Thread: Ten Questions Answered Concerning Cong. Tancredo's H.R. 3333

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Your Top 10 Questions Answered -
Tancredo's Brilliant Plan for Stopping Illegal Immigration
and Reducing Job Loss
by Nathan J. Muller
For the Cause - forthecause.us





With the publication of our original article, we received emails with questions about Rep. Tom Tancredo's REAL GUEST Act of 2005, otherwise known as H.R. 3333. Since many of the questions reveal genuine, well-reasoned concern about the content of H.R. 3333 and the potential impacts it would have if implemented, we feel a responsibility to elaborate on our views, and will continue this dialogue for as long as there is interest among our readers. Some of the answers have numbers in brackets, which refer to the page numbers of H.R. 3333.



1. Why did Tancredo go through all the trouble of writing this bill, when all he really needed to do was push for cancellation of the H1-B program, which is robbing Americans of tens of thousands of good-paying technical jobs?

Tom Tancredo did not disappoint his base on this issue. On March 15th of this year he introduced H.R. 1325, which amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to repeal authorities relating to H1-B visas for temporary workers.

On April 4th of this year, this bill went from the House Committee on the Judiciary to the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims. To date, there has been no action on the bill. In any case, H.R. 1325 does not address the full range of interrelated issues as does H.R. 3333.

The REAL GUEST Act of 2005 addresses the abuses of the H1-B program by wiping out all current visa categories and replacing them with a single "H" classification for both skilled and unskilled jobs, making it much more difficult for employers to hire aliens, and charging the Labor Department with responsibility for enforcing the new system. The idea behind this is to make it extremely difficult for big corporations to influence Congress for visa increases. Other Resources



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H.R. 1325
Full text of Rep. Tom Tancredo's bill "To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to repeal authorities relating to H1–B visas for temporary workers."



H.R. 3333
Full text of Rep. Tom Tancredo's REAL GUEST Act of 2005...



H.R. 3938
Full text of Rep. J.D. Hayworth's Enforcement First Immigration Reform Act of 2005...



2. H.R. 3333 seems to be providing an infrastructure that facilitates guest worker entry into the United States, rather than protecting American jobs.

Actually, just the opposite is true -- on both counts. H.R. 3333 not only makes it very difficult for illegal aliens to qualify for American jobs, but compels employers to hire and train Americans first, and even protects jobs for Americans.

Alien requirements

To qualify for employment in the U.S., an alien would have to go through a rigorous screening process that could hardly be described as "facilitation" [11-15]:

They must be physically present in their home country.
They must pay a visa processing fee.
They must file an employment application.
They must sign a legally enforceable affidavit that waives eligibility for public assistance and U.S. citizenship for a child born during their stay here. They must agree not to apply for a change in immigrant or non-immigrant status.
They will be added to a database of pre-screened workers, rather than apply for a particular job.
They will remain in their home country until an employer is authorized to hire for a particular job opening.
They will submit to fingerprinting and photographing, and undergo a criminal background and health check.
Upon selection by an employer, they must undergo another background check against criminal and terrorist databases within a one-week window prior to admission into the U.S.
Aliens not selected for employment within 2 years are removed from the database unless they submit an updated application.
An alien who violates any of these terms for admission is barred from receiving any visa for a period of 10 years.
Employer requirements

H.R. 3333 specifies a mechanism that would ensure employment preference for American workers, skilled and unskilled. It would also protect American jobs.


Employers must seek Americans to fill jobs. [3]
When qualified Americans are not available, up to one year of training must be provided to Americans to qualify them to do the job. [3]
Only when Americans cannot be found or trained to do the job can the employer submit a petition to the Department of Labor to request a list of pre-screened, available aliens. [15]
The wage rate or salary being offered for the job must be at least equal to the median national wage rate or the prevailing wage, whichever is greater. [7]
An amount must be deposited into an escrow account to cover the alien's trip home when the job ends or the period of authorized admission into this country expires. [8]
If the financial circumstances of the employer change over time to the extent that it must lay off workers, the employer must first terminate guest workers holding equivalent jobs slated for elimination. [9]
Employers will fund the database system that administers alien job applications. [6-7]
Employers face a fine of $25,000 for each unauthorized alien, imprisonment for up to one (1) year, or both. [65]
3. Tancredo's proposal is the implementing legislation for George Bush's plan for a government system of matching "willing employers" and "willing workers."
Not true… As noted, Tancredo's proposal offers a mechanism that goes to great lengths to match American employers with American workers. Only in the most extreme circumstances can an American employer seek alien workers. Tancredo's proposal acknowledges that this situation at least falls within the realm of possibility and that a solution should be available if needed. This is nothing at all like the Bush plan or the McCain-Kennedy plan.

4. But the real issue is that employers can easily manipulate wages to justify hiring alien workers; after all, Americans cannot live on the low wages alien workers would accept.

Tancredo's proposal prevents employers from keeping wages artificially low so that only alien workers would take the jobs.

The Labor Department already gathers statistics on employment rates and wage trends by occupational category and geographic region. With Tancredo's proposed job database, the Labor Department will have one more tool for monitoring compensation to prevent employer abuse.

If wages in a particular job category in a geographic region have been stagnant or in decline for the 6-month period immediately preceding an employer's filing of a petition to hire alien workers, the Labor Department will decline the petition. [5-6]

Since the Labor Department's decision is determined by trends over a 6-month period over an entire geographic region, there is little chance that an employer will get away with wage manipulation.

To prevent an employer from deliberately setting wage rates so low that the job will appeal only to aliens, Tancredo's proposal also specifies that the wage rate or salary being offered for the job will be at least equal to the median national wage rate for the occupation, as determined by the Occupational Employment Statistics survey of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or the prevailing wage, whichever is greater. [7]

5. Much of Tancredo's proposal seems to hinge around a job bank. This sounds expensive… and why should our taxpayer dollars be used to pay for a system that is designed for collecting the job applications of alien workers?

Much of the infrastructure of the job bank is already in existence in the form of state employment agency databases and Labor Department databases. All that remains is to arrange for employment agencies and employers to gain secure, password protected access to the shared data.

The job bank is funded by employers who expect to use the database system. They will be required to pay a fee of $10 per worker sought. The fee will be paid to the Labor Department, which will use the money to maintain and improve the job bank. Any excess funds will be used to investigate abuses of the new "H" non-immigrant program described in H.R. 3333. [6-7]

Since we're on the topic of costs, worth noting is that if an employer hires an alien, the employer must also post in escrow an amount to cover the alien's trip home when the job ends or the period of authorized admission into this country expires. Not only does this eliminate an excuse for an alien not returning home on time, it spares taxpayers the expense to get them there. [8]

6. But this database will be "Internet-based" and we all know that the Internet is not very secure. This opens the door to fraud and abuse…

The jobs database is indeed Internet-based [5] and it is always prudent to raise security concerns when making any database accessible on the Internet.

H.R. 3333 mentions or alludes to four (4) techniques that will provide secure access to the jobs database: authorization, secure access, passwords, and database access privileges.


Secure access is achieved by a system of encryption that creates a virtual private network (VPN) through the public Internet. The VPN consists of point-to-point links between every authorized user and the database. The information traversing these links is encrypted, so that even if it could be intercepted by a hacker, the information would be unintelligible. This concept is not fully explained in H.R. 3333. The bill simply uses the phrase, "secure, password-protected access…" [5] The words "secure" and "access" or simply "secure access" is what VPNs are designed to achieve.

Passwords are something everyone with a computer is probably familiar with. But on a properly managed network, passwords are tightly controlled and must comply with an established standard. They must be changed several times a year. They automatically expire when not used within a given period of time. Users are locked out after a number of unsuccessful attempts. And when people leave the organization, their passwords are immediately revoked. Only the phrase "password-protected" is used in the bill [5], so readers may not have gotten a full understanding of how this type of security can be rigorously implemented. It is the responsibility of the security administrator to supervise password standards compliance.

Authorization is enforced by a process called "authentication" whereby a user must prove that he or she is actually who they claim to be before they can access the network. Let's just call this "proof of identity". This type of security is carried out by establishing a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) management system that issues and administers digital certificates. These digital certificates are assigned to users of the database system who have been prescreened as authorized to access the database. This concept is not fully explained in H.R. 3333. Only the word "authorized" is used in the bill, but authentication is how authorization is enforced over a VPN or any other type of data network - passwords are not solely relied upon to do this.

Database access privileges refer to where and how deeply into a database an authorized user is allowed to go in their quest for information. H.R. 3333 does not specifically mention the phrase "database access privileges" but does allude to how it works:
"The Secretary shall not provide the employer with access to contact information, other than the alien's name, about any alien listed in the database." [16]
"Once an employer selects one or more workers in the database, the Secretary shall provide the employer with contact information for the worker so the employer can make an offer of employment." [16]


H.R. 3333 is sketchy on the security details of the jobs database, and this is how it should be. That's because the Labor Department will have the responsibility for coming up with the enabling mechanisms to carry out the directives outlined in the legislation. Leaving these details to appropriate departments and regulatory agencies is how all legislation gets implemented and enforced. Congress exercises oversight of the departments and regulatory agencies.

7. Why are you wasting so much time pushing this when some in the immigration and jobs movements have already urged Tancredo to withdraw H.R. 3333?

We believe H.R. 3333 is a tightly integrated plan that effectively addresses many complex issues simultaneously:


Illegal immigration
Protecting American jobs
Minimizing and, in most cases, eliminating opportunities for fraud
Growing the economy
Tightening national security
Enhancing law enforcement and border control
And creating an environment that makes it so difficult for illegal aliens to remain in this country that they will have no recourse but to head home.
All this is accomplished without resorting to an amnesty or setting up a path to citizenship for potential guest workers. The word "potential" is emphasized here because Tancredo's proposal creates a framework within which preferences are created for Americans to fill both skilled and unskilled jobs, making it extremely difficult to hire aliens.
H.R. 3333 does not make it easy for employers to hire guest workers, and the guest workers themselves are subject to a grueling screening process. The combination of just these two components greatly discourages the use of foreign labor in the United States for all types of jobs.

8. If Tancredo's H.R. 3333 is so "brilliant" why has it attracted only three co-sponsors?

Rep. Tom Tancredo has been on the outs with the GOP since he started his crusade for immigration reform. With his crusade, Tancredo has upset the cozy relationship most Republicans (and Democrats) have with their corporate benefactors who want to maintain the status quo - the uncontrolled flow and exploitation of cheap alien labor into this country.

Tancredo's situation with the GOP has worsened since he recently endorsed Minuteman co-founder Jim Gilchrest who is running as an American Independent Party candidate in the 48th Congressional District race against Republican state Sen. John Campbell.

And then there's this… Despite illegal immigration being the number one issue Americans are concerned about, and Tom Tancredo being the number one spokesman in Congress on this issue, he was passed over for a speaking slot at the Southern Leadership Republican Conference to be held next spring in Memphis.

Not many Republicans want to risk becoming too closely aligned with Tom Tancredo right now, less so as the 2006 elections approach, even though they may agree with him on immigration issues.

9. The Hayworth bill has attracted 26 co-sponsors, including Tancredo. Wouldn't it be best to abandon Tancredo's bill and go with Hayworth's bill instead?

Just because Tancredo has endorsed the Hayworth bill doesn't mean that even he thinks his own bill is woefully deficient. It simply means that he recognizes that the Hayworth bill also has merit and is worthy of further consideration. After all, there is significant overlap in the two bills in many critical areas.

Among the key reasons people like Hayworth's Enforcement First Immigration Act of 2005 (H.R. 393 is because it:


Espouses "zero tolerance" for illegal aliens by giving them 30 days to leave this country voluntarily upon order of removal.
Reduces the number of visas available, particularly for Mexican citizens.
Adds border patrol agents.
Puts the U.S. military on the border.
Ends automatic citizenship for babies born on U.S. soil.
Authorizes state and local law enforcement officers to enforce immigration law.
Tancredo's proposal includes all these provisions and makes unlawful presence a felony. As felons, illegal aliens could be arrested and then fined, imprisoned for up to one (1) year, and have their assets subject to forfeiture. [27] In addition, state and local police have the inherent authority to arrest illegal aliens. [77]

In order to have any hope of working in the U.S., illegal aliens in this country would have to leave and then apply for work from their home country.

Hayworth is rightly applauded for his focus on enforcement first. But Tancredo has the same focus in his bill [17-19]. None of Tancredo's ideas discussed throughout this paper can be implemented unless the Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Attorney General and Secretary of State, certify to Congress that ten (10) critical enforcement provisions have been implemented: [17-19]


The automated entry-exit control system authorized in 1996 must be operational.
All non-citizens already in the U.S. legally and all aliens authorized to enter the U.S. must be issued biometric, machine-readable travel and entry documents, as authorized in 2002.
Neither immigrant nor non-immigrant visas are being issued to nationals of foreign states that refuse to permit the return of their nationals who are ordered removed from the U.S.
The Employer Authorization Status Instant Check (EASI) must be operational to prevent fraudulent use of social security numbers.
All of the additional border patrol agents authorized in 2004 must be hired, trained and deployed; and illegal entry has been reduced to a level lower than that of annual removals.
The Chimera system for collecting photographs and fingerprints of all aliens entering or leaving the U.S. must be operational.
All DHS databases containing information on non-citizens and the National Crime Information Center database are interoperable.
The absconder rate for aliens ordered removed from the U.S. must be less than 5 percent for the previous 12-month period.
ICE must respond to every request by State and local police by taking custody of illegal aliens or reimbursing authorities for the cost of detaining and transporting them.
At least 80 percent of visa overstays must be located and removed within one (1) year of overstaying.
A final point: cross co-sponsorship of competing bills is very common. We don't read anything into this.

10. But if our nation's current immigration laws are not enforced now, why bother with H.R. 3333?

Due to the groundswell of anger arising from all corners of our country, the climate in Washington is changing. A majority of Republicans are increasing the pressure on President Bush to address illegal immigration. The GOP leadership in the Senate is even going forward with plans for hearings this fall, instead of putting them off until next year. This will put pressure of the House to hold its own hearings.

As the election season gets into full swing, this pressure will intensify. Although Bush can retire comfortably on his Texas ranch, even he understands that Republicans who are running for re-election must be able to show constituents that progress is being made on this issue, or risk being clobbered by challengers.

So an opportunity is opening up for meaningful reform and Tancredo's proposal offers a well thought out plan that can influence the outcome. That's why we find critical arguments against H.R. 3333 so useful -- it gives us a chance delve deeper into the issues raised by Tancredo so that we will all be better prepared to fully exploit this emerging opportunity by having accurate facts and details at hand.

Wrapping up

There is much more to debate about H.R. 3333. In the coming weeks we intend to address the national security implications of this bill as well as the jobs database, with particular attention to its expansion potential, privacy, and centralized-management-of-the-economy implications. Of course, we will continue to address all of your other concerns, including any questions you might have about this article or the Hayworth bill.

We do not believe we are wasting our time by bringing some precision into this debate. We do it for the cause…



Nathan Muller is co-founder of For the Cause and the author of 26 books and numerous articles on political, regulatory, legal, management and technology issues. He is a frequent speaker at seminars and other events. He can be reached at this email address.



Permission to reproduce this article in whole or in part is granted, providing that credit is given to the author and For the Cause - www.forthecause.us - is cited as the source.

Excellent Q and A's, Tancredofan. I particularly liked the part where they have to sign an affidavit that waives eligibility for public assistance AND US Citizenship for a child born here during their stay.

This DOES sound tough, tancredofan and I guess one thing we HAVE to keep in mind is Bush is going to FORCE a plan one way or the other. IF there are no choices except the two that we've heard so far, one of those OR a combination thereof, will be passed. Tancredo's bill does make it EXTREMELY difficult to get those visas and, once acquired, does have built-in requirements that the employer set up, in escrow, enough money to send back any visa holder who is no longer needed on the job.

I know we don't WANT any type of guestworker program but one WILL be crammed down our throats so we need to have an alternate plan to present and this sound acceptable as far as I can see. NOBODY in Congress is going to vote for NO TYPE OF GUESTWORKER PROGRAM because they are under intense pressure from business to do something so we just can't sit back and say, "No Guestworker Program". I really do think we have to offer up a program that LOOKS like they are going to get a guestworker program but one with stringent limitations like Tancredo's bill.

The other real concern is the ENFORCEMENT end of the deal. The Department of Labor is not enforcing the EXISTING visa requirements. They don't know where the biggest percentage of people with expired visas even are. They "mistakenly" issued way more than their quota of Visas last year so are we likely to get any form of enforcement from them?

It really seems like the entire illegal immigration problem boils down to one simple facet that's missing--ENFORCEMENT. It involves multiple agencies but it is one issue--ENFORCEMENT.

I guess that's what we need to address and get assurances about.