Last Updated: Monday, May 29, 2007 at 12:40p.m.
Immigration Battle in the Senate | |
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| | | (May 29) On May 25, the Senate adjourned for the Memorial Day recess. When it reconvenes the week of June 4, Members will resume debate on S. 1348, the amnesty/guestworker bill.
On May 24, senators narrowly voted down amendments sponsored by Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), respectively, that would have sunsetted the bill’s guestworker program after five years (Dorgan) and would have permitted police to inquire as to an individual’s immigration status when going about their usual law enforcement duties (Coleman). Both proposals were rejected by a single vote (48 for, 49 against).
On May 23, senators adopted an amendment sponsored by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) reducing the annual importation of workers under the bill’s guestworker programs to 200,000 workers per year and eliminating its “escalator” clause, which, if it had been retained, would have allowed as many as 600,000 “temporary” workers to be admitted each year. On May 22, senators voted down an amendment sponsored by Sens. Dorgan and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) that would have deleted the bill's guestworker provisions in their entirety.
Numerous amendments will be taken up when Senators return. Proponents of the “compromise” measure have yet to substitute its text for that of the underlying bill (last year’s amnesty-laden S. 2611 has been the placeholder text). Other possible amendments are noted below in the Upcoming Votes section.
| | Background Information on S. 1348 | This page describes Senate floor action on S. 1348 (If you have any questions or comments, please CLICK HERE.) | VIEW CHART showing estimated numerical impact of the Bush-Kennedy immigration bill. | | CLICK HERE to read the final draft of the grand amnesty compromise brokered by President Bush, Sen. Kennedy and Sen. McCain. This legislation would reward between 12-20 million illegal aliens with amnesty and skyrocket legal immigration. Even though the Senate was expected to begin voting on this legislation on Monday, May 21, it was only made available to most Senators, staff, and the general public at 2 a.m. on Saturday, May 19. | | BACKGROUND: On May 17, Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), and other Senate and White House negotiators announced that they had reached agreement on a “compromise” immigration bill. The final text of the bill was made available to Senators and their staff on Monday, the same day the Senate began debating the proposed legislation. Under the proposal: - All illegal aliens who claim to have been in the United States since January 1, 2007 would have up to two years to appear at an U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office, drop off a completed application for a “Z” visa, pay a $1,000 fine (plus $500 for each spouse, child, and parent living here illegally with them) and submit their fingerprints. USCIS would attempt to check their fingerprints against one or more criminal databases and, as long as fewer than three misdemeanors and no felonies showed up within 24 hours, USCIS would be required to grant them “probationary” amnesty in the form of a work permit and legal permission to remain in the United States until their Z visa application was adjudicated.
- In case one amnesty is not sufficient, the proposal also includes both the DREAM Act amnesty for illegal aliens who graduate from U.S. high schools and the AgJOBS amnesty for 1.5 million illegal alien agricultural workers.
- The employers of these newly amnestied aliens also would receive amnesty under the proposal. They would not be subject to fines or prosecution either for hiring the illegal aliens or for any tax fraud committed as a result.
- Issuance of the Z visas, along with a new category of “Y” temporary foreign workers visas (see below), would be put on hold until the Secretary of Homeland Security could certify to the President that a series of “triggers” had been met:
- Customs and Border Protection must have hired (not trained or deployed) a total of 18,000 Border Patrol agents;
- The Department of Homeland Security must have installed 370 miles of border fence (about half the total miles of fencing required by the law passed by Congress and signed by the President at the end of the last Congress), along with some vehicle barriers and radar and camera towers, and deployed at least four unmanned aerial vehicles;
- Immigration and Customs Enforcement must have 27,500 detention beds (the number it has now) and DHS must continue to detain removable aliens apprehended along the southern border;
- DHS must have the tools to prevent illegal aliens from obtaining jobs, including the establishment of (though not the widespread use of) identification standards (presumably like those required by past laws, including the REAL ID Act) and an electronic work eligibility verification system (like the Basic Pilot); and
- USCIS must be “processing and adjudicating in a timely manner” Z visa applications (since these are not supposed to be issued until the triggers are met, apparently, USCIS would be deciding them and saving them for later issuance).
So the triggers do NOT require that DHS have operational control of the border; they do NOT require that DHS comply with the law and build the all of the fence; they do NOT require that DHS implement the exit system that would allow us to know if "guest workers" actually leave, even though it has been in the law since 1996; they do NOT require work site enforcement; and they do NOT require that DHS increase its apprehension rate or its alien absconder removal rate. - Once the Secretary made the certification that the triggers had been met, USCIS would have to issue millions of Z visas within a six-month period because all “probationary” status would expire six months after issuance began. (If the certifications were never made because the triggers were never met, thus preventing issuance of the Z visas, the probationary status would remain valid indefinitely until Congress or the Administration took action.
- The new Y-visa guestworker program would also kick in upon certification that the triggers had been met. This program allows U.S. employers to import up to 200,000 (it was 400,000 before Senator Bingaman successfully amended the bill) low-skilled foreign workers to fill American jobs in industries like construction, landscaping, and services. These workers would be allowed to come for up to three two-year periods, as long as they agreed not to bring their families and went home for one year in between each period. If they wanted to bring their families for one two-year period, they would be prohibited from coming for more than two two-year periods. (Since we have no exit system to ensure that temporary workers or their families leave when they are supposed to, and since the bill requires only that DHS submit a plan to eventually implement one, these workers and their families could simply stay illegally.)
- The bill also purports to end chain migration by eliminating the visa categories for siblings and adult children. First, however, it proposes clearing the waiting list of such relatives by increasing family-based permanent immigration by 440,000 each year until the more than six million individuals who have been on the waiting list since May of 2005 have been accommodated.
- Once all those on the waiting list for the chain migration categories have been granted green cards, all the millions of amnestied Z visa holders would become eligible to apply for green cards. Z visa holders would be required to drop off their green card applications at a U.S. consular office in their home country (or in any other country where the consular officials chose to accept the applications regardless of nationality of the applicant, a choice left to the discretion of the consular offices under the bill). DHS would collect another $4,000 from each head of household, check that they are learning some English and that they have paid their taxes, but only since they were legalized. Those Z visa holders who declined the offer of a green card could simply renew their Z visa every four years for as long as they wanted to remain in the United States.
- Rather than the current employment-based visa preference categories, the bill would create a “merit system,” which would assign points to applicants for green cards based on their skills, education, English ability, and the presence of relatives in the United States. In the first five years under the bill, the number of visas in this system would be almost double the current number of employment-based visas.
- The bill also includes three titles of enforcement provisions—one on border enforcement, one on interior enforcement, and one on work place enforcement. These provisions are virtually meaningless, however, unless the administration is willing to enforce them. The Bush Administration has demonstrated its unwillingness to enforce current law, so it seems overly optimistic to expect that, after they get their amnesty and new foreign worker programs, that they would suddenly see the value in enforcing any new immigration control measures.
Polls Show Majority of Americans Oppose Senate Bill | Rasmussen poll: Only 26% of Americans favor the Senate bill.
Click here to read. | New poll finds Americans disagree with Senate bill's main thrust. | | | UPCOMING VOTES: |  NumbersUSA Comments: | Grassley SA 1166 (for himself and Sens. DeMint and Dole): Prohibits judicial review of visa revocation following admission into the United States in instances where revocation is the sole reason for an alien’s removal.
| NumbersUSA Urges A YES Vote
Currently, judicial review is prohibited in cases of visa denial by consular offices abroad. This amendment would treat visa revocations similar to visa denials because the right of that person to be in the United States is no longer valid. As such, it would reduce unnecessary court appeals as well as serve as an important anti-terrorism tool. | Clinton SA 1183 (on behalf of herself and Sens. Hagel and Menendez): Expands the definition of “immediate relative” to include minor children and spouses of lawful permanent residents for the purposes of family-sponsored immigration and increases the family-sponsored immigration visa cap.
| NumbersUSA Urges A NO Vote
This amendment runs counter to the claims of the measure’s proponents by actually exacerbating the scourge of “chain migration.” By itself, in fact, the “grand compromise” would not end chain migration, as its backers have suggested, but make it worse, and making the problem worse still through adoption of this amendment is no solution. | Cornyn SA 1184 (for himself and Sens. Ben Nelson and DeMint): Permanently bars from admission into the United States, and denies immigration benefits (including the granting of amnesty under this bill), to: (1) absconders (i.e., aliens already ordered deported); (2) aliens deemed inadmissible or deportable as security risks (e.g., terrorists); (3) aliens who fail to register as sex offenders; (4) aliens convicted of certain firearms offenses; (5) aliens convicted of domestic violence, stalking, crimes against children, or violation of protection orders; (6) alien gang members; and (7) aliens convicted of at least three DUIs. | NumbersUSA Doesn't Take a Position on This Amendment
While NumbersUSA supports efforts to permanently deny benefits to terrorists, etc., we are unable to take a position on this amendment because we have not seen the language being proposed by Sen. Cornyn, who was a prime mover in the negotiation of the so-called “grand compromise,” but, in recent days, has broken somewhat with that cabal. | Menendez SA 1194 (on behalf of himself and Sens. Hagel, Durbin, Clinton, Dodd, Obama, Akaka, Lautenberg, and Inouye) : Changes the cut-off date for reducing the “backlog” of family-sponsored immigration applicants from May 1, 2005, to January 1, 2007, the same date by which illegal aliens must have been unlawfully present in the United States in order to receive amnesty under this bill. Adds 110,000 green cards a year for adult children and sibling backlog reduction.
| NumbersUSA Urges A NO Vote
The “compromise” bill already includes an increase of almost 600,000 green cards to reduce the so-called “family unification” backlog, something NumbersUSA strongly opposes. This amendment, offered by Sen. Menendez (who was one of the chief negotiators in bringing to the floor the “grand compromise” before breaking away to seek an even more egregious open borders position), would only worsen the problem caused by “chain migration.” | McConnell SA 1170 (for himself and Sens. Bond, Cornyn, and DeMint): Requires voters, in an effort to prohibit illegal aliens from voting, to present a government-issued photo ID at the polls.
| NumbersUSA Doesn't Take a Position on This Amendment
NumbersUSA takes no position on the bill because it does not affect the overall immigration numbers. However, prohibiting illegal aliens from voting protects Americans from being disenfranchised. | Feingold SA 1176 (for himself and Sens. Inouye and Lieberman): Establishes the Commission on Wartime Treatment of European Americans to review U.S. government wartime treatment (from September 1, 1939, through December 31, 1948) of European Americans and European Latin American. Establishes the Commission on Wartime Treatment of Jewish Refugees to review the U.S. government's refusal to allow entry into the United States of Jewish and other refugees fleeing persecution in Europe between January 1, 1933, and December 31, 1945.
| NumbersUSA Doesn't Take a Position on This Amendment
The amendment is not likely to significantly change overall immigration numbers | Hutchison: Requires illegal aliens to leave the country to apply for a "Z" visa. (As currently proposed, the “grand compromise” only those illegal immigrants seeking permanent visas, or green cards, to "touch back" to their home countries.)
| NumbersUSA Doesn't Take a Position on This Amendment
The touchback requirement, whether applicable to those seeking a green card or a Z visa, does nothing to mitigate the fact that illegal aliens would be granted amnesty when they receive probationary status. | Durbin SA 1231 (for himself and Sen. Grassley): Eliminates provisions authorizing the Department of Labor to waive requirements that employers in "labor shortage areas" offer jobs to U.S. workers before seeking to import foreign workers.
| NumbersUSA Urges A YES Vote
This amendment would protect jobs for American workers that are now going to cheap imported workers. | Sessions SA 1234: Prohibits foreign workers imported through this bill’s new Y “guestworker” program and illegal aliens granted “probationary status” (i.e., amnesty) from claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit unless their status is adjusted to lawful permanent resident.
| NumbersUSA Urges A YES Vote
Under the proposed “grand compromise,” the EITC, which, according to the Congressional Research Service, is the largest anti-poverty entitlement program, is available to Y “gustworkers” and to illegal aliens granted amnesty. If this amendment were to be adopted, not only would it save taxpayers an estimated $24 billion over 10 years, but would negate a lucrative reward to aliens – legal and illegal – who are unlikely, as the name of the tax credit implies, to have truly earned it. | FINISHED VOTES:
 All vote tallies in GREEN indicate the Senate voted the way NumbersUSA urged. | | Vote tallies in RED indicate where the Senate opposed NumbersUSA. | | NumbersUSA Comments: | Cloture Vote (Reid [Sens. Boxer, Leahy, Levin, Reed, Durbin, Inouye, Mikulski, Menendez, Klobuchar, Akaka, Cantwell, Bingaman, Salazar, Feinstein, Dodd, and Kennedy joined with Leader Reid in moving that cloture be invoked]): Procedural motion that allows S. 1348 to be considered on the Senate floor.
Adopted 69-23
Roll call vote tally
| NumbersUSA Urged A NO Vote
This vote was the best opportunity to send negotiators back to the bargaining table to come up with an immigration bill that does not provide amnesty or increase foreign workers. | Dorgan SA 1153 ( for himself and Sen. Boxer): Deletes provisions in the bill establishing new “guestworker” programs, which, potentially, could authorize the importation of up to 600,000 foreign workers per year.
Failed 31-65
Roll call vote tally
| NumbersUSA Urged A YES Vote
New guestworker programs are unnecessary because the importation of additional cheap foreign workers depresses wages in many sectors of the economy and causes even higher levels of unemployment and underemployment for native-born workers. | Bingaman SA 1169 (for himself and Sens. Feinstein, Obama, Dodd, and Durbin): Reduces the annual importation of workers under the new guestworker programs proposed by this bill to 200,000 workers per year and eliminates the “escalator” clause that allows that cap to be “adjusted” as per “market” factors.
Adopted 72-24
Roll call vote tally
| NumbersUSA Urged A YES Vote
While NumbersUSA would have preferred to see Sen. Dorgan’s amendment adopted, which would have deleted the new guestworker programs in their entirety, reducing their numerical impact is preferable the current language in the “compromise” bill, which could bring in as many as 600,000 new foreign workers each year. | Graham SA 1173 (for himself and Sens. Chambliss, Isakson, McCain, Martinez, Kyl, and McConnell): Creates mandatory minimum sentences for re-entry following prior removal.
Adopted by Unanimous Consent
| NumbersUSA Didn't Take A Position on This Amendment
While, in general, NumbersUSA supports strong enforcement measures – particularly as they relate to “repeat” immigration offenders – we are unable to take a position on this amendment because we have not seen the language being proposed by Sen. Graham, who has been a prime mover in the negotiation of the so-called “grand compromise.” | Feinstein SA 1146 (for herself and Sens. Martinez, Cantwell, and Hagel): Enables unaccompanied alien children to apply for special immigrant juvenile status, which is a pathway to permanent residence, if they cannot make a persuasive case for asylum and are deemed to be a dependent of the state as a result of abuse, neglect, or abandonment.
Adopted by Voice Vote
| NumbersUSA Urged A NO Vote
The current system of adjudicating cases concerning unaccompanied alien children, while not perfect, would not be fixed by providing them an easier path to permanent residence without respect to the merits of each case. | Gregg SA 1172 (for himself and Sens. DeMint, Cornyn, and Dole): Requires DHS, before implementing the bill’s provisions granting Z nonimmigrant status to illegal aliens and provisions establishing new guestworker programs, to certify that it has: (1) established and demonstrated operational control of the entire U.S.-Mexico border; (2 ) hired and trained 20,000 Border Patrol agents (up from 18,000 in the underlying bill); (3 ) put up 300 miles of vehicle barriers (up from 200 in the underlying proposal); ( 4) erected additional radar and camera towers along the U.S.-Mexico border; and (5 ) resources to detain up to 31,500 aliens per day on an annual basis (up from 27,500 in the underlying bill). Maintains other “triggering” mechanisms (e.g., processing of amnesty applications, mandatory workplace verification, etc.). Requires DHS to consult with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) during the certification process, after which GAO must report to Congress on the accuracy of the certification. Eliminates the provision providing a sense of Congress claiming that all “triggers” can be implemented within 18 months.
Adopted by Voice Vote
| NumbersUSA Urged A YES Vote
While NumbersUSA remains adamantly opposed to the mass amnesty and guestworker provisions, this terrible bill can only be improved by putting some teeth in its enforcement measures. Unfortunately, the amendment does not delay the granting of “probationary” Z nonimmigrant status, the point at which – contrary to popular belief – mass amnesty under this bill is actually granted. | Leahy SA 1165 (for himself and Sens. Kohl, Casey, and Schumer): Establishes guidelines for admission of aliens employed as seasonal dairy workers.
Adopted by Unanimous Consent
| NumbersUSA Urged A NO Vote
This amendment provides for the unnecessary importation of foreign workers for jobs that Americans will do if they are paid a decent wage. | Akaka SA 1186 (for himself and Sens. Reid, Durbin, Inouye, Boxer, Murray, and Cantwell): Exempts children of Filipino World War II veterans naturalized pursuant to the Immigration Act of 1990 from numerical limits on worldwide immigration.
Adopted 87-9
Roll call vote tally | NumbersUSA Urged A NO Vote
Any additional exemptions from caps on visa issuance serve only to increase the flow of immigration into the United States. | Coleman SA 1158 (for himself and Sens. Bond, Cochran, Isakson, Sessions, Allard, and Dole): Restores to state and local law enforcement officers the ability to pursue a person’s immigration status as part of their daily work and, subsequently, to report their suspicions to the appropriate Federal authorities though already-established channels, as they are already required to do by law.
Failed 48-49
Roll call vote tally
| NumbersUSA Urged A YES Vote
Although sanctuary policies are explicitly prohibited under Federal law, they have not been challenged by the Bush Administration. This amendment enables state and local officials to inquire about a person’s immigration status for law enforcement and benefit application purposes. | Dorgan SA 1181 (for himself and Sens. Boxer, Durbin, and Corker): Sunsets the bill’s new guestworker provisions in five years.
Failed 48-49
Roll call vote tally
| NumbersUSA Urged A YES Vote
New guestworker programs are unnecessary because the importation of additional cheap foreign workers depresses wages in many sectors of the economy and causes even higher levels of unemployment and underemployment for native-born workers. | McCain SA 1190 (for himself and Sens. Graham, Burr, and Specter): Requires illegal aliens to pay back taxes upon the granting of “probationary” Z status (i.e., amnesty).
Adopted by Voice Vote
| NumbersUSA Didn't Take A Position on This Amendment
While NumbersUSA strongly believes that back taxes should be paid in the unfortunate event that amnesty is granted to illegal aliens, we are unable to take a position on this amendment as we have not seen the language proposed by Sen. McCain, long a champion of amnesty and a “prime mover” in the so-called “grand compromise.” | Sanders SA 1223: Raises the fees employers who wish to import H-1B high-skill nonimmigrant workers from $1,500 to $10,000, with the funds going to scholarships for American high tech students.
Adopted 59-35
Roll call vote tally
| NumbersUSA Urged A YES Vote
The importation of cheap foreign workers under the H-1B visa program has put tens of thousands of American tech workers out of work. It has not been used to supplement the need for high tech workers in the U.S., but to replace American workers with lower cost, foreign workers. To wit, the Center for Immigration Studies found that H-1B workers earn an average of $12,000 less than American workers in the same fields. Further importation of these workers would only make the problem worse. Although this amendment does not cut the massive increases in H-1B visas included in the bill, it would at least make the program more expensive to use, which may preclude some businesses from using it and encourage more American students to enter the high tech field. | Vitter SA 1157 (for himself and Sens. DeMint, Inhofe, Bunning, Thomas, Enzi, Coburn, and Grassley): Eliminates the bill's amnesty provisions.
Failed 29-66
Roll call vote tally
| NumbersUSA Urged A YES Vote
This amendment is critical to salvaging this opportunity in the Senate for real immigration reform. Amnesty will not solve the illegal alien crisis; it will only spur more illegal immigraiton. | |
We -- and most of you -- strongly disagree with some supporters of S. 1348 that it would be worth giving 12-20 million illegal aliens permanent access to U.S. jobs and residence in exchange for the enforcement they claim is in the bill.
