From: Federation for American Immigration Reform <info@fairus.org>
Date: 2006/08/07 Mon PM 06:12:24 EDT
Subject: FAIR Legislative Update 8-7-06


Latest News Releases

Pence-Hutchison "Compromise" Induces Illegal Aliens to Leave By Letting Them All Stay
(July 25, 2006)

Check out our Stein Report for the latest immigration news and information!

August 7, 2006


In this update:
Congressional Hearings on Immigration Continue
House Immigration Hearings for the Week of August 7, 2006
Senate Approves Fence Amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill
Bush on the Border Touting 'Path to Citizenship'
Texas Hospitals Struggling to Pay for Care Given to Illegal Aliens
Senator Sessions Echoes FAIR's Objections to Pence Plan
Congressional Hearings on Immigration Continue
House committees held five hearings last week to highlight the country's immigration woes. The House Armed Services Committee discussed national security concerns on the southern border while on the same day the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the impacts of illegal immigration on the American taxpayer. The Committee on House Administration held two hearings on August 3, 2006 on combating election fraud and how to best protect the integrity of the voting process. One hearing was held in Arizona and the other in New Mexico. The House Resources Committee also held a hearing on damage to federal land as some land is used as a pathway for illegal immigration. For more information on these hearings, click here and read our alerts.

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House Immigration Hearings for the Week of August 7, 2006
In addition to the five Committee hearings held last week, another two are scheduled for this week. The locations and dates are listed below.

We urge you to check the list and attend any of the hearings that are in your area!

August 8, 2006
House Homeland Security Committee
Border Infrastructure Successes & Challenges
Full committee field hearing the border infrastructure successes since passage of the REAL ID Act and the 9/11 Commission Implementation Act, and what challenges still exist.
Witnesses:

Mr. Thomas Hardy, Director of Field Operations, Seattle Field Office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Mr. Ronald Henley, Chief Patrol Agent, Blaine Sector, U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Major General Timothy J. Lowenberg, Adjutant General of Washington, Washington National Guard
Hon. Dale Brandland, Senator, Washington State Senate
Mr. David B. Harris, Director, International and Terrorist Intelligence Program, INSIGNIS Strategic Research Inc.
Ambassador Martin Collacott, Senior Fellow, The Fraser Institute
Mr. K. Jack Riley, Director, Homeland Security Center, RAND Corporation
Mr. Gregory Johnson, President, Chapter 164, National Treasury Employees Union
Location: Bellingham City Council Chamber, 210 Lottie Street in Bellingham, WA, at 1:00 pm PDT.
Contact: 202-226-9600
http://hsc.house.gov/schedule.cfm
August 10, 2006
Energy and Commerce Committee
Impact of Illegal Immigration on Healthcare
Subcommittee on Health hearing on "What is the impact of the Reid-Kennedy bill's amnesty provisions on the healthcare delivery system and for individual American taxpayers?"
Witnesses: TBA
Location: Main Room at the Brentwood City Hall, 5211 Maryland Way, Brentwood, TN, at 10:00 a.m.
Contact: 202-225-2761
http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/Hea ... earing.htm

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Senate Approves Fence Amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill
Last week, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) offered an amendment to the FY07 Defense Appropriations bill that would provide $1.8 billion to construct 370 miles of triple-layered fencing and 460 miles of vehicle barriers along the southern border. This amendment was intended to fund the original authorization language to build the fence that was adopted in May as part of the Senate immigration bill (S.2611). As he offered the appropriations amendment, Senator Sessions argued that Congress should follow through on the commitments made in passing S.2611. The Senate approved Sessions' amendment to fund the fence, 94-3. (official vote tally)

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Bush on the Border Touting 'Path to Citizenship'
As part of his renewed effort to push legislation creating a guest worker amnesty program, President Bush visited the U.S.-Mexico border along the Rio Grande last week. There, the President toured the border and met with Border Patrol personnel to discuss new technology designed to track movement across the border. During his trip, the President once again called for a path to citizenship for illegal aliens in the country. "I know you cannot deport 10 million people who have been here working," said President Bush. "I expect the United States Congress to do its duty and pass comprehensive immigration reform."

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Texas Hospitals Struggling to Pay for Care Given to Illegal Aliens
NBC reported last week on two Texas hospitals that are struggling to pay for care given to illegal aliens. At Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, tens of thousands of illegal aliens receive taxpayer-subsidized care. The hospital states that the type of care most frequently provided is to expectant mothers, of whom approximately 70% are illegal aliens. According to the president of Parkland Memorial Hospital, caring for these illegal aliens costs the hospital millions of dollars each year. Other hospitals have similarly struggled to pay for care given to illegal aliens. This is in part because federal law mandates that emergency health care is provided to needy individuals, regardless of their status. Some hospitals, however, are trying to make ends meet where possible. At John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, administrators have begun requiring proof of legal status before providing individuals with non-emergency treatment. "In some cases, you can't afford 100 percent subsidized care to everyone that walks in," said Robert Earley with John Peter Smith Hospital.

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Senator Sessions Echoes FAIR's Objections to Pence Plan
Last week, the Washington Times published an op-ed written by Senator Sessions (R-AL) that laid out his objections to the Pence plan. Like FAIR, Senator Sessions criticizes the Pence plan for providing guest workers a path to citizenship and thus creating anything but a real "temporary" worker program. Here is Senator Sessions' op-ed piece in full.

Reform the immigration debate
By Jeff Sessions
August 2, 2006
WASHINGTON TIMES

The Pence-Hutchison immigration-reform proposal, like the other prominent plans, fails to address critical issues relating to meaningful immigration reform. It must not become law.

The legislation fails to provide a real solution for a number of important reasons. Namely, the proposal: 1) will allow for a virtually unlimited number of immigrants to come to the United States; 2) favors low-skilled workers; 3) provides more preferences to the eight NAFTA and CAFTA countries over the rest of the world; and 4) gives no preference for English-language or employment skills that help make immigrants successful in our dynamic economy.

This plan swallows hook, line and sinker the idea that as long as there is a foreign worker wanting to come to America, and an American company that wants to hire the individual, the foreign worker should be admitted, allowed to work and put on a path to citizenship. This concept violates the principle followed by every other nation in the world, that immigration policy should be based on the needs of the nation, not the desires of those that want low-cost labor.

Under the Pence-Hutchison plan, foreign workers will initially be granted two-year work visas, automatically renewable for an additional 12 years. Then the foreign worker is given an "X-Change" visa, newly created by the legislation. After five years, the "X-Change" visa will allow the worker to transition to permanent resident status (a green card holder). Permanent residents are entitled to citizenship after five years. Because "temporary" workers will have the right to bring their families, the right to stay and work for 17 years and then the right to stay permanently, the vast majority will certainly do so.

A temporary worker program can play an important role in our immigration reform policy, but the Pence-Hutchison proposal, like the flawed Senate bill, does not create a real "temporary" worker program. To be truly "temporary," the workers' stay must be limited, for instance, to 10 months each year, and they cannot be allowed to bring dependents. This is common sense -- we cannot expect that workers invited to move their entire families to America and live here for years will want to go home. Who will uproot these long-settled families if they become temporarily unemployed? The answer is that no one will.

Foreign workers entering under this proposal will overwhelmingly be low-skilled. It is well documented that such workers will cost the U.S. Treasury far more than they will ever pay in taxes. A flood of low-skilled workers will further depress wages for American workers who compete with them for jobs. There is a basic economic truth that cannot be escaped -- an excess of labor drives down wages, a shortage of labor causes wages to rise. Few dispute that in recent years lower-wage earners have seen their wages decline. Professor George Borjas of Harvard, the leading expert in the field, reports that immigration has already reduced the incomes of low-skilled workers by as much as 8 percent, or $1,200 per year. For a family making around $25,000 a year, a decrease such as this can be the difference in making it or not.

By limiting the new program to only NAFTA and CAFTA countries, the bill would be a further and dramatic tilt to Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, over every other country in the world. At a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, a witness for the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, Nial O'Dowd, explained that "if the Irish antecedents of Andrew Jackson, John F. Kennedy or Ronald Reagan were trying to enter the United States today" they could not get in legally. He justified his comment by noting that "of the 1 million green card visas given out last year, about 2,000 went to the Irish." Irish settlers helped form this nation yet, amazingly, they received only two-tenths of one percent of our green cards last year.

Finally, in establishing a good immigration policy for the United States through comprehensive reform, it is critical to decide the number of immigrants we can accept and the skills we want them to possess. Clearly, these decisions should be based on the national interest, not special interests. Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, developed nations all, have objective employment-based immigration policies, usually centered on a merit-based points system used to evaluate which potential immigrants will contribute the most to their society and take full advantage of citizenship opportunities. Why are we not considering reforms to our immigration system that take these important issues into account?

The need for border and workplace enforcement is a given. What we have lacked in this discussion is a serious evaluation of the merit-based policies other developed nations have adopted. Neither have we had a real discussion of the number of immigrants that America should admit annually. Without such a discussion, good comprehensive reform cannot occur.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican, is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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