Thread: FAIR Legislative Update 9-5-06

From: Federation for American Immigration Reform Date: 2006/09/05 Tue PM 06:47:10 EDT
Subject: FAIR Legislative Update 9-05-06

Latest News Releases

National Online Petition Demands Justice for Border Patrol Agents
(August 23, 2006)

CBO Estimate of Senate Amnesty Grossly Understated, Asserts FAIR
(August 22, 2006)

September 5, 2006
In this update:
House Judiciary Committee Holds Hearing on How the Senate Bill Compares to the 1986 Amnesty
House Education and the Workforce Committee Holds Hearing on Tuition for Illegal Aliens
Illegal Alien Amnesty Rallies Down to a Trickle on Labor Day Holiday
Frist Thinks Immigration Bill Will Pass Before Elections
Boehner Says House Will Focus on Security in September
House Judiciary Committee Holds Hearing to Discuss Whether the Senate Guest Worker Amnesty Bill Repeats the Failed 1986 Amnesty Program
On Friday, September 1, the House Judiciary Committee held a field hearing, entitled, "Examining Whether the Reid-Kennedy Amnesty is a Repeat of the Failed Amnesty of 1986." The hearing, held in Dubuque, Iowa, focused on why the 1986 amnesty failed to fix the nation's illegal immigration problem. The failed 1986 amnesty served to encourage more people to live and work illegally in the United States, increasing our population from a few million illegal aliens in the 1980s to over 12 million today. The Senate's guest worker amnesty is much larger in scope than the 1986 amnesty and would provide the same encouragement.

At the hearing, the witness list included Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA); Mr. Michael Cutler, Center for Immigration Studies; Mr. John Fonte, Hudson Institute; Professor Robert Lee Maril, East Carolina University; and Ms. Ann Michalski, Dubuque City Council. Senator Grassley began the hearing by addressing the national understanding of the value of immigrants to our society. However, he warned, "If you don't learn from history . . . you're subject to repeat your mistakes." Senator Grassley opposed the Senate guest worker amnesty bill because of its similarity to the 1986 amnesty. "We have to learn from our mistakes and that was one that I made in supporting amnesty [in 1986]," Grassley said. "That action alone is a major reason why we have up to 14 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. today."

Robert Lee Maril, Chairman of the Department of Sociology at East Carolina University, has studied the U.S. Border Patrol and illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexican border for nearly 30 years. In his testimony, he agreed with Senator Grassley that the amnesty of 1986 did not stop the nation's illegal immigration crisis. "There were times so many people would come across the border you couldn't count them all," said Maril. "There were families who are seeking a new life coming and there are criminals and gang members among all of them. Attempts to limit the number of undocumented workers, by arresting and detraining them, in the short term achieves very little . . . Except that it makes us feel better. The flow of illegal immigrants may stop for a few weeks, but it will resume as long as there are jobs here that pay more than $4 a day."

House Judiciary Committee Holds Hearing on Fiscal Impact of Amnesty
Also on Friday, September 1, the House Education and the Workforce Committee held a hearing on providing in-state tuition for illegal aliens in Greeley, Colorado. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) hosted the hearing, which largely focused on the provision of the Senate guest worker amnesty bill that would allow illegal aliens to receive in-state tuition at public universities. The same provision would simultaneously repeal the current federal law prohibiting states from providing in-state tuition to illegal aliens unless the state also offers the same benefit to all U.S. citizens. "The Senate policy is unfair to legal immigrants and out-of-state U.S. citizens who pay the full cost of tuition," said Musgrave. "Taxpayers should not have to finance education for illegal aliens. Offering these incentives simply rewards them for violating our laws."

Kris Kobach, professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and Senior Counsel with FAIR's Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) testified that the Senate's proposal is "shockingly bad policy" that encourages aliens to violate the law. Kobach explained, "If you actually obtain a valid visa to study here, we will penalize you by making you pay out-of-state tuition." This message, he said, "creates a perverse incentive structure in which the states directly reward illegal behavior and significantly undermine federal law."

Colorado State Rep. Cory Gardner echoed Professor Kobach's sentiments. "As a matter of state policy, I believe it sends a misguided message to citizens and non-citizens alike that we will allow a taxpayer funded benefit, such as in-state tuition, to go to someone who is in violation of our immigration laws," Gardner stated. "As a nation, we should not promote policies that encourage illegal immigration and provide disincentives to those patiently working through the proper legal channels. The cost of education is increasing every day. It is difficult enough to provide for the educational needs of our own citizens, let alone those who may be in the country illegally. We must not reward illegal behavior. Nor should we institute policies that perpetuate it."

**Other hearings held the week of August 28 through September 1 include a hearing by the Resources Committee on August 28 in Hamilton, Montana; a House Judiciary Committee hearing in Evansville, Indiana; a Senate Budget Committee hearing in Aurora, Colorado; and a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Richardson, Texas.

For more information on these hearings, click here and read our alerts.

Illegal Alien Amnesty Rallies Down to a Trickle on Labor Day Holiday
Hoping to mimic the emotionally-charged protests held last spring, amnesty supporters and various labor organizers held rallies held in cities across the nation this past Labor Day weekend. Turn out was poor, however, and the rallies attracted significantly fewer participants than predicted. One rally included a 50 mile march to House Speaker Dennis Hastert's district office in Illinois. The march ended in front of the office Monday-the office was closed in observance of the Labor Day holiday.

Frist Thinks Immigration Bill Will Pass Before Elections
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has stated he believes Congress will succeed in passing immigration legislation this year. However, he said, the bill would only include a focus on border security, leaving the issue of the 12 million illegal aliens residing in the country for the next Congress to tackle. Both the House and Senate bills contain similar language that would strengthen border security, but the Senate bill also contained a massive guest worker amnesty that House Republicans have called the "deal-breaker.

Boehner Says House Will Focus on Security in September
In a statement released last Thursday, House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) announced the September legislative agenda for the House GOP. "From homeland security to national security to border security, House Republicans will focus first and foremost on addressing the safety and security needs of the American people throughout the month of September." The release continued, "We will provide additional resources to federal and state authorities to strengthen border patrol efforts and ensure our immigration laws are strictly enforced."

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