Thread: Immigration amendment contains deals sought by industry

Immigration amendment contains deals sought by industry

Fredreka Schouten, USA TODAY 6:12 p.m. EDT June 26, 2013


Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., successfully sought changes to a Senate immigration bill that would make it easier for businesses to employ foreign seasonal workers.(Photo: Jack Gruber, USA TODAY)
Story Highlights

• Deals tacked on to compromise amendment that passed the Senate by a 69-29 vote Wednesday
• New measures include concessions for Alaska's seafood industry
• Bill would set aside $1.5 billion over two years to help young people find jobs

WASHINGTON – A compromise immigration measure that would dramatically increase border security also contains provisions sought by industries that use cultural-exchange programs to recruit youngsters from overseas to work as au pairs, camp counselors and in an array of other seasonal jobs.
One provision tucked into the deal brokered by Republican Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and John Hoeven of North Dakota, for instance, would allow Alaska's seafood processors to employ foreign youngsters on a summer-work travel program — overturning a ban the Obama administration put in place last year to protect foreign exchange students from jobs the U.S. government deems dangerous.
Another measure would designate fish processing in the state a "shortage occupation," allowing the industry to quickly hire more overseas seasonal workers under a new "W" guest-worker visa program created by the bill. Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, and Mark Begich, a Democrat, successfully pushed for the language.
In a statement, Begich said the state's seafood industry "is jeopardized" when processors can't recruit enough workers in processing plants.
"Without adequate processing capacity, fishermen can't deliver their catch, families lose income, and communities lose tax revenue," Begich said.
Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the labor-backed Economic Policy institute, called seafood processing an inappropriate use of the State Department-run program.
"If you are in a factory for 16 hours a day in the middle of Alaska, that's not a cultural exchange program," he said.
The new measures tacked on to the Corker-Hoeven deal were designed to help secure broad support for the compromise amendment in the Senate, where it passed Wednesday by 69-29. At the heart of the compromise: Adding nearly 20,000 federal law-enforcement agents to the Southwestern border to address Republican concerns about curbing illegal immigration.
Final passage of the overall bill could come this week. It faces uncertain prospects in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
In a concession to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the bill also would set aside $1.5 billion over two years to help young people find jobs.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who voted against the compromise, denounced it on the Senate floor Wednesday as "chock-full of …. special-interest sweeteners." He called the Begich-Murkowski language "the Alaska seafood special."
Begich spokeswoman Heather Handyside said the state's seafood processing would be "devastated" without the guarantee of a seasonal workforce. "These are no special interests," she said. "These are hard-working, blue-collar fishermen."
The changes to the bill follow aggressive lobbying by resorts, au pair agencies and other industries that rely on the J-1 cultural-exchange visa program, which allows foreigners to enter the USA through 14 categories, ranging from interns to visiting scholars. The largest number, nearly 92,000 last year, entered as part of the summer-work travel category, federal records show. An additional 18,000 worked as camp counselors and nearly 14,000 as au pairs.
Businesses that hire these visa holders save money because they don't have to pay unemployment taxes, Medicare or Social Security. Participants must also have their own health insurance, another cost savings.
A provision added to the Corker-Hoeven deal specifically exempts J-1 visa holders from new anti-trafficking regulations that bar recruiting agencies from collecting any fees from foreign workers. Labor groups have argued that recruiters extract exorbitant fees from foreign workers who too often are placed in menial, low-paying jobs and can't afford to pay the fees without taking on big debts.
The updated version of the immigration bill would require the State Department to write rules setting limits on fees in the J-1 visa program and gives the agency two years to do so.
It was among several changes to the cultural-exchange program successfully sought by Sens. Angus King, I-Maine and Ron Johnson, R-Wis. Their language also slashed visa fees from $500 per participant to $100.
"For now, the bill looks better than it did last week," said Marielle den Hollander, president of CCUSA, a Sausalito, Calif.-based company that places about 10,000 camp counselors and other foreign youngsters at summer camps, resorts and other U.S. employers each year. She lobbied California's senators, and a company executive traveled to Wisconsin to talk with Johnson at one of several immigration sessions the senator held in May.
She said the fees her company collects from participants help underwrite the cost of administering the program, including vetting employers and foreign workers. The camps and other employers who use seasonal workers would balk at picking up those costs -- forcing her to lose business, she said.
Johnson said the fee structure in the original bill "would have killed the program entirely."
"When you are talking about small businesses that are really frequent in tourist towns — a small restaurant or attraction — these aren't exactly highly profitable businesses," he told USA TODAY. "They simply can't afford to take on a whole new cost."
Proponents of the new language say it also strikes an appropriate balance between cracking down on a handful of abusive employers and preserving a program needed by seasonal employers. Among other things, it offers new whistleblower protections to foreign participants who expose abusive working conditions.
Despite securing his language in the deal, Johnson voted against the Corker-Hoeven compromise Wednesday. He said the overall immigration bill is too costly to the federal government.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/06/26/immigration-bill-carveouts-counselors-au-pairs-alaska-seafood/2460785/

http://www.alipac.us/f12/some-libera...n-plan-282105/