Dear American Patriots,

There are a few folks out on the Net sending emails with misinformation
about Tom Tancredo and his H.R. 3333. Unfortunately, much of what they
write is based on emotion and not a logical and thorough study of the
bill.

There are many compelling aspects to Rep. Tom Tancredo's REAL GUEST Act of 2005 (H.R. 3333), but one thing to keep foremost in mind is that there is already is a "guest worker plan" in place, under which the number of visas is continually being expanded. Hundreds of thousands of illegal and legal foreign workers are already coming here annually, not only for the jobs "Americans won't do," but to take away the jobs Americans already have.

H.R. 3333 has so many restrictions in place [see details below] that it
makes even legal immigration and legal hiring of foreign workers
exceptionally complex. Tancredo does leave open the remote possibility
that guest workers may be needed sometime in the future, but if an
employer's financial circumstances change to where head count must be
trimmed, it is the guest workers who must be fired first and return home.
Under Tancredo's proposal, the numbers of guest workers - legal and
illegal - will be reduced to an insignificant number.

So many of the concepts Tom Tancredo has included in his bill have since
been adopted in other bills. Yet they are not as well integrated with
other complex immigration and job issues. This is no time for squabbling.
Let Tom know that he is not alone in this fight. Contact your
congressmen today, tell them it's time to get on board with Tom.

Our latest article addresses the top ten questions received concerning
H.R. 3333. They are honest questions and deserve an answer. I hope this
will bring some clarity to the debate.

We will write up another article that specifically addresses the Job Bank -
stand by.

For the Cause, Linda

PS - Tune in today to the George Putnam radio show at 1:00 pm pacific /
4:00 pm eastern. Nathan Muller will be on to discuss Rep. Tom Tancredo's
REAL GUEST Act of 2005. I'll be on as well if I can return from my doctor
appointment in time! Listen online at: http://www.crni.net

PPS - Please give a hand in correcting the misleading statements going
around the web by forwarding this email across the USA. Feel free to post
it on blogs, message boards and news sites. Tom Tancredo has always stood
strong for us, lets help him get this bill passed - for the Cause!

---------------

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 [see www.forthecause.us], 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.


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 njmuller@forthecause.us

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.

-------

Other Resources available on our site at www.forthecause.us

http://www.forthecause.us/
ftc-n-muller-051017-AnsweringYourQuestionsOnHR3333.shtml

Original article: Setting the Record Straight -
Tancredo's Brilliant Plan for Stopping Illegal Immigration and Reducing
Job Loss

http://www.forthecause.us/
ftc-l-muller-05107-tancredo-hr3333.shtml

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...

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Linda Muller - For The Cause
Web: http://www.forthecause.us
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