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| Schumer: Amnesty Bill for Illegals by Labor Day |
| 2009-07-13 |
| July 8, but hadn't seen this posted anywhere. The lead Democrat steering an immigration overhaul through the Senate said Wednesday that he expects to have a bill ready by Labor Day that is more generous to highly skilled immigrant workers than those who are lower skilled and is tough on future waves of illegal immigration. During an interview with The Associated Press, Sen. Chuck Schumer said an immigration bill can be done by the end of the year or early next year that works out disagreements between labor and business interests on the flow of legal foreign workers. "I think we'll have a good bill by Labor Day," said Schumer, D-N.Y. "I think the fundamental building blocks are in place to do comprehensive immigration reform." The way to get the bill done is to be very tough on future waves of illegal immigration, Schumer said. He declared himself pro-immigration and said the United States should encourage legal immigration and find some kind of path for people now here to find a way to legal citizenship. "We have a shortage maybe of engineers here or Ph.D's in physics, but we probably don't have a shortage of people who can do construction work," Schumer said. The AFL-CIO and the Change to Win labor unions earlier this year announced their support for immigration reform, which they have opposed in the past. But the unions' continued opposition to increases in visas for foreign workers is at odds with the demand by business for legal foreign workers in industries ranging from high-technology to agriculture. "I think one of the ways to bridge it is to look at the different areas of labor and where there are shortages and where there are not and where just workers are being brought in for exploitive purposes _ broadly put meaning just get lower wages _ rather than having a shortage," Schumer said. "I think if you look at each broad field you can see that one size does not fit all." Schumer's office has met to discuss his bill with Compete America, a coalition pushing for more visas for foreign workers. Members of the group are skeptical of a labor proposal for an appointed commission to set limits on visas and green cards given to legal residents, said Robert Hoffman, an in-house lobbyist for Oracle, a software company and member of Compete America. Ana Avendano, AFL-CIO's immigration policy director, said labor shares Schumer's "one size doesn't fit all" view. "We want employers to have workers they need, but the key is determining when there is a real need, not one employers make up when they import temporary workers." Earlier Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said businesses wanting federal contracts would have to use E-Verify, a Web-based system, beginning Sept. 8to check whether their employees are working in the United States legally. The Bush and Obama administrations had delayed implementing the rule. The Senate voted for a proposal to make the E-Verify system permanent as it debated a spending bill for the Homeland Security Department. The department also said it is abandoning a Bush administration plan to force employers to fire workers who can't resolve a mismatch between their Social Security numbers and their names. The administration said it would come up with a new rule. The Bush administration had tried to root out undocumented workers through so-called "no-match" letters the Social Security Administration sends employers. But an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit has prevented the rule from taking effect. Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said the two announcements send mixed signals. "The administration is saying illegal immigrants shouldn't have jobs by supporting the federal contracting rule, but making it harder for companies to follow the law by doing away with the Bush 'no-match rule'," Smith said. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #6 Illegal alien amnesties: 1986 - 2.8 million 1994 - 575,000 1997 - 1 million Central Americans 1998 Haitian amnesty - 125,000 2000 Elect Al Gore amnesty - 1.3 million After each amnesty, even more illegal aliens violated US borders hoping to get the next batch of Green Cards. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-07-13 20:44 |
| #5 This story cries out for the "Aw geez, not this sh*t again" graphic. |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2009-07-13 18:55 |
| #4 "We have a shortage maybe of engineers here or Ph.D's in physics, but we probably don't have a shortage of people who can do construction work," Schumer said. Schumer is clueless. His bill is just a scheme to obtain the Hispanic vote. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2009-07-13 18:50 |
| #3 and is tough on future waves of illegal immigration. That was supposed to have happened as a result of the last immigration reform, over two decades ago. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2009-07-13 16:16 |
| #2 We don't need illegals for this. Just use the now unemployed auto workers for labor. They will appriciate the check and we will have less people on unemployment! |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2009-07-13 11:47 |
| #1 Oh yes, because we have _such_ a shortage of unskilled labor right now. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2009-07-13 11:24 |