Immigration News

U.S. Representative Jeff Flake had a meeting with business leaders on Wednesday and indicated his opinion that there is a greater than 50-50 chance that the bill he has introduced in the House of Representatives will pass and become law. Representative Flake is one of the sponsors of the STRIVE bill that has been introduced in the House which is similar to the comprehensive immigration bill that passed the Senate last term.

Let’s hope that Representative Flake is correct. We urge interested individuals to send e-mails to their Congresspeople and Senators urging them to support comprehensive immigration reform.

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law met on March 30, 2007 at historic Ellis Island for a hearing on the Past, Present, and Future: A Historic and Personal Reflection on American Immigration.

Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, stated, “Our efforts to ensure vigorous enforcement of our laws in the interior, and especially at the worksite, are crucial to controlling the problem of illegal immigration. But they alone will not be sufficient. We must create a lawful mechanism so that in the future, foreign workers can come into the United States on a temporary basis to fill jobs that U.S. workers do not want. This regulated channel for temporary workers would dramatically reduce the pressure on our borders, aid our economy and ease the task of our law enforcement agents inside the country.”

Dowell Myers, Professor of Urban Planning and Demography and Director of the Population Dynamics Research Group University of Southern California, addressed the aging Baby Boomer crisis, “Immigrants do not arrive in a vacuum, and they may well provide at least part of the solution to a grave crisis that is about to overtake us. The rapid aging of our population creates stresses that are unprecedented, and the overall effect has enormous social, political, and economic implications for our future.”

Representatives Gutierrez (D-Ill) and Flake (R-Az) have introduced a bi-artisan comprehensive immigration bill in the House. The bill creates a certification process for demonstrating that improvements in border surveillance are in place before providing benefits to undocumented workers. The bill also strengthens interior enforcement in the United States and creates a new Employment Verification System to verify a new employee’s authorization to work in the United States.

The bill creates a new worker program that creates a legal channel for immigrant workers by establishing a temporary H-2C visa which is valid for three years and renewal for another three years. The bill also provides earned legalization or citizenship for people who are in the United States without proper documentation. The Act also overhauls the family-based and employment-based immigration system to reduce backlogs and inefficiencies.

This bill is very similar to the comprehensive immigration reform package that was passed by the Senate during the last Congressional session.