill will move until a new President and new Congress takes over. Karl Rove blew it. He should have united the Christian/Jewish and anti-Radical Islamic elements after 9/11 as he and other religious radical in the GOP claimed that they intended to do. Instead he abdicated his role and let the racist elements of the GOP led by Tancredo to take over, and instead of uniting Christians as they claimed, they went after their dark skinned Christian bretheren. As a result we will have the fewest GOP legislators at all levels when all is said and done on November 5. And if Obama does not win, please be prepared for a long-term GOP minority in Congressionals and state levels as the party in the white house always looses seats in the mid term elections. The only way the GOP makes a comeback is through a Obama Presidency...it will succeed in uniting all the anti-black and anti-non-white immigrant elements in this country during an Obama Presidency.

[lfwf]

they are not. and i did not say they were.
i simply pointed out that if it came to doing that, certain lawmakers would happily allow it, as long as they got what they wanted. unfortunately these folks currently hold a virtual veto.

[Legal and no longer waiting]

"Then the speaker chose to pander to the Hispanic caucus that thinks skilled immigrants are elitist and would be happy to send us to the back of a 12 million strong line as long as there constituency is protected."

Of course, most EB immigrants are getting their green cards within 5 years, while FB immigrants are waiting up to 30 years. That just proves that EB immigrants are stuck in the back of the line.

[lfwf]

As expected the Republicans in the Immigration subcommittee are not allowing the Lofgren bills to go anywhere. Despite all their rhetoric on not holding "skilled immigration" hostage, all they care about is their radical anti immigrant base which would consider the addition of "any numbers" even by recapture to be treason.

So much for the Pubs being pro immigrant. Actions speak louder than words. They need to lose big to learn a lesson.

And so much for the Dems being pro immigrant. There was a time when the bills could have passed by voice vote. Enough momentum had been built. Then the speaker chose to pander to the Hispanic caucus that thinks skilled immigrants are elitist and would be happy to send us to the back of a 12 million strong line as long as there constituency is protected.

Who knows what a future Dem CIR will look like. The last one was deeply flawed- although the fact is that Republicans were to blame for some of the crazy provisions. Either way, the undocumented seem to have the upper hand on us when it comes (ok don't start screaming, this is very specific) to immigration relief.

[George Chell]

No bill will become law until there is a new President and Dems gain at least five seats in the Senate.

[Legal Immigrant]

Nice to see some immigration bills moving..but whatever happened to the three EB immigration bills introduced by Rep Lofgren (HR 5921, 5882 and 6039).

The situation in the EB3 IND category (the largest EB category) is going from bad to worse and backlogs are now a back breaking 7 years. When will they fix this...people have been waiting for some action for 4 years now!!

[paul]

Again the Chicanic Caucus has won. We're seeing low-skill and family immigration bills moving forward, and nothing of the high-skill EB bills by Zoe Lofgren (one of which had almost 20 sponsors).

[Americaslossiscanadasgain]

America's loss is Canada's gain. This is precisely what is happening as Alberta is aggresively pursuing and luring H1s with a promise for permanent residency. Link: http://albertacanada.com/immigration/campaigns/h1b.html.

Greg,

Please make a blog on this one. Hopefully it might reach the ears of our sleeping congressmen/women.