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Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 4:28 pm Post subject: Senate panel adds immigration measure to Iraq supplemental
The Hill
Senate panel adds immigration measure to Iraq supplemental
By Manu Raju
Posted: 05/15/08 04:06 PM [ET]
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday added to an Iraq spending bill a controversial provision to help pave the way for undocumented agriculture workers to win legal status, a move that may reopen the divisive immigration debate on the Senate floor.
The so-called Ag-Jobs amendment, sponsored by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Larry Craig (R-Idaho), would create a process that allows undocumented workers to continue to work on farms. Without the amendment, Feinstein warned that the U.S. would lose $5-9 billion to foreign competition, tens of thousands of farms would shut down and 80,000 workers would be transferred to Mexico. The bill would sunset in five years.
"Agriculture needs a consistent workforce," Feinstein said. "Without it, they can't plant, they can't prune, they can't pick and they can't pack.
"This is an emergency situation," she added.
The amendment was approved by a 17-12 vote with defections from both parties. Critics say the amendment amounts to amnesty for people who entered the country illegally. A broader comprehensive immigration overhaul, with a path for citizenship for the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, failed in a divisive Senate vote last year.
"No matter how one characterizes it, this enormous amendment still amounts to amnesty," said Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.). "I oppose amnesty. All these immigration issues should be addressed through the regular order."
The committee is moving Thursday to approve three separate measures: one to fund domestic priorities; another to provide $169 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and a third to alter President Bush's war policy.
The Senate plans to take up the bills next week, and is likely to reject the war policy measure, but will likely approve the funding for the wars.
It is unclear whether Democrats have the votes to approve the domestic-spending provision since a number of Republicans want to add their priorities. The measure remains one of the few vehicles likely to get enacted before the election in November. The addition of a slew of amendments could doom its prospects in the Senate.
The amendment was approved in committee. It hasn't been approved in the Senate floor. The battle is not over!
Call your senator and tell them not to vote for the Feinstein amnesty amendment.
I receive alerts from the United Farm Workers (just to know what the oppostion is planning), and I have not received an alert from them regarding this amendment. The opposition is not aware of this. Take advantage and dominate the phone lines!
Breaking News: Senate to Consider Partial Amnesty for Agricultural Workers
Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) obtained passage today of an amendment to the Iraq supplemental appropriations bill to provide partial amnesty for illegal immigrants working in agriculture. The amendment would provide legal status for 1.35 million agricultural workers and lessen current protections for Americans and new foreign workers taking agricultural jobs. The amendment was adopted 17-15 in the Appropriations Committee and will be part of the bill put to the full Senate for a vote. In a parallel move, apparently Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) is attempting to use a similar amendment to reopen temporary visas for unskilled workers outside the annual ceiling.
[FAIR Comment: Experience with partial amnesty provisions of this type demonstrate that partial amnesties become permanent amnesties at the end of the ‘temporary’ period. The argument becomes that the U.S. has allowed these people to put down roots and it would be unfair to try to uproot them now.]
We have just learned that sellout Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Larry Craig (R-Idaho) have successfully inserted the "Ag Jobs" amnesty components into a defense spending bill.
This amendment has been accepted by the Senate Appropriations Committee and has been added to an Iraq War spending bill.
They could vote on the spending bill today or tomorrow. If the bill passes with this language included it will grant a form of AMNESTY to millions of illegal aliens working on farms.
Take immediate action.
1. Call Dianne Feinstein and Larry Craig and give their staff an earful within reason. Follow-up your call with an e-mail or fax.
2. Call both of your US Senators immediately. If you get a voicemail, leave a message. Tell your Senators NO AG JOBS AMNESTY! NO DEFENSE SPENDING BILL WITH AG JOBS IN IT! Make sure you call, and immediately send a written complaint after calling.
3. Then proceed to call as many other members of the US Senate as possible with the same message. Call them all if you can.
We need a strong and immediate reaction from across the nation to this move by Feinstein and Craig!
Joined: Jan 02, 2008 Posts: 6909 Location: Mexifornia
Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 5:43 pm Post subject:
This should be absolutely criminal to attach this Ag Jobs amnesty component into an defense spending bill. It's certainly sneaky and cowardly! Feinstein was determined to get this passed, irrespective of what here constituents have expressed!
I was told on the phone after a call to Larry Craig's office :
"...that if I don't support this bill, troops will die in the field...So its up to me to support it."
To which I replied : "thanks for revealing your strategy in a most elementary fashion, but if you get amnesty passed you will have to deal with some consequences you are not prepared to deal with"
They are being vile, snotty and viscious. This is probably the most critical issue we have encountered yet. To hell with Craig the coward!
Joined: Jul 30, 2006 Posts: 6 Location: Southern California
Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 7:04 pm Post subject: Are Dems trying to keep Republicans in power?
If that's their goal, granting amnesty to illegal workers & employers is a great way to do it. It's also a great way to lose Democratic Party registration. They're certainly close to losing this Democrat.
I am livid, how could these people who are suppose to be looking out for us sell us down the river. We the people have told them over and over that we want no amnesty of any kind and they just keep on shoving it on us. Now this is just about as low as it gets, to threaten the funding of our troops just to get this passed. I am so mad Our men and women are sent to a far way country to keep them safe all the while our own corrupt government is giving away the land they are fighting for. Grrrrrrrrr. How do we stop the treason?
Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 7:20 pm Post subject: I am tired of making nice---
I just sent an email to each of my Senators. I told them that Feinstein's move is the sneakiest I have ever seen. I said she puts the lives of our young people tin the military at risk to help her Ag friends in CA. I will not vote for anyone who votes for this bill. I am tired of the B---S---. DC is populated with special interest boot lickers who do not care a fig what the people want. I was so angry today, I said to my wife. "In spite of my age, I feel that I will not die in my bed of natural causes".
Let 'em pass all the bills they want to try to control us, their butts will be out on the street after the next election. And all the fools who are going to put more Democrats in office are sending the message that they approve of illegal immigration, the North American Union and the subjugation of the US to foreign powers.
http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-685939.html#685939 _________________ The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing- Albert Einstein
Related & updated (scroll down for highlighted & relevant info):
TheHill.com
Senate panel approves Iraq war funding bill
By Manu Raju
Posted: 05/15/08 07:22 PM [ET]
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a sweeping emergency wartime funding package that includes restrictions on President Bush’s Iraq policy and provides tens of billions for new domestic programs.
The voice vote approval sets up a floor fight next week between the two parties over domestic priorities and the Iraq war on the eve of Congress’ one-week Memorial Day recess.
The package includes three separate amendments: $169 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through part of next year; more than $25 billion in new domestic spending; and language that sets a goal for the president to transition troops out of a military role in Iraq by June 2009.
The three different amendments will give Democrats who oppose the war an opportunity to vote for withdrawing troops without jeopardizing funding for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Senate is expected to ultimately reject the war policy amendment, which also includes a ban on permanent military bases in Iraq and language to give troops longer lag time in between troop deployments.
The chamber is anticipated to approve the troop-funding provision, but the prospects for the amendment adding domestic spending remain unclear.
Through a procedural maneuver, the bill would land on Bush’s desk as one bill. But the package first must clear the Senate and House, which earlier Thursday rejected a provision to spend $162 billion on the wars.
Bush has vowed to veto any bill that exceeds $178 billion for the wars through the rest of this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, and for part of fiscal year 2009. He has called on Congress to keep the bill free of domestic add-ons, but Democrats are daring him to veto the bill at a time when a growing number of Americans are concerned about the economy and the direction of the country.
Republicans say Democrats are putting troops at risk by loading up the supplemental, which Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) characterized as “horse-blank.”
“What hogwash. Let’s all have a big laugh,” he said before mockingly laughing out loud.
“By the end of 2008, the war in Iraq will have cost over $600 billion,” the 90-year-old Byrd said in a scathing 30-minute opening statement. “More than $600 billion dollars for every minute since our lord Jesus Christ was born. That’s a staggering figure.”
A number of Republicans have joined Democrats in pushing to beef up the domestic spending in the supplemental measure, recognizing that the must-pass bill remains one of the few pieces of legislation likely to become law before November’s elections.
Still, the committee added some controversial provisions that could cost Democrats some GOP support and votes from the conservative wing of their caucus.
For instance, Congress including in the domestic-programs amendment a provision that would help pave the way for undocumented agriculture workers to win legal status, an amendment that could reopen Congress’ rancorous debate over immigration policy.
The supporters of the so-called Ag-Jobs measure, Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Larry Craig (R-Idaho), say the five-year program is needed to keep farms operating and crops growing. The provision was added by a 17-12 vote.
But critics say that it amounts to amnesty for people who entered the country illegally, and warn that it could imperil support for the underlying bill.
Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, a conservative Democrat who voted against the Feinstein-Craig amendment, said it raises a “red flag.”
He said he would wait until he sees the final product before determining whether to support the bill.
Other immigration measures were added as well, including one by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who sought a three-year extension on a returning worker provision under H-2B visas, which she said was necessary to save seasonal businesses like seafood companies. That amendment has the support of Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.).
“It could be the end of crab meat,” she warned if the amendment were to be rejected. It was added to the Iraq-funding portion of the bill.
By a 20-9 vote, the committee also approved an amendment by Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) to increase low-income heating assistance by $1 billion.
The move prompted the ranking member of the committee, Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), to warn that a slew of amendments that were being added could lead to a White House veto.
“I think we are getting carried away here with the ease with which we are running up the bill,” Cochran said. “We’re turning this bill into a huge bill to force the administration to veto it.”
But Cochran and a number of other Republicans are strongly supportive of many other domestic spending items in the bill. Cochran, for instance, backs $10.4 billion for Gulf Coast recovery from the 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita. A number of centrist Republicans and ones in tough races support a 13-week extension of unemployment insurance, 11 Republicans are co-sponsoring a provision by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) to expand educational benefits for veterans, many support a plan to delay seven Medicaid rules issued by the Bush administration and $400 million of the so-called Byrne grants for state and local law enforcement remains very popular with both parties.
Those provisions, as well as billions of dollars for military-construction projects, might be too tough politically for Republicans to vote against, Democrats hope. And in the committee markup, Republicans were not shy about adding more funding on the domestic side.
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) won adoption of $50 million for an amendment to fund the Adam Walsh Act, a law aimed at tracking unregistered sex offenders. And Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) won adoption of a $100 million amendment to boost border security.
“I think what you saw today is a strong expression, bipartisan, from a number of people about our country addressing critical domestic issues,” said Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, who is a member of Democratic leadership. “It’s now up to the full Senate to determine that.”
Joined: Aug 17, 2007 Posts: 4511 Location: Indiana, formerly of Northern Cal
Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 9:37 pm Post subject:
I thought they had reached the bottom of the barrel before, but I was wrong. This is lower than even I imagined Feinstein would go. I suggest, even if the number of signatures needed is not met, Californians start a recall drive against Frankenstein. _________________ Proud American and wife of a wonderful <strong>LEGAL</strong> immigrant from Ireland.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing." -Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Feinstein farmworker bill takes a baby step forward
Democrat from California says agriculture industry has acute need for laborers; attaches immigrant worker measure to war spending legislation.
By DENA BUNIS
The Orange County Register
WASHINGTON - Determined to address what she says is an emergency situation in the U.S. agriculture industry, Sen. Dianne Feinstein persuaded her colleagues on the Appropriations Committee today to add a scaled-down version of her Ag Jobs bill to the Iraq spending bill destined for the Senate floor.
"We need this legislation because in the last year 13,280 farms in the United States have shut down, and others have moved their operation to Mexico'' between 2006 and 2007, Feinstein, D-Calif., said at the Appropriations panel meeting to vote on the Iraq bill. Of the closed farms, 1,000 were in California.
The committee approved her measure by a 17-12 vote.
The provision Feinstein hopes can survive a Senate floor vote and get approved by House members as well falls short of the permanent fix she had hoped to provide for an industry she says is in crisis because of an acute labor shortage.
Under today's amendment, farm workers who have worked in agriculture within the past four years will be able to work legally for growers for five years. The measure doesn't include any path to legal status or citizenship.
There was little debate on the amendment in committee according to Scott Gerber, Feinstein's communications director. Appropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who has consistently opposed any measures to provide benefits to illegal immigrants, urged colleagues to vote against it. And Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, who has partnered with Feinstein on this legislation, spoke for it.
Immigration bills involving agricultural workers have traditionally gotten more support than other more broad immigration measures but Feinstein has still been unable to get such a bill enacted into law.
This more modest approach is likely to draw support, especially from lawmakers who don't want to give any permanent status to immigrants who entered the country illegally or who overstayed their visas.
But there is a determined group of senators and House members who oppose any benefits for people who broke immigration law and say there wouldn't be a labor shortage if growers paid higher wages. And it's likely that those lawmakers might try and add enforcement provisions to the bill that would be objected to by members who might otherwise approve of the agriculture provisions.
Some immigration advocates have also expressed concern that if individual immigration issues are dealt with separately, it will make it harder to get a broad comprehensive bill passed.
But Michele Waslin, senior policy analyst for the Immigration Policy Center, a pro-immigration think tank, said agriculture "has always been its own issue. I think Feinstein is showing us there is an appetite for balanced reform. Employers need workers and it just makes sense at this point in time."
An aide to Senator Vitter alerted me to the amendment's return and says "It looks like amnesty for sure and Sen. Vitter intends to offer an amendment to strike this language when the supplemental hits the floor." If you respect the rule of law, you might want to get on the horn to your senator tomorrow.
Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 10:57 pm Post subject: Rep. LOFGREN has also inserted an INCREASE in H-1B visas!!!!
Rep. LOFGREN has also inserted an INCREASE in H-1B visas!!!!
"Instead, Lofgren has introduced a passel of five small-bore immigration bills, among them one that would allow masters' and doctoral graduates from U.S. universities to apply immediately for permanent residence, skipping the H-1B program altogether."
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Complete coverage of immigration issues Washington — Two of California's most immigrant-dependent industries — agriculture and Silicon Valley — are pushing narrow measures through Congress in an effort to get foreign workers at opposite ends of the labor market, people who pick vegetables and the post graduate engineers and scientists of Silicon Valley.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein attached a new farm guest worker program to the giant Iraq spending bill Thursday in a last-ditch effort to remedy a shortage of workers in California's produce fields as the federal government continues to crack down on illegal immigration and the political climate proves hostile to more sweeping measures.
At the same time, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, teaming with Republicans, is pushing several bills to give permanent residence to top engineering talent.
"It's an emergency," Feinstein said of the farm worker situation. "If you can't get people to prune, to plant, to pick, to pack, you can't run a farm."
The bill would provide temporary legal status to 1.3 million farm workers during the next five years, but no path to citizenship or permanent residency. It passed the Appropriations Committee 17 to 12 Thursday.
Workers applying for the program would have to prove they had worked on U.S. farms for at least 150 days or 863 hours, or earned at least $17,000, during the last four years. They would have to remain working in agriculture for the next five years. The program would sunset after five years.
The move marks an end for now to efforts to give farm workers a path to citizenship, after a sweeping immigration bill crashed in the Senate last June. Feinstein has been trying all year to attach a bill called AgJobs but has met nothing but dead ends.
Western Growers, representing California farmers, and the United Farm Workers of American union, joined in backing the bill. Western Growers President Tom Nassif said large growers are accelerating efforts to move their farming operations to Mexico. The 15 growers out of several hundred who responded to a survey and were willing to talk about their plans alone moved 84,000 acres worth of crop production to Mexico this year, twice as many acres as last year, Nassif said.
"Once the acreage moves to Mexico it's there permanently," Nassif said. "Much of the remaining open space in California is agricultural land," he said. "If it's not farmed, we'd be growing condos or cementing it over with office buildings."
The tightening of the border has made it increasingly difficult, dangerous and expensive for laborers to return to the United States if they leave, disrupting the traditional circular flow of farm workers from Mexico to California's fields in the Salinas and Central Valleys. Most farm workers arrive illegally, and farmers complain that an existing guest worker program called H2A is cumbersome and ineffective. Feinstein's bill would streamline its rules.
Growers are apprehensive about a new administration effort, temporarily stopped by a federal court, that would require employers to match workers with a valid Social Security number or be heavily fined. The Department of Homeland Security is refining the rule to get past court objections.
United Farmworkers President Arturo Rodriguez said farming is facing "a very real emergency," and applauded the bill as a "critical but temporary fix to a much larger problem."
Feinstein acknowledged that the chances of getting the bill all the way through Congress, even attached to war spending, is "uphill all the way."
On the other side of the Capitol, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, is teaming with conservative Republicans to try to push similar discreetly targeted measures for Silicon Valley. She has dropped efforts for now to expand the controversial H1-B program for temporary high-skilled workers, which again this year ran out of its 85,000 visas on the first day they were released. Lofgren said the program needs changes, given its wide use by Indian offshoring companies.
Instead, Lofgren has introduced a passel of five small-bore immigration bills, among them one that would allow masters' and doctoral graduates from U.S. universities to apply immediately for permanent residence, skipping the H-1B program altogether.
"Most people would agree if you get your Ph.D in engineering from an American university, you've got something to offer this country," Lofgren said. "Right now we have no ability to keep those people here ... we send them home to compete against Americans. It would make more sense to keep them here to help us compete."
Lofgren has even teamed on one bill, to "recapture" unused permanent resident slots, with Rep. James Sensenbrenner, the Wisconsin Republican famous as the author of immigration crackdown legislation, never enacted, that was so harsh it led to the nation's first large-scale Latino protests in 2006.
"What's happened is that with the shortage of very high level people, multinational companies are sending their project teams offshore," Lofgren said. "Not only the top hot-shot leading the team, but all the support jobs that go with that hot shot. Among the people I've met is a guy who spent four years at Harvard, seven at Stanford's engineering school, then did practical training and has been here six years on an H1B and he's in limbo. He's an extremely talented person and has no idea what his future is going to be. He's being recruited in Australia and Europe and he's ready to bail out. What he needs is not more temporary time."
Members of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group of business executives spent Thursday lobbying Congress on high-skilled immigration and tax breaks for solar energy and research and development.
"This is no time to say to high-skilled workers in a global economy that we don't want you," said Barry Cinnamon, chief executive of Akeena Solar in Los Gatos. "We're happy to have that argument with anyone."
Joined: Jun 01, 2006 Posts: 12995 Location: North Carolina
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 12:20 am Post subject:
Quote:
But Cochran and a number of other Republicans are strongly supportive of many other domestic spending items in the bill. Cochran, for instance, backs $10.4 billion for Gulf Coast recovery from the 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita. A number of centrist Republicans and ones in tough races support a 13-week extension of unemployment insurance, 11 Republicans are co-sponsoring a provision by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) to expand educational benefits for veterans, many support a plan to delay seven Medicaid rules issued by the Bush administration and $400 million of the so-called Byrne grants for state and local law enforcement remains very popular with both parties.
Oh no, it would seem as if the Republicans and Democrats are playing the tit for tat compromise game. Let everyone get a piece of the action and it could garner enough bipartisan support to land it on Bush's desk. This could spell real trouble for us. Geez, I'd hate to be forced to depend on Bush to cover us on this one.
Joined: Nov 21, 2006 Posts: 11175 Location: DFW, Texas
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 12:31 am Post subject:
TOLL FREE 866-340-9281 _________________ Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce said that our immigration laws are fine, but that "we have broken politicians." Truer words were never spoken
Workers applying for the program would have to prove they had worked on U.S. farms for at least 150 days or 863 hours, or earned at least $17,000, during the last four years. They would have to remain working in agriculture for the next five years.
And how are they going to prove this, and what type of "proof' will be accepted? And who is going to monitor, record, and enforce their stays? The words "massive fraud" come to mind. What a joke. Take action against this, please.
Joined: Nov 21, 2006 Posts: 11175 Location: DFW, Texas
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 1:24 am Post subject:
Populist wrote:
Quote:
Workers applying for the program would have to prove they had worked on U.S. farms for at least 150 days or 863 hours, or earned at least $17,000, during the last four years. They would have to remain working in agriculture for the next five years.
And how are they going to prove this, and what type of "proof' will be accepted? And who is going to monitor, record, and enforce their stays? The words "massive fraud" come to mind. What a joke. Take action against this, please.
---------
Call the Senate. NO AgJOBS Amnesty !
we all know that this crapola is not going to work.
government can not keep track of anything now.
who says things will improve later? and who says
these people after five years will leave?
I heard Ira Mehlman from FAIR on Roger Hedgecock today
say that if tthis passes the ag workers will be able to bring in their
immediate family also _________________ Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce said that our immigration laws are fine, but that "we have broken politicians." Truer words were never spoken
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