Greg Siskind on Immigration Law and Policy

Pearce Recall Gets Go Ahead

The Arizona Supreme Court has approved a recall election for anti-immigrant Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce, author of SB1070. Pearce will face the voters on November 8th. Here's hoping for the end of this man's sad career.

Border Arrests at 40 Year Low

Despite a record number of Border Patrol agents serving along the US-Mexican border, the actual number of arrests of immigrants along along the frontier has reached its lowest level in four decades. If you simply are listening to the Tea Party types, you probably would think that ever increasing hordes of invaders are pouring in to the country. The facts are otherwise (not that facts are really a critical issue for most of the antis).

Romney Supports Liberalizing Employment Immigration Rules

Noticably absent from President Obama's speech and plan on promoting job growth was any mention of using immigration policy to help spur employment opportunities for Americans. The recent announcements of some modest changes in immigration policy to encourage entrepreneurship hardly fall in to the category of bold.

Mitch Romney takes the typical GOP extremist positions on dealing with illegal immigration, but discusses skilled worker immigration in a refreshingly Thomas Friedman-ish fashion. Here are excerpts from his campaign book on the subject (pages 126 and 127):

ATTRACTING THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST

To ensure that America continues to lead the world in innovation and economicdynamism, a Romney administration would press for an immigration policy designed to maximize America’s economic potential. The United States needs to attract and retain job creators from wherever they come.

Foreign-born residents with advanced degrees start companies, create jobs, and drive innovation at an especially high rate. While lawful immigrants comprise about 8 percent of the population, immigrants start 16 percent of our top-performing,high-technology companies, hold the position of CEO or lead engineer in 25 percent of high-tech firms, and produce over 25 percent of all patent applications filed from the United States. The presence o hardworking, highly skilled immigrants in our free-enterprise system fosters a special dynamic that is recognized around the world. The net result of their successes is the creation of jobs here in America that would otherwise have been created elsewhere or, more likely, never created at all.

It makes little sense for the United States to turn away highly educatedimmigrants who seek to come here. It makes equally little sense to train talented foreign students in our universities but then fail to integrate them into our economy. Nearly 300,000 foreign students are enrolled in advanced degrees programs here, but the great majority will return home. We are casting away the fruits of our own investment. As has long been our American tradition, we should encourage the world’s innovators, inventors, and pioneers to immigrate to the United States and we should encourage those we train to settle and create jobs here.

Raise Visa Caps for Highly Skilled Workers

As president, a first step that Mitt Romney will take along these lines is to raise the ceiling on the number of visas issued to holders of advanced degrees in math, science, and engineering who have job offers in those fields from U.S. companies.These workers would not displace unemployed Americans. Rather, they would fill high-skill job openings for which there is currently an acute shortage of labor.Even in this tough unemployment climate, as of this past spring nearly 1.25 million high-skill jobs remained unfilled

A skills gap of that magnitude suppresses the productivity of our businesses and slows the overall economy. Highly educated immigrants would help fill that gap and get our economy rolling again. Welcoming a wider pool of highly educated immigrants would lead to more start-ups, more innovation, and more jobs. Each of these workers would in turn be consumers in local economies,creating new demand for other American products and services. Thus, for every foreign worker employed in this way, new job opportunities also arise for those who are currently unemployed.

Retain Graduates of Our Universities

As president, Mitt Romney will also work to establish a policy that staples a green card to the diploma of every eligible student visa holder who graduates from one of our universities with an advanced degree in math, science, or engineering.These graduates are highly skilled, motivated, English-speaking, and integratedinto their American communities. Permanent residency would offer them the certainty required to start businesses and drive American innovation. As with thehighly skilled visa holders, these new Americans would generate economic ripples that redounded to the benefit of all.

Smith Bill Would Reform Agricultural Worker Program

Lamar Smith is a bit of an enigma this session of Congress. He's pushing the usual tough enforcement bills. But he's also shown a willingness to move legal immigration bills like the H-1C nurse visa extension and now a bill to reform the the H-2A visa category, one that is badly broken and almost useless to America's farmers. The system is so complicated and the rules are so onerous that it is almost completely unused despte well documented shortages of farm workers around the country. Anti-immigrants accuse farmers of simply wanting to evade the law and hire cheap labor. But this is a game of survival for our farmers and unless we want to be in the same situation we're in with energy and be totally dependent on other countries to feed us, we need to deal with this reality.

Lamar Smith has introduced HR 2847, a new agricultural worker program that will be called the H-2C and will replace the H-2A program. Hearings were held last week on the bill. One of the most important aspects of the bill is removing the anti-immigration Department of Labor from managing the program and replacing it with the US Department of Agriculture.

Capital Press describes the bill's major provisions:

H-2C would allow 500,000 visas per year and ease wage, housing and transportation requirements. An H-2A rule requiring growers provide employment to U.S. workers who apply until 50 percent of H-2A workers' contract period has elapsed would be eliminated. Workers would not be allowed to bring their families with them to the U.S.

Smith does not want to amend the H-2C onto his E-Verify bill for political and parliamentarian reasons, but the two bills need to pass simultaneously, Sequeira said.

H-2C would allow workers into the U.S. for 10 months and then require them to go back to Mexico for two months before being allowed back into the U.S. for another 10 months.

Labor groups have already come out against the bill over the wage and housing revisions. And farmers' groups, while generally supportive, are working to change provisions such as expanding the ten month limit to a twelve months per year system. 

Smith is likely to try and move his E-Verify mandate bill in lockstep with the H-2C agricultural worker bill. Both will have a tough time passing in the Senate.

Sick Immigrant Workers from Ground Zero Afraid to Seek Help

If we ever needed an illustration of immigrants doing jobs Americans simply won't do, here is the quintessential example. The Wall Street Journal reports

In the months after the Sept. 11 attacks, Nayibe Padredin cleaned offices around ground zero, clearing thick layers of dust so lower Manhattan could get back to work. Three months into the job, she began to have coughing attacks and headaches, struggled to get air and found herself easily fatigued. But she kept working, reasoning that she needed the money.

Hundreds of low-paid cleaners toiled alongside her, many of them also Spanish-speaking immigrants. Now Padredin and many of her colleagues say they're sick from the time they spent cleaning without adequate protective gear. They haven't been nearly as visible as those who worked at the site  itself, but they are struggling to cope with how their time on the perimeter of the disaster site has transformed their lives.

Ten years after the attacks, their symptoms are the same as those reported by many others exposed to the dust, primarily respiratory and digestive illnesses like asthma and acid reflux. Programs offer medical assistance to anyone who spent time at the site after the attacks and is diagnose with those conditions, but for reasons ranging from ignorance of the application process to fear of being deported, some of the cleanup workers did not immediately seek treatment or compensation.

'They are hesitant to seek health care because they are afraid,' said Dr. Jaime Carcamo, a
psychologist who treats about 90 Hispanic cleanup workers in Queens some of who are illegal immigrants.

9/11 Victims Families Still Waiting in Immigration Limbo

The terror attacks on 9/11 claimed victims from many backgrounds. One group we don't hear much about are those who were working without authorization - many at the Windows on the World restaurant. Twelve family members of those killed have been in an uncertain immigration status in the years since.  In 2008, they won the right to work legally here. But they have no path to anything resembling permanent residence status. Like immediate relatives of soldiers killed in the wars that resulted from 9/11, this is a group of individuals who deserve special consideration. Congress could pass a private bill granting them permanent residency and it would be the decent thing to do. Hopefully, this will be the last anniversary of the tragedy that will pass without resolving this.

Border Patrol Agent Says Big Spending at Northern Border a Waste

Uh-oh.

White House Hints It Will Oppose E-Verify-only Bill

Lamar Smith is pushing for swift passage of his E-Verify mandate bill. While the bill would likely face a tough battle in the Senate, many wonder whether the President would sign or veto it. The White House has been a strong advocate for E-Verify, but it also knows that enforcement-only bills are hugely unpopular in immigrant communities.

So recent comments by DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano are telling:

Although the Obama administration favors the expanded use of the electronic E-Verify system to confirm the legal status of prospective employees, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said today that any expansion of E-Verify must be part of a larger immigration reform plan.

'If you just do E-Verify, you’re not doing enough,' she told a breakfast meeting with reporters.

Napolitano said that E-Verify expansion should be part of a package that also includes the DREAM Act, which allows some children of Napolitano said that E-Verify expansion should be part of a package that also includes the DREAM  Act, which allows illegal immigrants a pathway to U.S. citizenship, along with expanded H1B visas for high-tech workers and H2A visas.

Of course, this isn't really comprehensive immigration reform, but that's okay in my opinion. Interestingly, Napolitano is quoted saying E-Verify "can and should be part of (comprehensive) immigration reform." Note that the Houston Chronicle reporter has put "comprehensive" in parenthesis assuming that Napolitano meant comprehensive reform. But I think she probably meant exactly what she said - just reform. Efforts to pass a comprehensive immigration bill have gone nowhere now for seven years and the politics have only gooten worse. But piecemeal immigration reform is an easier lift and it could be that we get some important reforms like the DREAM Act, perhaps AgJobs and skilled worker reforms in exchange for an E-Verify mandate. I'd take that deal if it were on the table, though I know many in the pro-immigrant community will reject anything less than perfect. But we all know that the perfect solution is the enemy of the good one.

Perry Says No to Border Fence

If Perry can avoid demagoguing on the issue (as it appears he is trying), Obama will have a real challenge in the fall keeping Latino voters in the Democratic column.

ICE Raids Home of Disabled Veteran

Lovely. When reporters asked why this happened, they get the typical useless (and insulting) response:

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) welcomes feedback from members of the public, especially regarding their involvement with recent ICE HSI operations. 

ICE is able to most efficiently look into complaints when they are brought directly to our attention. 

ICE HSI special agents conduct operations on a daily basis based on leads that we receive from various sources. 

ICE is committed to conducting safe and secure operations with the public’s welfare being paramount.”

This is right up there with refusing to comment based on concern for the privacy of the person who has been wronged.