Thread: Piecemeal Immigration Measures to Resurface in Congress

Piecemeal Immigration Measures Poised to Resurface in Congress

Although the Iraq War has taken center stage since Congress returned from the July 4th recess, special interests continue to work behind the scenes to advance their agenda in the realm of immigration. Sources tell FAIR that there is discussion in both the House and Senate on reviving parts of the Bush-Kennedy amnesty bill (S.1639), such as the DREAM Act, the SKIL bill, and AgJOBS. With Congressional leaders in both parties signaling that a comprehensive bill is unlikely to move before the 2008 elections, supporters hope that these particular provisions will be popular enough to pass without being attached to border security or worksite enforcement legislation.

All three immigration measures seek to appease various minority and business special interest groups. The DREAM Act would give amnesty to illegal aliens who arrived in the U.S. as children and have established a certain level of education. It would also allow illegal aliens to receive in-state tuition at colleges and universities by reversing portions of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA), passed in 1996. The SKIL bill, as it is commonly called, would dramatically increase the annual cap of high-tech H-1B visas and, among other things, would create a special path to citizenship for foreign students who study math, science and engineering. Finally, AgJOBS would grant amnesty to 1.5 million illegal alien agricultural workers and relax certain portions of the existing agricultural guest worker program (H-2A).

Some Senate sources even suggest that there may even be movement in the Senate this week during the debate on the Defense Authorization Bill. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced Friday he intends to offer the DREAM Act as an amendment to the defense bill; Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) has filed an amendment that would increase H-1B visas; and some have suggested that Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) may attempt to offer an amendment that would expand the H-2B program.

Meanwhile, true immigration reformers are also looking for opportunities to advance provisions critical to enforcing our immigration laws. For example, Congressman Jack Kingston (R-GA), a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee, has successfully offered an amendment to three different appropriations bills that would require government contractors to use the Basic Pilot Program to verify that their employees are lawfully present in the United States. The amendment has been adopted on the Transportation/HUD appropriations bill; the Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations bill; and the Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill. These funding measures will soon move to the House floor where supporters of the Basic Pilot requirement will be working hard to ensure that the language is not stripped.

The above news item was taken from the FAIR legislative update newsletter of July 16, 2007.

Ya....these guys are going to stick their agenda in any way they can. They have about as much difficulty understanding NO as the illegals do with the word ILLEGAL. I swear it's worse than children.