Thread: Immigration deal already appears to be unraveling

Immigration deal already appears to be unraveling
Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

(05-22) 04:00 PDT Washington -- The powerful interest groups whose backing is critical to an overhaul of U.S. immigration policy are fracturing over the new bipartisan "grand bargain" in the Senate, setting up a brawl over changes that could tear the fragile deal apart.

Many business groups and ethnic lobbies for years have provided the political muscle behind the move to legalize the estimated 12 million people now living in the country illegally, create a giant new temporary worker program for future workers and expand the H1b visas for skilled immigrants eagerly sought in Silicon Valley. But they are deeply unhappy with the compromise among conservative Republican Jon Kyl of Arizona, liberal Democrat Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and President Bush.

Add to that the withering fire from conservatives, a tepid welcome from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's faint praise of the bill as a "starting point," and what has been billed as a "grand bargain" on immigration appears to be unraveling before the debate even begins.

If the bill fails, all sides agree it could be years -- 2009 at the earliest, after next year's presidential election -- before another effort would be made to toughen the border and find some resolution to the problem of the 12 million people living in the country illegally.

The deal's defenders concede that the pact does not please everyone, but they warn both sides against leaving the problem to fester.

Kyl said his Arizona constituents wonder why he would sit down with Kennedy, a longtime liberal on immigration. Kyl said doing nothing was not an option and that if he hadn't worked with Kennedy, his conservative ideas would not have made it into the bill.

Kennedy's hopes that the Senate would vote on the proposal by the end of this week to avoid more criticism over the Memorial Day holiday were quashed by Senate leaders. Although the Senate voted overwhelmingly, 69-23, to proceed to debate, Senators in both parties are eager to amend the enormous legislation, which still in draft form is nearly 400 pages long. Most senators saw it for the first time last week after more than two months of closed-door, bipartisan negotiations.

The compromise attempts to reconcile profoundly conflicting positions on immigration, which accounts for the fire it is taking from left and right.

Conservatives want more border control and are alarmed at the enormous numbers of immigrants now arriving on U.S. shores both legally, about 1.3 million, and illegally, estimated at 400,000 a year. Liberals and business and ethnic immigrant groups want legalization for those already here and a path to permanent residency for future workers.

Yet businesses that have been pushing hard for expanding legal immigration are deeply divided and unhappy even over a new merit-based point system intended to raise the skill level of immigrants.

California farmers who have sent delegation after delegation to Washington complaining of fruits and vegetables rotting in the fields are among the few who are happy. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., insisted that the deal include a new visa program for 1.5 million farmworkers, known as AgJobs, that has been stalled in congress for several years.

But Silicon Valley's high-tech community is furious at the bill's H1b provisions for skilled workers, even though they appear to expand the number of temporary visas from the current 85,000 to as many as 180,000 eventually.

That's because the bill includes some severe restrictions urged by H1b opponents, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, that would crack down on outsourcing companies in India using the visas for their U.S. operations and would add extensive compliance measures that H1b advocates call unworkable.

Low-wage service industries don't like the temporary worker program because workers would have to go home for a year after every two-year stint and could stay only a total of six years.

Pro-immigration groups and many Democrats also oppose such a plan, warning that it would create a "permanent revolving underclass" of low-wage workers with no incentive to assimilate and lead to a new illegal immigration problem if people do not return home. They want a path to permanent residence for temporary workers, but Kyl has been adamant for months that "temporary means temporary."

Business also is unhappy with the new point system designed to increase the overall skill and education level of new legal immigrants. Employers prefer to select the individuals they hire rather than draw from a generic pool of workers.

Leading immigrant groups oppose the point system because it would reduce extended family migration. Although some have held their fire, hoping to amend the legislation as it goes forward, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the League of United Latin American Citizens and many grassroots immigrant groups have urged the bill's defeat.

"Family reunification has been the cornerstone of our nation's immigration policy since 1965, when the U.S. government replaced discriminatory quotas that excluded Asian immigration for generations," said Stanley Mark, senior staff attorney for the Asian American fund. "The proposal would eliminate basic family categories that Asian Americans rely on to reunite their families. If enacted, such a policy would have devastating impacts on Asian Americans, whose families already face some of the longest delays."

But Sen. Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican who is strongly opposed to "chain migration" of extended families and has pushed hard for a point system based on skills and merit, said the Senate bill does not go nearly far enough.

The point system would not really start to affect future migration for eight years -- two presidencies and four Congresses -- after the long backlogs for relatives seeking green cards are processed.

Sessions said the point system was like bait for conservatives, and "We all bit it, and it's not there."

Still, the forces that propelled negotiators toward a deal are not going away. Voters are angry over mass illegal crossings, but at the same time are eager to find a more reasonable resolution than deportation of the 12 million here illegally. Business lobbies and immigrant rights groups alike are worried about recent raids on employers by federal immigration agents. The question is whether compromise is less palatable than a status quo that has become unacceptable to both sides.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... /IMMIG.TMP

Re: AgJobs - If the freakin californian farmers hadn't pigeon holed themselves by hiring nobody but illegals, maybe their crops wouldn't be rotting. Instead of running the american labor force off and replacing it with illegals, they could've played by the rules and everybody would be fine. This is their mess and they can deal with it themselves. F'em. You reap what you sow.

Voters are angry over mass illegal crossings, but at the same time are eager to find a more reasonable resolution than deportation of the 12 million here illegally.

This is complete BS...Most Americans want to Deport them

More to the point.............see any fruit or veggies from the USA lately?
NOPE...........imported.

So, where's their produce going?

I really don't give a flying fig if it rots, runs or disappears now.
Can't get an uncontaminated piece of fruit or veggie to eat so what does it matter?

Stick your produce up your noses or MECHANIZE &/or pay a decent wage.

Originally Posted by 2ndamendsis

More to the point.............see any fruit or veggies from the USA lately?
NOPE...........imported.

So, where's their produce going?

I really don't give a flying fig if it rots, runs or disappears now.
Can't get an uncontaminated piece of fruit or veggie to eat so what does it matter?

Stick your produce up your noses or MECHANIZE &/or pay a decent wage.

Exactly!!
30 million illegal aliens in this country! How many more would you like!!??

Kennedy's hopes that the Senate would vote on the proposal by the end of this week to avoid more criticism over the Memorial Day holiday were quashed by Senate leaders.

Why is it sooooo hard for the people that keep re electing Kennedy to SEE HIS CORRUPTION!!!!! Rush a bill through so the American public gets sc.........ed AGAIN!!! Isn't that why he wants it rushed through. Leave it to a man like this...to want TO HIDE THE FACTS!!!!!! DIRTY POLITICIAN!!!
GOOD GRIEF...GET THIS MAN OUT OF OFFICE!!!!

If the freakin californian farmers hadn't pigeon holed themselves by hiring nobody but illegals, maybe their crops wouldn't be rotting.

thedude, I have to agree this is a problem they brought on by themselves. I live in Oregon and it used to be that teenage kids could easily get summer jobs on local berry farm, and nurseries, now they cannot get hired, as well I have heard from a few people who did, and said they were black-balled by the illegals working there.

We live close to Hood River, Oregon, where tons of apples and pears are grown, and the majority of workers now are illegals, if not entirely. I remember my uncle, a bachelor, who did local farm work, used to make his annual trip up there to work for some employers who used to only hire Americans.

Originally Posted by AmericanElizabeth

thedude, I have to agree this is a problem they brought on by themselves. I live in Oregon and it used to be that teenage kids could easily get summer jobs on local berry farm, and nurseries, now they cannot get hired, as well I have heard from a few people who did, and said they were black-balled by the illegals working there.

We live close to Hood River, Oregon, where tons of apples and pears are grown, and the majority of workers now are illegals, if not entirely. I remember my uncle, a bachelor, who did local farm work, used to make his annual trip up there to work for some employers who used to only hire Americans.

It's a sad state because that is a reality in more and more lines of work. I just moved to LA and it seems that every restaurant is staffed only with illegals or anchor babies. The crews that clean my office have their daily staff meetings in spanish. Same with construction. I've got some friends who are in the construction industry here and they say they have to hire illegals - there simply isn't anybody else. Between making a meager profit, getting work, and paying for all of the licenses and fees, if their comopetition is hiring illegals, they have to.

The fix here has to start with inforcement. I know it's been said over and over, but unless businesses see a downside to hiring illegals, they won't stop. Fine their pants off, and maybe america will have to pay a little more for an apple, but we'll have an even playing field and we'll have our country back.

When I was young in Washington State I remember prisoners picking apples. Also remember law enforcement on horse back ready to take care of those who tried to run.

Seems like a good return on the taxpayer’s dollars for the cost of incarceration and it solves the problem of getting the harvest done. There is not shortage of prisoners now and I’m sure there won’t be in the future. Put them to work.

Good morning, Jean,

Originally Posted by Carolyn Lochhead

The powerful interest groups whose backing is critical to an overhaul of U.S. immigration policy...Many business groups and ethnic lobbies for years have provided the political muscle behind the move to legalize the estimated 12 million people now living in the country illegally

Seems like there is a list of these lobby organizations (Communist, and lunatic fringe anti-American organizations out there). Off the top, these come to mind:

LULAC
NASSCOM
National Communist La Raza*
Bank of America (Bank of Mexico)
Hill and Knowlton
The Immigration Voice and Immigration Portal
WalMart
La Mecha
INCPAC* (India Political Action Committee)
Friends of India Caucus*
The group that advocates first degree murder
Microsoft

and others.....

*taxpayer funded

Do you recall where all this is posted?

http://www.lobbyists.info/?gclid=CMrXx4 ... hgodBEx01A

Lobbyists info.