Navarrette: Skills put destiny in your hands, not govt's
RUBEN NAVARRETTE JR. The San Diego Union Tribune
When discussing the immigration compromise that he helped shape, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez sounds like a proud father - and a protective one.
Gutierrez has much to be proud of. This legislation represents an intricate give and take.
The fact that the right and the left each found plenty to love and hate in this agreement attests to its fairness. No one got the better of anyone. And that's a good thing.
And yet the deal is fragile, and so it needs protecting. The extremes at both ends of the spectrum are saying they'd rather have no bill than this bill. If they don't start being constructive, they might get their wish. Then they can go back to bellyaching about the status quo.
One especially vulnerable part of the compromise is the guest worker program. The idea is to import hundreds of thousands of foreign laborers each year to do jobs that Americans won't do. The bill's sponsors suggested 400,000 workers per year. But recently, senators abruptly trimmed the number to 200,000.
Gutierrez doesn't think the lower number is enough, and he suggests the void might be filled by you know who.
As for those jobs Americans won't do, they're everywhere in this economy - especially if you're talking about young Americans. Many have no interest in being hired hands.
A reader in Vermont wrote that his neighbors are "making a big deal about the illegals working in the dairy farms" and "claim that they are taking their jobs." Yet, the reader noted, "the dairy farmers claim no one here wants to work on dairy farms."
The same goes for those who own and manage restaurants, said the woman who called into a radio show I was on recently. She said she hired illegal immigrants at what she considered a good wage - $15 per hour - because she couldn't find Americans who wanted to be cooks or dishwashers.
I'm not about to excuse the hiring of illegal immigrants. That's the very root of the problem. But I've become a bit more sympathetic to employers - especially small-business owners - who have jobs that they urgently need filled.
I asked Gutierrez what he made of the charge that foreign workers take jobs away from the native born. "It's just not true," he said. "Our unemployment rate is below the average of each of the last four decades. So we do not have enough people to do all the jobs that are available, especially low-skilled jobs."
I suggested to the commerce secretary that the message we ought to be giving the low-skilled is to stop blaming others for their problems and go get more skills. He agreed.
"If there is one piece of advice you can give people today," Gutierrez said, "it is to increase your skills. And do it every single year. The bottom line is that when you have more skills, you're making more money."
Quite right. And if you have those skills, and a decent work ethic, you won't have to worry about guest workers or immigration deals or competition. Your destiny will be in your hands, and not in the hands of Congress.
What a liberating notion.
Read another column by Ruben Navarrette Jr. Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a columnist and editorial board member of The San Diego Union Tribune. E-mail: ruben.navarrette@uniontrib.com
U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 110th Congress - 1st Session 2007
Recent Votes:
U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 110th Congress - 1st Session (2007)
Vote Date Question Result Description U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 110th Congress - 1st Session (2007)
Vote Date Issue Question Result Description
00201 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1316 Agreed to Dorgan Amdt. No. 1316; To sunset the Y-1 nonimmigrant visa program after a 5-yer period.
00200 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1202 Rejected Obama Amdt. No. 1202, As Modified; To provide a date on which the authority of the section relating to the increasing of American competitiveness through a merit-based evaluation system for immigrants shall be terminated.
00199 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1339 Rejected Vitter Amdt. No. 1339; To require that the U.S. VISIT system- the biometric border check-in/check-out system first required by Congress in 1996 that is already well past its already postponed 2005 implementation due date- be finished as part of the enforcement trigger.
00198 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1151 Agreed to Inhofe Amdt. No. 1151; To amend title 4, United States Code, to declare English as the national language of the Government of the United States, and for other purposes.
00197 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1384 Agreed to Salazar Amdt. No. 1384; To preserve and enhance the role of the English language.
00196 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1374 Rejected Ensign Amdt. No. 1374; To improve the criteria and weights of the merit-based evaluation system.
00195 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Motion S.Amdt. 1183 Rejected Motion to Waive CBA Re: Clinton Amdt. No. 1183, As Further Modified; To reclassify the spouses and minor children of lawful permanent residents as immediate relatives.
00194 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1460 Agreed to Kyl Amdt. No. 1460; To modify the allocation of visas with respect to the backlog of family-based visa petitions.
00193 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Motion S.Amdt. 1194 Rejected Motion to Waive CBA Re: Menendez Amdt. No 1194; To modify the deadline for the family backlog reduction.
00192 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1234 Agreed to Sessions Amdt. No. 1234; To save American taxpayers up to $24 billion in the 10 years after passage of this Act, by preventing the earned income tax credit, which is, according to the Congressional Research Service, the largest anti-poverty entitlement program of the Federal Government, from being claimed by Y temporary workers or illegal aliens given status by this Act until they adjust to legal permanent resident status.
00191 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1331 Agreed to Reid Amdt. No. 1331; To clarify the application of the earned income tax credit.
00190 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1250 Agreed to Cornyn Amdt. No. 1250; To address documentation of employment and to make an amendment with respect to mandatory disclosure of information
00189 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1267 Rejected Bingaman Amdt. No. 1267 As Modified; To remove the requirement that Y-1 nonimmigrant visa holders leave the United States before they are able to renew their visa.
00188 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1197 Rejected DeMint Amdt. No. 1197; To require health care coverage for holders of Z nonimmigrant visas.
00187 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1184 Rejected Cornyn Amdt. No. 1184, As Modified; To establish a permanent bar for gang members, terrorists, and other criminals.
00186 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1333 Agreed to Kennedy Amdt. No. 1333, as Modified; To increase the immigration-related penalties associated with various criminal activities
00185 05-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1176 Agreed to Feingold Amdt. No. 1176; To establish commissions to review the facts and circumstances surrounding injustices suffered by European Americans, European Latin Americans, and Jewish refugees during World War II.
00184 05-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1170 Rejected McConnell Amdt. No. 1170; To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require individuals voting in person to present photo identification.
00183 05-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1231 Agreed to Durbin Amdt. No. 1231; To ensure that employers make efforts to recruit American workers.
00182 05-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1189 Rejected Allard Amdt. No. 1189; To eliminate the preference given to people who entered the United States illegally over people seeking to enter the country legally in the merit-based evaluation system for visas.
___________________________________________ 00180 24-May On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1157 Rejected Vitter Amdt. No. 1157; To strike title VI related to Nonimmigrants in the United States Previously in Unlawful Status).
00179 24-May On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1223 Agreed to Sanders Amdt. No. 1223; To establish the American Competitiveness Scholarship program.
00180 24-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1157 Rejected Vitter Amdt. No. 1157; To strike title VI (related to Nonimmigrants in the United States Previously in Unlawful Status).
00179 24-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1223 Agreed to Sanders Amdt. No. 1223; To establish the American Competitiveness Scholarship Program.
00178 24-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1181 Rejected Dorgan Amdt. No. 1181; To sunset the Y-1 nonimmigrant visa program after a 5-year period.
00177 24-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1158 Rejected Coleman Amdt. No. 1158; To amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to facilitate information sharing between federal and local law enforcement officials related to an individual's immigration status.
00176 24-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1186 Agreed to Akaka Amdt. No. 1186; To exempt children of certain Filipino World War II veterans from the numerical limitations on immigrant visas.
00175 23-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1169 Agreed to Bingaman Amdt. No. 1169; To reduce to 200,000 the number of certain non-immigrants permitted to be admitted during a fiscal year.
00174 22-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1153 Rejected Dorgan Amdt. No. 1153; To strike the Y nonimmigrant guestworker program.
00173 21-May S. 1348 On the Cloture Motion Agreed to Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to Consider S.1348; Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007
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"I think it's safe to say that the United States Senate would be the laughingstock of the country if — after all of the hyperbole and all of the publicity and all of the proposals and objections — we're not able to finish this bill." —Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A proposed immigration overhaul narrowly survived strong Senate challenges Wednesday, boosting its backers' hopes that the fiercely debated legislation might soon win passage and advance to the House. Senators first turned back a Republican bid to reduce the number of illegal immigrants who could gain lawful status. Hours later, they rejected a Democrat's effort to postpone the bill's shift to an emphasis on education and skills among visa applicants as opposed to family connections.
Both amendments were seen as potentially fatal blows to the fragile coalition backing the bill, which remains under attack from the right and left. The bill — which would tighten borders and give many of the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants a pathway to legal status — is a priority for President Bush.
The long day and night of votes contained some setbacks for the coalition's leaders, however. They failed to defeat a Republican proposal to give law enforcement agents access to rejected visa applications, which could lead to the arrest and deportation of some illegal immigrants who otherwise might escape detection.
On balance, however, the coalition's "grand bargainers" felt they had withstood their toughest challenges. "This means people want a bill very badly," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: House | Senate | Senators | US Senate | Sens | Sen. Edward M Kennedy The Senate voted 51-46 to reject a proposal by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to bar criminals — including those ordered by judges to be deported — from gaining legal status. Democrats siphoned support from Cornyn's proposal by winning adoption of a rival version that would bar a more limited set of criminals, including certain gang members and *** offenders, from gaining legalization. The Senate backed that amendment 66-32.
The Senate also rejected a proposal by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., that bill supporters called a "killer amendment." It would have delayed the bill's shift in favor of attracting foreign workers with needed skills as opposed to keeping families together. Menendez won 53 votes, seven short of the 60 needed under a Senate procedural rule invoked by his opponents.
Menendez's proposal would have allowed more than 800,000 people who had applied for permanent legal status by the beginning of 2007 to obtain green cards based purely on their family connections — a preference the bill ends for most relatives who got in line after May 2005.
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., a chief advocate of the bill, said most of the visa applicants Menendez wanted to help are so far back in line that it would be decades before the Homeland Security Department could process them. The Senate adopted Kyl's alternative, which would retain the family preference status for applicants who might win approval by 2026 under the department's projections.
Menendez, whose parents were Cuban immigrants, called the Kyl amendment "a fig leaf" that would make no meaningful change to the bill.
Cornyn had painted his criminals amendment as a "defining issue" for any presidential candidate — a sign of the degree to which the contentious debate is bleeding over into the GOP campaign fray.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., alone among his party's presidential aspirants in backing the immigration measure, opposed Cornyn's bid and backed the Democratic alternative offered by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.
McCain was joined in opposing the amendment by the Senate's four Democratic presidential hopefuls, Sens. Joe Biden of Delaware, Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Chris Dodd of Connecticut, and Barack Obama of Illinois.
After his defeat, Cornyn said those who voted against the proposal "failed to take an opportunity to help restore public confidence that we're actually serious about passing an immigration law that could actually work."
Cornyn prevailed on another matter opposed by the grand bargainers, however. His amendment, adopted 57 to 39, would make it easier to locate and deport illegal immigrants whose visa applications are rejected.
The bill would have barred law enforcement agencies from seeing applications for so-called Z visas, which can lead to citizenship if granted. Cornyn said legal authorities should know if applicants have criminal records that would warrant their deportation.
Opponents said eligible applicants might be afraid to file applications if they believe they are connected to deportation actions. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in an interview that Cornyn's amendment was "not a deal-killer" but would have to be changed in House-Senate negotiations.
Other amendments defeated Wednesday included a Democratic effort to alter the temporary guest worker program that would be created by the bill.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico wanted to allow workers to come for six consecutive years. The Senate voted 57-41 to reject the amendment, retaining the bill's call for most guest workers to go home for a year between each of three two-year stints.
The Senate also rejected an amendment by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., to change the Z visa program whereby illegal immigrants could gain lawful status. DeMint proposed requiring them to buy high-deductible health plans to be eligible for visas.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 110th Congress - 1st Session 2007
Recent Votes:
U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 110th Congress - 1st Session (2007)
Vote Date Question Result Description U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 110th Congress - 1st Session (2007)
Vote Date Issue Question Result Description
00201 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1316 Agreed to Dorgan Amdt. No. 1316; To sunset the Y-1 nonimmigrant visa program after a 5-yer period.
00200 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1202 Rejected Obama Amdt. No. 1202, As Modified; To provide a date on which the authority of the section relating to the increasing of American competitiveness through a merit-based evaluation system for immigrants shall be terminated.
00199 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1339 Rejected Vitter Amdt. No. 1339; To require that the U.S. VISIT system- the biometric border check-in/check-out system first required by Congress in 1996 that is already well past its already postponed 2005 implementation due date- be finished as part of the enforcement trigger.
00198 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1151 Agreed to Inhofe Amdt. No. 1151; To amend title 4, United States Code, to declare English as the national language of the Government of the United States, and for other purposes.
00197 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1384 Agreed to Salazar Amdt. No. 1384; To preserve and enhance the role of the English language.
00196 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1374 Rejected Ensign Amdt. No. 1374; To improve the criteria and weights of the merit-based evaluation system.
00195 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Motion S.Amdt. 1183 Rejected Motion to Waive CBA Re: Clinton Amdt. No. 1183, As Further Modified; To reclassify the spouses and minor children of lawful permanent residents as immediate relatives.
00194 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1460 Agreed to Kyl Amdt. No. 1460; To modify the allocation of visas with respect to the backlog of family-based visa petitions.
00193 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Motion S.Amdt. 1194 Rejected Motion to Waive CBA Re: Menendez Amdt. No 1194; To modify the deadline for the family backlog reduction.
00192 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1234 Agreed to Sessions Amdt. No. 1234; To save American taxpayers up to $24 billion in the 10 years after passage of this Act, by preventing the earned income tax credit, which is, according to the Congressional Research Service, the largest anti-poverty entitlement program of the Federal Government, from being claimed by Y temporary workers or illegal aliens given status by this Act until they adjust to legal permanent resident status.
00191 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1331 Agreed to Reid Amdt. No. 1331; To clarify the application of the earned income tax credit.
00190 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1250 Agreed to Cornyn Amdt. No. 1250; To address documentation of employment and to make an amendment with respect to mandatory disclosure of information
00189 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1267 Rejected Bingaman Amdt. No. 1267 As Modified; To remove the requirement that Y-1 nonimmigrant visa holders leave the United States before they are able to renew their visa.
00188 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1197 Rejected DeMint Amdt. No. 1197; To require health care coverage for holders of Z nonimmigrant visas.
00187 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1184 Rejected Cornyn Amdt. No. 1184, As Modified; To establish a permanent bar for gang members, terrorists, and other criminals.
00186 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1333 Agreed to Kennedy Amdt. No. 1333, as Modified; To increase the immigration-related penalties associated with various criminal activities
00185 05-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1176 Agreed to Feingold Amdt. No. 1176; To establish commissions to review the facts and circumstances surrounding injustices suffered by European Americans, European Latin Americans, and Jewish refugees during World War II.
00184 05-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1170 Rejected McConnell Amdt. No. 1170; To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require individuals voting in person to present photo identification.
00183 05-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1231 Agreed to Durbin Amdt. No. 1231; To ensure that employers make efforts to recruit American workers.
00182 05-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1189 Rejected Allard Amdt. No. 1189; To eliminate the preference given to people who entered the United States illegally over people seeking to enter the country legally in the merit-based evaluation system for visas.
___________________________________________ 00180 24-May On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1157 Rejected Vitter Amdt. No. 1157; To strike title VI related to Nonimmigrants in the United States Previously in Unlawful Status).
00179 24-May On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1223 Agreed to Sanders Amdt. No. 1223; To establish the American Competitiveness Scholarship program.
00180 24-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1157 Rejected Vitter Amdt. No. 1157; To strike title VI (related to Nonimmigrants in the United States Previously in Unlawful Status).
00179 24-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1223 Agreed to Sanders Amdt. No. 1223; To establish the American Competitiveness Scholarship Program.
00178 24-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1181 Rejected Dorgan Amdt. No. 1181; To sunset the Y-1 nonimmigrant visa program after a 5-year period.
00177 24-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1158 Rejected Coleman Amdt. No. 1158; To amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to facilitate information sharing between federal and local law enforcement officials related to an individual's immigration status.
00176 24-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1186 Agreed to Akaka Amdt. No. 1186; To exempt children of certain Filipino World War II veterans from the numerical limitations on immigrant visas.
00175 23-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1169 Agreed to Bingaman Amdt. No. 1169; To reduce to 200,000 the number of certain non-immigrants permitted to be admitted during a fiscal year.
00174 22-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1153 Rejected Dorgan Amdt. No. 1153; To strike the Y nonimmigrant guestworker program.
00173 21-May S. 1348 On the Cloture Motion Agreed to Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to Consider S.1348; Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007
03:30 PM CDT on Wednesday, June 6, 2007 Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A bipartisan immigration bill narrowly survived a potentially fatal challenge on Wednesday when the Senate turned back a Republican bid to limit the illegal immigrants who could gain lawful status.
The close vote on a proposal by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to bar felons -- including those court-ordered to be deported -- from legalization reflected the delicate position of the contentious immigration bill, which remains under threat from the right and the left.
The vote was 51-46 against the amendment. Democrats succeeded in ****ing support from Cornyn's proposal by winning adoption of a rival version that would bar a more limited set of criminals, including certain gang members and *** offenders, from gaining legalization. The Senate backed that amendment 66-32.
Cornyn had painted his effort as a key vote for any presidential candidate -- a sign of the degree to which the contentious debate is bleeding over into the GOP campaign fray.
The amendment "is a defining issue for those who seek the highest office in the land to demonstrate their respect for the rule of law and to demonstrate their desire to return law and order to our immigration system," Cornyn said.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., alone among his party's presidential aspirants in backing the immigration measure, opposed Cornyn's bid and backed the Democratic alternative offered by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., called Cornyn's measure "a stealth, Trojan horse amendment to kill the bill."
Kennedy, an architect of the bill, said it "would exclude hundreds of thousands from the benefits in this bill and undermine the bipartisan compromise that (senators) worked so long and so hard to produce."
Jun 7, 6:41 AM EDT Immigration bill in doubt after vote
By CHARLES BABINGTON Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A fragile compromise that would legalize millions of unlawful immigrants risks coming unraveled after the Senate voted early Thursday to place a five-year limit on a program meant to provide U.S. employers with 200,000 temporary foreign workers annually.
The 49-48 vote came two weeks after the Senate, also by a one-vote margin, rejected the same amendment by Sen. Byron Dorgan. The North Dakota Democrat says immigrants take many jobs Americans could fill.
The reversal dismayed backers of the immigration bill, which is supported by President Bush but loathed by many conservatives. Business interests and their congressional allies were already angry that the temporary worker program had been cut in half from its original 400,000-person-a-year target.
A five-year sunset, they said, could knock the legs from the precarious bipartisan coalition aligned with the White House. The Dorgan amendment "is a tremendous problem, but it's correctable," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. The coalition will try as early as Thursday to persuade at least one senator to help reverse the outcome yet again, he said.
Until the Dorgan vote was tallied, Specter and other leaders of the so-called "grand bargain" on immigration had enjoyed a fairly good day.
They had turned back a bid to reduce the number of illegal immigrants who could gain lawful status. They also defeated an effort to postpone the bill's shift to an emphasis on education and skills among visa applicants as opposed to family connections.
And they fended off an amendment, by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., that would have ended a new point system for those seeking permanent resident "green cards" after five years rather than 14 years.
All three amendments were seen as potentially fatal blows to the bill, which would tighten borders, hike penalties for those who hire illegals and give many of the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants a pathway to legal status.
The Senate voted 51-46 to reject a proposal by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to bar criminals - including those ordered by judges to be deported - from gaining legal status. Democrats siphoned support from Cornyn's proposal by winning adoption, 66-32, of a rival version that would bar a more limited set of criminals, including certain gang members and *** offenders, from gaining legalization.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., alone among his party's presidential aspirants in backing the immigration measure, opposed Cornyn's bid and backed the Democratic alternative offered by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.
Senators also rejected a proposal by Robert Menendez, D-N.J., that would have delayed the bill's shift in favor of attracting foreign workers with needed skills as opposed to keeping families together. Menendez won 53 votes, seven short of the 60 needed under a Senate procedural rule invoked by his opponents.
Menendez's proposal would have allowed more than 800,000 people who had applied for permanent legal status by the beginning of 2007 to obtain green cards based purely on their family connections - a preference the bill ends for most relatives who got in line after May 2005.
Meanwhile, Sen. Hillary R. Clinton, D-N.Y., fell short in her bid to remove limits on visas for the spouses and minor children of immigrants with permanent resident status.
While several Cornyn amendments failed, he prevailed on one matter opposed by the grand bargainers. That amendment, adopted 57 to 39, would make it easier to locate and deport illegal immigrants whose visa applications are rejected.
The bill would have barred law enforcement agencies from seeing applications for so-called Z visas, which can lead to citizenship if granted. Cornyn said legal authorities should know if applicants have criminal records that would warrant their deportation.
Opponents said eligible applicants might be afraid to file applications if they believe they are connected to deportation actions. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in an interview that Cornyn's amendment was "not a deal-killer" but would have to be changed in House-Senate negotiations.
WASHINGTON — A proposed immigration overhaul survived a stiff challenge Wednesday as the Senate turned back a Democrat's bid to emphasize reuniting families more than job skills for many foreigners seeking to move to the U.S.
Supporters of bipartisan compromise for legalizing 12 million unlawful immigrants invoked rules effectively requiring an amendment to win 60 votes to keep their delicate coalition from crumbling.
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., got 53 votes for his effort to delay shifting U.S. immigration policy away from keeping families together in favor of attracting more foreign workers. But that was seven votes short of the 60 needed. Voting against him were 44 senators.
The Menendez amendment would have allowed more than 800,000 people who had applied for permanent legal status by the beginning of 2007 to obtain green cards based purely on their family connections — a preference the bill ends for most relatives who got in line after May 2005.
Menendez, whose parents were Cuban immigrants, told his colleagues that the bill will undermine "the reunification of families." Meanwhile, critics of the bill's main feature — legalizing the estimated 12 million immigrants in the U.S. unlawfully — won an amendment that could make it easier to locate and deport illegal immigrants whose visa applications are rejected.
The bill would have barred law-enforcement agencies from seeing applications for Z visas, which can lead to citizenship if granted. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, called for lifting the ban, saying authorities should know if applicants' criminal records warrant deportation. His measure passed, 57-39.
Cornyn earlier lost a vote to bar from legalization people under court orders to be deported. The vote was 51-46 against the amendment.
Democrats succeeded in pulling support from Cornyn's proposal by winning adoption of a rival version that would bar a more limited set of criminals from gaining legalization. The Senate backed that amendment 66-32.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. opposed Cornyn's bid and backed the Democratic alternative of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.
McCain was joined in opposing the amendment by the Senate's four Democratic presidential hopefuls, Joseph Biden of Delaware, Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, and Barack Obama of Illinois. Cornyn said those who voted against the proposal "failed to take an opportunity to help restore public confidence that we're actually serious about passing an immigration law that could actually work."
Many Americans will conclude instead that the bill's enforcement provisions will not be rigorously enforced, which deeply undermined a 1986 immigration overhaul, he added.
Lobbying to legalize certain prized foreign workers threatens bill
By Charles Babington The Associated Press
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.07.2007
WASHINGTON — Waves of immigrants, scorned by many people, are so valued by U.S. business that the competition for them threatens the fragile immigration compromise in Congress. With the government bent on tightening U.S. borders and workplace regulations, competing business interests are lobbying Congress to legalize the foreign-born workers they most need, even if it means hurting other sectors.
Industries that need highly skilled, well-educated workers are pitted against those that want lower-wage, minimally skilled employees. All of them are jealously eyeing the agriculture sector, whose powerful lobby secured a separate "AgJobs" bill likely to provide ample numbers of immigrant farm workers for decades to come.
"Other than the ag guys, who are taken care of, I don't think you could contact any constituency in the business community but they'd find a problem" with the Senate bill, said R. Bruce Josten, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's top lobbyist.
The chamber supports the bill as the best available compromise, Josten said, but the infighting among various corporate interests underscores its precarious status. "It's divisive in the Republican base, it's divisive in the Democratic base, it's divisive in the business community. It splits organized labor, it splits the immigration community," Josten said.
Bias against workers
The chamber and other broadly based trade groups have tried to keep their constituents in line. They say a flawed compromise is preferable to doing nothing to revise a system of leaky borders that has resulted in an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the country. Some key business sectors have balked.
The National Association of Home Builders, whose members employ many thousands of immigrant workers, says the bill could endanger employers who unwittingly hire illegal immigrants and unfairly limit the number of permanent-resident green cards for low-skill workers needed by many construction crews. "There is a huge prejudice against the kind of immigrants" typically hired by home builders, said Jerry Howard, the association's chief executive officer.
His group refused to join fellow members of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition in endorsing the measure. Those backing the bill include trade groups for hotels, restaurants, landscapers and meat and poultry processors. But even groups that officially support the bill are seeking changes that would help them at the expense of others, a competition that could cripple an already compromised measure that can take only so many hits.
That competition is all the keener because of last week's Senate vote to limit the number of temporary workers entering the country to 200,000 a year, rather than the 400,000 originally proposed.
In the U.S. hotel-motel industry alone, about 300,000 low-wage jobs come open each year, and many cannot be filled without foreign-born workers, said Steve Porter, the Americas president of the Intercontinental Hotels Group. Point system an issue
Porter's company and others will press the House to restore the 400,000 cap, he said. Lawmakers and lobbyists say that's the type of battle that could threaten the Senate-crafted compromise. Moreover, many high-tech and low-tech employers want to amend the Senate bill's proposed point system for determining which immigrants qualify for green cards.
Comparatively low-skill industries say the new system would reduce their supply of immigrant workers by favoring foreign-born applicants with high skill levels and advanced degrees. High-tech employers object because the plan would change an existing feature they like. Currently, they can sponsor individual workers for green cards, which can help them retain valued employees.
The Senate bill would place the green card process largely under the government-run point system, giving employers much less control. The bill's drafters were working to fend off a proposed amendment that would leave the existing green card process largely intact. They said the amendment by Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, could destroy the delicate coalition of Democrats and Republicans needed to pass the bill and send it to the House.
But the amendment has powerful backers. The National Association of Manufacturers said in a letter to senators this week: "The Cantwell-Cornyn amendment retains employers' flexibility in selecting the workers and determining the skill sets needed to remain competitive."
U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 110th Congress - 1st Session (2007)
[b]Vote Date Question Result Description/b]
00204 07-Jun S. 1348 On the Cloture Motion Rejected Motion to Invoke Cloture on S. 1348; Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007
00203 07-Jun S. 1348 On the Cloture Motion S.Amdt. 1150 Rejected Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Kennedy Amdt. No. 1150, As Amended; In the nature of a substitute.
00202 07-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1311 Rejected Coburn Amdt. No. 1311, As Modified; To require the enforcement of existing border security and immigration laws and Congressional approval before amnesty can be granted.
00201 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1316 Agreed to Dorgan Amdt. No. 1316; To sunset the Y-1 nonimmigrant visa program after a 5-yer period.
00200 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1202 Rejected Obama Amdt. No. 1202, As Modified; To provide a date on which the authority of the section relating to the increasing of American competitiveness through a merit-based evaluation system for immigrants shall be terminated.
00199 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1339 Rejected Vitter Amdt. No. 1339; To require that the U.S. VISIT system- the biometric border check-in/check-out system first required by Congress in 1996 that is already well past its already postponed 2005 implementation due date- be finished as part of the enforcement trigger.
00198 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1151 Agreed to Inhofe Amdt. No. 1151; To amend title 4, United States Code, to declare English as the national language of the Government of the United States, and for other purposes.
00197 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1384 Agreed to Salazar Amdt. No. 1384; To preserve and enhance the role of the English language.
00196 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1374 Rejected Ensign Amdt. No. 1374; To improve the criteria and weights of the merit-based evaluation system.
00195 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Motion S.Amdt. 1183 Rejected Motion to Waive CBA Re: Clinton Amdt. No. 1183, As Further Modified; To reclassify the spouses and minor children of lawful permanent residents as immediate relatives.
00194 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1460 Agreed to Kyl Amdt. No. 1460; To modify the allocation of visas with respect to the backlog of family-based visa petitions.
00193 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Motion S.Amdt. 1194 Rejected Motion to Waive CBA Re: Menendez Amdt. No 1194; To modify the deadline for the family backlog reduction.
00192 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1234 Agreed to Sessions Amdt. No. 1234; To save American taxpayers up to $24 billion in the 10 years after passage of this Act, by preventing the earned income tax credit, which is, according to the Congressional Research Service, the largest anti-poverty entitlement program of the Federal Government, from being claimed by Y temporary workers or illegal aliens given status by this Act until they adjust to legal permanent resident status.
00191 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1331 Agreed to Reid Amdt. No. 1331; To clarify the application of the earned income tax credit.
00190 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1250 Agreed to Cornyn Amdt. No. 1250; To address documentation of employment and to make an amendment with respect to mandatory disclosure of information
00189 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1267 Rejected Bingaman Amdt. No. 1267 As Modified; To remove the requirement that Y-1 nonimmigrant visa holders leave the United States before they are able to renew their visa.
00188 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1197 Rejected DeMint Amdt. No. 1197; To require health care coverage for holders of Z nonimmigrant visas.
00187 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1184 Rejected Cornyn Amdt. No. 1184, As Modified; To establish a permanent bar for gang members, terrorists, and other criminals.
00186 06-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1333 Agreed to Kennedy Amdt. No. 1333, as Modified; To increase the immigration-related penalties associated with various criminal activities
00185 05-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1176 Agreed to Feingold Amdt. No. 1176; To establish commissions to review the facts and circumstances surrounding injustices suffered by European Americans, European Latin Americans, and Jewish refugees during World War II.
00184 05-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1170 Rejected McConnell Amdt. No. 1170; To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require individuals voting in person to present photo identification.
00183 05-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1231 Agreed to Durbin Amdt. No. 1231; To ensure that employers make efforts to recruit American workers.
00182 05-Jun S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1189 Rejected Allard Amdt. No. 1189; To eliminate the preference given to people who entered the United States illegally over people seeking to enter the country legally in the merit-based evaluation system for visas.
___________________________________________ 00180 24-May On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1157 Rejected Vitter Amdt. No. 1157; To strike title VI related to Nonimmigrants in the United States Previously in Unlawful Status).
00179 24-May On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1223 Agreed to Sanders Amdt. No. 1223; To establish the American Competitiveness Scholarship program.
00180 24-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1157 Rejected Vitter Amdt. No. 1157; To strike title VI (related to Nonimmigrants in the United States Previously in Unlawful Status).
00179 24-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1223 Agreed to Sanders Amdt. No. 1223; To establish the American Competitiveness Scholarship Program.
00178 24-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1181 Rejected Dorgan Amdt. No. 1181; To sunset the Y-1 nonimmigrant visa program after a 5-year period.
00177 24-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1158 Rejected Coleman Amdt. No. 1158; To amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to facilitate information sharing between federal and local law enforcement officials related to an individual's immigration status.
00176 24-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1186 Agreed to Akaka Amdt. No. 1186; To exempt children of certain Filipino World War II veterans from the numerical limitations on immigrant visas.
00175 23-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1169 Agreed to Bingaman Amdt. No. 1169; To reduce to 200,000 the number of certain non-immigrants permitted to be admitted during a fiscal year.
00174 22-May S. 1348 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1153 Rejected Dorgan Amdt. No. 1153; To strike the Y nonimmigrant guestworker program.
00173 21-May S. 1348 On the Cloture Motion Agreed to Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to Consider S.1348; Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007
'Silent Amnesty': Where the Hard Right Goes Soft on Immigration
By LAWRENCE DOWNES Published: June 7, 2007 All right, seal the border. Then what?
Senator John McCain has been putting the question to the right-wing critics who have attacked the Senate’s immigration bill as a ****able amnesty for illegal aliens. He is aiming mostly at Mitt Romney, his Republican presidential rival, but he could be speaking to anyone in the large, loud chorus of conservatives who are so furious about the immigration compromise they could spit.
It’s a perfectly reasonable question. Once we lock down the southern border, we lock ourselves in with 12 million illegal immigrants. Let’s assume we don’t want to deport them all, with a forced-resettlement program big enough to empty the state of Ohio. If we don’t want another Trail of Tears and don’t want anybody legalized, we will have to get rid of these people some other way.
This is where the rigor of the right turns to mush. Mr. Romney talks as tough as anyone about securing the borders and despising amnesty. He is proud of the way he tried to heap layers of misery on illegal immigrants when he was governor of Massachusetts. He calls the legalization provisions of the Senate bill utterly unacceptable. But he has laid out no alternative.
At Tuesday night’s Republican debate, Mr. Romney had a perfect opportunity to respond to the charge that he has been pandering for votes while offering no solution other than doing nothing, which Mr. McCain memorably condemns as “silent amnesty.” Check the transcript: Mr. Romney had no rebuttal.
If anyone ought to have thought this through, it would be Representative Tom Tancredo, who is running for president as an immigration zealot. He says he hates the bill so much he wants to unseat any senator who votes for it. But his tough talk on Tuesday was almost as fuzzy as Mr. Romney’s. His campaign Web site devotes a scant two paragraphs to immigration policy. Take away the quotation from Theodore Roosevelt, and you have just one paragraph, with a single prescriptive sentence: “The only realistic solution to the problem of illegal immigration is a strategy of attrition, which seeks to reduce the flow of the illegal alien population over time by cutting off the incentive for coming to and staying in America — most importantly by eliminating the jobs magnet.”
Attrition is the restrictionists’ fallback plan, a wishful equation that with enough enforcement, mass deportation will happen by itself: Misery plus time equals no more illegals. Small-bore ideologues in places like Hazleton, Pa., and Suffolk County, N.Y., have bought into this approach, adding layer on layer of hostile legislation to drive people out.
The price of this strategy is high — far more government intrusion into daily lives, with exponential increases in workplace raids, detentions and deportations; continual ID checks for everyone, citizen or not; immigration police at the federal, state, county and local levels; bureaucrats and snoops keeping an eye on landlords, renters, laborers, loiterers and everyone who uses government services or gets sick. The strain on agriculture and service industries would be devastating. And all the things that everyone agrees are the perversities of the status quo — exploited workers, depressed wages, a huge undocumented population within our borders — would persist for an indefinite period until the last illegal immigrant goes home.
The make-’em-suffer, wait-’em-out tactic is shockingly passive. It’s a far cry from the comprehensive reform that Mr. McCain supports, which would move decisively to extend a web of lawfulness over the shadow population, signing people up for visas, doing background checks, extracting fines and back taxes and imposing other conditions. Poll after poll shows the American public supporting this assertive, fair-minded approach. But the amnesty-never hard-liners seem determined to drown them out.
Maybe this country can make undocumented life so miserable as to extinguish all hope in an immigrant’s heart. Maybe it can impose and enforce laws with such rigidity as to make America a beacon of hopelessness. But as an immigration policy, it’s hard not to see that as delusional. As an expression of American ideals, it’s repulsive.
After years of inconclusive posturing and negotiation, Congress is finally getting serious about a comprehensive overhaul of U.S. immigration policy. The Senate proposal under consideration, to its credit, deals with all three crucial elements of the immigration policy challenge: what to do about the illegal immigrants already here (whom no one honestly believes we would ever deport); how we might secure the border and stem future illegal entry; and whom we should admit in the future.
The bill is a decidedly mixed bag, however, with elements that are good, very good and downright ugly. Unfortunately, the ugly element may fatally outweigh the rest.
First, the good: The proposed legislation's convoluted path to legal status for the country's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants is probably the best compromise to be achieved between the adamant proponents and opponents of "amnesty." It is essential that all immigrants who are permitted to stay actually become members of American society. The legalization provisions, however imperfect, are better than the status quo. More good: On border security, the proposed bill would focus primarily on an electronically supported implementation of employer sanctions. This makes real sense, because employer sanctions have always been a far more effective means of stopping illegal immigration in its tracks than border guards or fences. Those who claim that employer sanctions haven't worked are unaware that they have never been seriously tried. If we mean it this time, employer sanctions will work.
Second, the very good:Second, The most commendable aspect of the bill is its retreat from family sponsorship—indeed any form of sponsorship—as the only basis for admitting immigrants, in favor of a merit-based point system. The point system is predicated on self-sponsorship, with bonus points fo
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