Thread: Republican Senator Floats Back-Door Amnesty Proposal

Bill would create 500,000 new visas, include path to citizenship, and be open to current aliens

by Brendan Kirby | Updated 24 May 2017 at 6:08 AM

A bill introduced this month by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) would increase foreign guest workers by up to 500,000 a year and offer a back-door amnesty for illegal immigrants.

The legislation, the State Sponsored Visa Pilot Program Act of 2017, has attracted support from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the libertarian-oriented Cato Institute.

The bill would represent a massive increase in the number of non-immigrant visas issued each year by the United States. Unlike the myriad of existing visa programs, Johnson’s proposed program would be a state-based system.

Each state and the District of Columbia would be able to sponsor 5,000 visas each year. Another 245,000 visas would be distributed to the states based on their populations. Visas not used by one state could be claimed by others.

The visas would be good for three years and could be renewed indefinitely.

The federal government would retain responsibility for conducting background checks and issuing the visas. But each state would determine the rules governing the visa holders, such as whether to restrict them to certain industries or employment categories, whether to impose income requirements, or whether to require employers to make a good-faith effort to hire Americans first.

“We pretty strongly oppose it,” said Chris Chmielenski, director of content and activism at NumbersUSA. “It’s an indefinite renewable visa. In our eyes, that’s a permanent worker.”

Perhaps more significantly, Johnson’s bill would allow states to sponsor illegal immigrants for visas as long as they came prior to this year and had not been convicted of a felony, violent crime, or drunken-driving offense.

“It seems like a way to turn illegal aliens into guest workers,” said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

Once they gained guest-worker status, the formerly illegal immigrants — like those who applied from foreign countries for visas — could get in the regular line for green cards and permanent residency.

“This is just wrong on so many levels,” Mehlman said. “It shines a spotlight on the utter failure of our overall immigration policy.”

Mehlman said immigration long has been understood to be a federal responsibility. Farming that out to 50 states and the District of Columbia would undermine that concept and invite abuse, he said.

What’s more, he said, it could put further pressure on vulnerable Americans.

"There's no evidence to suggest that we have labor shortages in most areas of the country," he said. "If we did, we'd have wage inflation."

Chmielenski said it is hard to assess the bill's prospects.

"There's some interest in it in the Senate," he said. "It could be a springboard to something else."

John Miano, a labor lawyer and fellow at the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, said Johnson's bill represents the latest attempt by politicians to solve a problem they created.

"The functional paradox of fixing the immigration system is that it's done by the same people who broke it in the first place," he said. "This is just nuts."

http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/r...esty-proposal/

Someone needs to look into Ron Johnson and find out who he's working for, because it's not the American People. Get on it, Wisconsin.

I've said this before, and I'm going to say it again. Republicans in Congress need to sit down, shut up and wait for orders from Donald J Trump. Like the labor lawyer said, you can't expect people who caused all these problems in the first place to be the ones to fix it. Trump knows what to do, it's not going to easy or pretty, but he knows how, why, why and what to do. So get out of the way and let him do it.

Judy wrote (excerpt):

I've said this before, and I'm going to say it again. Republicans in Congress need to sit down, shut up and wait for orders from Donald J Trump.

Fortunately that's not what we elect or congressional representatives to do (sit down, shut up and take orders from a single person. We elect them to represent our districts and states. Sometimes that makes it necessary for them to stand up, shout out and be noticed. Just saying.

They aren't taking orders from a single person. They're taking orders from a single person elected by the majority of the people in at least 30 states, and that is what they should do and are supposed to do if you want to fix the country and solve the problems. We've never had 30 million illegal aliens roaming our nation threatening everything we have, we've never had $20 trillion of debt, and 70,000 closed factories, but we do now, and we have all this bad stuff because Congress and former Presidents didn't know what to do to stop it or fix it.

So everyone needs to support this President who does, it's why he ran for President, the only reason he ran for President, it's why he was elected, the only reason he was elected, so get out of his way and let him do it.

Originally Posted by Judy

They aren't taking orders from a single person. They're taking orders from a single person elected by the majority of the people in at least 30 states, and that is what they should do and are supposed to do if you want to fix the country and solve the problems. We've never had 30 million illegal aliens roaming our nation threatening everything we have, we've never had $20 trillion of debt, and 70,000 closed factories, but we do now, and we have all this bad stuff because Congress and former Presidents didn't know what to do to stop it or fix it.

So everyone needs to support this President who does, it's why he ran for President, the only reason he ran for President, it's why he was elected, the only reason he was elected, so get out of his way and let him do it.

So you're saying if Trump supports an amnesty DACA bill everyone should just shut up and accept it? Sorry, that's not the way it works (thank God).

Originally Posted by MW

So you're saying if Trump supports an amnesty DACA bill everyone should just shut up and accept it? Sorry, that's not the way it works (thank God).

No, that's not what I said or what I'm saying. Trump didn't run on a amnesty DACA bill, he wasn't elected to support an amnesty DACA bill. Try to read and comprehend the posts before you respond to them.

DHS Kelly says he’s not deporting Dreamers, suggests Congress grant full legalization

Originally Posted by Judy

No, that's not what I said or what I'm saying. Trump didn't run on a amnesty DACA bill, he wasn't elected to support an amnesty DACA bill. Try to read and comprehend the posts before you respond to them.

I don't think I or anyone else had a problem comprehending what you said.

Homeland Security secretary suggests amnesty for Dreamers, implores Congress to solve

I think Kelly is running reverse psychology on the DemoQuacks. Is that possible? Kelly knows the Congress will never pass a legalization for these people. The House will kill any bill that would do that. So as much as we hate hearing it played out, it could be a bluff. That would be a Trump style. Meanwhile Kelly, Trump and Sessions quickly and quietly enforce the law and DACA is "expired" in 3 days.

We'll see what happens.