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  1. #1
    Administrator Jean's Avatar
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    No comprehensive immigration reform until 2017?

    Dan Nowicki, The Republic | azcentral.com 7:56 p.m. MST February 7, 2015

    A month into the new Republican-controlled Congress, a comprehensive immigration-reform solution seems as far away as ever.

    Though some Republicans last year argued that a GOP-run U.S. House and U.S. Senate might be inclined to tackle immigration reform early this year — and national Republicans have stressed the need to get the issue off the table before the 2016 presidential election — most observers now say there appears to be little chance for far-reaching legislation along the lines of the 2013 Senate-passed bill negotiated by the bipartisan "Gang of Eight."

    And despite the noise surrounding a Republican drive to undo President Barack Obama's recent executive action to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation and work on GOP border-security and workplace-verification legislation, some are skeptical that even those will ever reach Obama's desk.

    Immigration-reform advocates now say their best hope for reforms such as a pathway to citizenship for most undocumented immigrants already in the country hinges on the 2016 elections: A new president will be elected and Democrats have an opportunity to win back the Senate. They are counting on the presidential-election-year turnout model, in which a broader electorate votes than during congressional midterms, to benefit pro-reform Democrats.

    "Bottom line is, probably the next window of opportunity for immigration reform is 2017," said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, a national organization that champions comprehensive immigration reform. "It's a remarkable turn of events. You have the idea that they (Capitol Hill Republicans) are lurching so far to the right given the 2016 electoral map that they're bordering on political suicide."

    Republicans counter that Obama killed any chance for a comprehensive bill with his unilateral moves on deportation. Obama and his allies say he acted only after it became clear last year that House Republicans were intransigent on the issue. But now even U.S. Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, two of the four Republican members of the Gang of Eight, acknowledge a replay of the 2013 Senate bill appears unlikely.

    The Gang of Eight bill, which went nowhere in the House after Senate passage, would have combined a massive border-security investment with a pathway to citizenship and a modernized visa system for foreign workers. GOP foes say the bill offered "amnesty" for immigrants who broke the law.

    "A Gang of Eight kind of thing could happen if there is a comprehensive bill that could move, and I don't think there is," Flake told The Arizona Republic. "The president went piecemeal (with executive action), so it's very tough to go comprehensive now."

    Flake said there is some skepticism on the Hill that the House and Senate can even come to terms on a border-security bill, which is a GOP priority.

    "There are some in the House who have said we want to do a border bill, and you have others in the House saying, 'Wait, if we do a border bill, it might be followed up by another bill,' that this is the gateway bill to comprehensive reform," Flake said.

    Likewise, a House-passed attempt to defund Obama's executive action through a homeland-security spending bill has run into procedural hurdles in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed. Democrats are not expected to cooperate with Republicans on the bill.

    "I think we've seen the end of this movie: If Democrats won't supply votes to proceed to the bill, they certainly aren't going to supply them to get off the bill," he added. "For my money, and time and effort, I'd rather spend time actually on immigration bills rather than this funding measure. I've always thought our response ought to be to put legislation on the president's desk."

    In floor remarks Thursday, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called on Republicans to quit trying to tie the homeland-security spending to immigration.

    "We would love to debate immigration. We've done it here on the Senate floor before," Reid said. "It was a wonderful bipartisan debate, and we're willing to do it again but the American people are crying out that we defend our homeland."

    McCain also said he worries about the fight over Obama's executive action hampering homeland-security funding.

    "I am angered and disturbed that the president would act in an unconstitutional fashion, but at the same time I think we cannot abandon our ability to defend the nation," McCain told The Republic.

    McCain, who is expected to seek a sixth Senate term in 2016, said the battle against the Islamic State, a terrorist group operating in Iraq and Syria, puts fresh urgency on the need to toughen the U.S.-Mexico border.

    "With the rise of ISIS and the spread of Muslim radical extremism, then the absolute requirement for a secure border becomes even more important," he said.

    http://www.azcentral.com/story/azdc/...ight/22939173/
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  2. #2
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    No "comprehensive immigration reform" at all. We need less immigration not more. We need enforcement not amnesty. We need to protect American workers not illegal aliens.
    A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
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  3. #3
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    A thought occurred to me and so I spent a few minutes researching it and found this article from 2006, about employee bonus incentives in USCIS for rapid production of applications to eliminate back-logs. I assume this incentive program continues, so are USCIS employees being rewarded by processing more immigration applications today and does this enter into their willingness to do so for the increased number of applications derived from Obama Amnesty? Something the media and investigative organizations need to get to the bottom of, especially those in Congress.

    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1700298/posts

    Immigration agency perks putting security at risk?
    Daily Bulletin ^ | 9/12/06 | Sara A. Carter
    Posted on 9/12/2006, 6:20:31 PM by NormsRevenge

    U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service employees were offered financial incentives to push immigration applications through the system quickly and eliminate a backlog of nearly 4 million such applications in time to meet a presidential deadline, the Daily Bulletin has learned.

    Employees and internal documents also reveal that the backlog is not actually gone, but that millions of applications in process have been reclassified to fall outside the backlog definition and help the agency meet an October deadline set by President Bush in 2003.

    The pressure to reduce the backlog, combined with the promise of bonuses for faster work, led to application shortcuts that may have compromised the immigrant screening process, according to current and former agency employees and at least one congressman.
    USCIS Director Emilio Gonzalez announced last week that the agency has reduced backlogged applications for green cards, work visas and other immigration benefits from 3.98 million to fewer than 140,000.

    "This achievement is a testament to the thousands of USCIS employees who have come in early, stayed late and worked weekends to complete their production goals," Gonzalez wrote in a Sept. 5 e-mail obtained by the Daily Bulletin. " ... What's more important, however, is that we have not cut corners, lost our focus on national security, or compromised quality or integrity in the name of production."

    A USCIS memo obtained by the Daily Bulletin reveals that monetary incentives totaling up to $5 million were promised to USCIS employees nationwide for meeting "production challenges" designed to eliminate the application backlog. The funds are to be disbursed by the end of the fiscal year in the form of $500 bonuses for employees, and to pay for office parties. USCIS officials made the memo public Monday.

    A USCIS employee said Sunday that the rush to meet the October deadline, and earn bonus pay, led to mistakes and oversights in processing immigration applications.

    "When they started giving incentives, people started cutting corners," said the employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "I've worked with adjudicators who have to complete a number of applications per hour to get an award. But when those cases landed on my desk, they were all wrong."

    "They told us not to check for aliases because it slows down production," said another adjudicator, from USCIS' central region. "Other employees just wanted to process applications as fast as possible to get the incentives. ... The backlog reduction awards made people careless because they had to move through so many applications per month."

    "We don't sell clothing. We grant benefits that could lead to somebody getting citizenship," said an adjudicator from Texas. "Offering bonuses and incentives shouldn't play a role when it comes to national security."

    Chris Bentley, a USCIS spokesman, flatly denied that corners were cut in processing applications.

    "USCIS does not grant an immigrant services or benefits until all background national security checks are complete and we know that the individual is fully eligible for the benefits being sought," he said.

    Bentley also defended the bonuses and parties, though he favored another definition of the events.

    "I wouldn't call (them) parties," he said. "It's a celebration of something that reflects on the extraordinary work our employees have done. We are commemorating their work to eliminate the backlog. It's a job well done and something we are extremely proud of -- without compromising national security.

    "There are monies set aside for awards," Bentley continued. "It's a proven management tool. It's just like receiving a bonus from any line of work. You reward outstanding work so that your employees continue the great effort."

    Bentley said he could not disclose the number of federal employees participating in the incentive program or the full cost of the celebrations until USCIS officials receive word about who will participate. USCIS has more than 15,000 employees nationwide. The chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism and Nonproliferation criticized the incentives, saying USCIS' priorities are skewed and that taxpayer money is being misspent.

    "I thought USCIS got the message (during Royce's April committee hearings) to put national security over expediency," said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton. "I do not want production goals to take priority over fraud prevention."

    In an Aug. 30 USCIS memo obtained by the newspaper, Michael Aytes, associate director for USCIS Domestic Operations, advised all service center directors, regional directors, district directors and Director Robert Cowan of the National Benefits Center that employees who have worked with USCIS since at least May 30 would be given an individual $500 bonus promised in December 2005 as a reward for backlog reduction.

    The memo also directs each office to organize a "celebration of its production accomplishments," for which up to $15 per employee will be provided, though "no individual center or office may spend more than $7,500 for this informal award event."

    "Perhaps the public will question the judgment of USCIS to spend millions of dollars on backlog elimination bonuses and parties at a time when Congress has called for hearings to determine to what extent national security may have been jeopardized by the push to reduce the backlog," said Michael Maxwell, former director of internal affairs for USCIS, who testified before Royce's subcommittee earlier this year about security failures within USCIS.

    During a press conference in March, Gonzalez was questioned by reporters about allegations and internal documents that Maxwell had brought to the attention of Congress. One such allegation was that offices and service centers were holding competitions, offering incentives for rapid elimination of the backlog, "including cash bonuses, time off, movie tickets, and gift certificates, to employees and/or teams of employees with the fastest processing times."

    In an audiotape of the press conference obtained by the Daily Bulletin, Gonzalez dismissed the allegations and said he did not offer incentives for faster processing.

    "No, that's not how I do business," he said. "I want to get the job done. I want to get the job done well."

    Word about the bonuses program follows last week's call by Royce for a congressional investigation and hearing about screening lapses on applicants for green cards, work permits and other immigration documents at the National Benefits Center in Lee's Summit, Mo.

    Those lapses were first reported by the Daily Bulletin on Aug. 23.

    Gonzalez's claim that the backlog sits at only 140,000 applications also has been challenged by USCIS employees, outside immigration experts and Royce.

    "The agency's own statistics show a pending caseload of some 3 million immigration, naturalization and asylum applications," said Rosemary Jenks, director of government relations at NumbersUSA, a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., that lobbies for tougher immigration control.

    "Despite their efforts to define these applications away, their victory celebration is about 3 million applications premature."

    USCIS documents obtained by the Daily Bulletin show that the difference between the pending caseload and the official backlog lies in the definition of "backlog," which USCIS officials have changed at least two times since the president set the elimination deadline.

    Under the current definition, the official backlog excludes all pending applications filed within the previous six months; all pending applications that are awaiting action by a third party -- anything from a security check by the FBI to verification of a Mexican birth certificate; and all pending applications for benefits that are not immediately available (for example, if the annual limit on green cards has already been reached).

    Royce said USCIS still has an enormous backlog, and that the agency is doing whatever it takes to show a reduction to lend credence to a Senate proposal that offers a guest-worker program and a path to amnesty. President Bush, who favors the Senate proposal over a much harsher House bill, is hoping for an immigration compromise before the end of the year.

    "By one estimate, the Senate bill will bring in over 62 million people over the next decade," Royce said. "USCIS will be faced with a challenge of widespread document fraud. We saw it in the (1986) amnesty bill, and we will see it on a much bigger scale this time around."
    Last edited by Judy; 02-08-2015 at 07:40 AM.
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  4. #4
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    It will be about 2017 when their first large groups of illegals they are overthrowing our Constitution to decree amnesty for will take over US elections.

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