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President Bush's Plan For Comprehensive Immigration Reform

2007 State of the Union Policy InitiativesIn Focus: Immigration

Tonight, President Bush Will Call On Congress To Pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform. The President believes that America can simultaneously be a lawful, economically dynamic, and welcoming society. We must address the problem of illegal immigration and deliver a system that is secure, productive, orderly, and fair. The President calls on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform that will secure our borders, enhance interior and worksite enforcement, create a temporary worker program, resolve without animosity and without amnesty the status of illegal immigrants already here, and promote assimilation into our society. All elements of this problem must be addressed together or none of them will be solved.

1. The United States Must Secure Its Borders

Border Security Is The Basic Responsibility Of A Sovereign Nation And An Urgent Requirement Of Our National Security. We have more than doubled border security funding from $4.6 billion in FY 2001 to $10.4 billion in FY 2007. We will have also increased the number of Border Patrol agents by 63 percent from just over 9,000 agents at the beginning of this Administration to nearly 15,000 at the end of 2007. We are also on track to increase this number to approximately 18,000 by the end of 2008, doubling the size of the Border Patrol during the President's time in office.

2. We Must Hold Employers Accountable For The Workers They Hire

In A Sharp Break From The Past, The Administration Is Addressing The Illegal Employment Of Undocumented Workers With A Tough Combination Of Criminal Prosecution And Forfeitures. Previously, worksite enforcement relied on a combination of administrative hearings and fines. The fines were so modest that some employers treated them as merely a cost of doing business, and employment of undocumented workers continued unabated.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform Must Include The Creation Of A New, Tamper-Proof Identification Card For Every Legal Foreign Worker So Businesses Can Verify The Legal Status Of Their Employees. A tamper-proof card would help us enforce the law and leave employers with no excuse for violating it. We will also work with Congress to expand "Basic Pilot" an electronic employment eligibility verification system and mandate that all employers use this system.

3. To Secure Our Border, We Must Create A Temporary Worker Program

America's Immigration Problem Will Not Be Solved With Security Measures Alone. There are many people on the other side of our borders who will do anything to come to America to work and build a better life. This dynamic creates tremendous pressure on our border that walls and patrols alone cannot stop.

As We Tighten Controls At The Border, We Must Also Address The Needs Of America's Growing Economy. The rule of law cannot permit unlawful employment of millions of undocumented workers in the United States. Many American businesses, however, depend on hiring willing foreign workers for jobs that Americans are not doing.

To Provide A Lawful Channel For Employment That Will Benefit Both The United States And Individual Immigrants, The President Has Called For The Creation Of A Temporary Worker Program. Such a program will serve the needs of our economy by providing a lawful and fair way to match willing employers with willing foreign workers to fill jobs that Americans have not taken. The program will also serve our law enforcement and national security objectives by taking pressure off the border and freeing our hard-working Border Patrol to focus on terrorists, human traffickers, violent criminals, drug runners, and gangs.

The Temporary Worker Program Should Be Grounded In The Following Principles:

4. We Must Bring Undocumented Workers Already In The Country Out Of The Shadows

Comprehensive Immigration Reform Must Account For The Millions Of Immigrants Already In The Country Illegally. Illegal immigration causes serious problems, putting pressure on public schools and hospitals and straining State and local budgets. People who have worked hard, supported their families, avoided crime, led responsible lives, and become a part of American life should be called in out of the shadows and under the rule of American law.

The President Opposes An Automatic Path To Citizenship Or Any Other Form Of Amnesty. Amnesty, as a reward for lawbreaking, would only invite further lawbreaking. Amnesty would also be unfair to those lawful immigrants who have patiently waited their turn for citizenship and to those who are still waiting to enter the country legally.

The President Supports A Rational Middle Ground Between A Program Of Mass Deportation And A Program Of Automatic Amnesty. It is neither wise nor realistic to round up and deport millions of illegal immigrants in the United States. But there should be no automatic path to citizenship. The President supports a rational middle ground founded on the following basic tenets:

5. We Must Promote Assimilation Into Our Society By Teaching New Immigrants English And American Values

Those Who Swear The Oath Of Citizenship Are Doing More Than Completing A Legal Process They Are Making A Lifelong Pledge To Support The Values And The Laws Of America. Americans are bound together by our shared ideals, our history, and the ability to speak and write the English language. Every new citizen has an obligation to learn the English language and the customs and values that define our Nation, including liberty and civic responsibility, appreciation for our history, tolerance for others, and equality. When immigrants assimilate, they advance in our society, realize their dreams, and add to the unity of America.

New Citizens Need Guidance To Succeed. The Office of Citizenship is creating new guides for immigrants and introducing a new pilot civics examination designed to foster a deeper understanding of civic virtues and the founding ideals. The President's Task Force on New Americans is fostering volunteerism through volunteer.gov and exploring partnerships with local organizations. Public libraries and faith-based and community groups will be encouraged to offer English language and civics instruction to immigrants who are seeking to make America their home.

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President Bush's Plan For Comprehensive Immigration Reform

The fact that Senate leaders on both sides of the aisle are even talking about moving an immigration reform bill just months before the midterm elections is cause enough for celebration, advocacy groups tracking the latest negotiations say.

Members of the Alliance for a New Immigration Consensus, however, say they are most excited about what they describe as the collective sense of urgency driving the revived negotiations.

Advocates told Insider that Senate Republicans likely understand that the chances of making positive gains on immigration will plummet if Donald Trump devotees were to gain power next year. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, for instance, has stoked fears that terrorists are creeping into the country (which the Customs and Border Patrol refuted), while House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jim Jordan's top priority is completing Trump's easily breached border wall. Should Republicans win in the midterms, such anti-immigration hardliners would be in charge.

"That means you have Speaker McCarthy and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, neither of whom are going to allow any sort of constructive immigration proposal to leave the House," Ali Noorani, president and CEO of the National Immigration Forum, said of the obstacles that await if Senate dealmakers don't "figure out what solutions can be achieved now."

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, a Democrat of Illinois, and the top Republican on the panel, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, both said they're trying to do just that.

"Staff is gathering the measures that are currently bipartisan. We're going to put them on the table and see if we can build a package that gets 60 votes," Durbin told Insider at the US Capitol.

Cornyn added that this latest effort would be more constrained than other wider-reaching attempts. "Nobody is suggesting that we do anything like was attempted before, a comprehensive bill," Cornyn said, adding, " I just don't think that's feasible."

Democrats repeatedly tried to weave a path to citizenship for millions of longstanding migrants in last year's budget reconciliation bill but were blocked at every turn by procedural objections raised by the Senate parliamentarian.

House Republicans need to flip just a handful of seats to wrest the speaker's gavel from Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell needs just a single pickup to again set the agenda in the bitterly divided chamber.

When asked by Insider, Durbin balked at naming specific proposals in the mix for the scaled-back immigration bundle."We're not at that stage yet," the Senate majority whip and co-author of the perennial Dream Act said.

One potential starting point Durbin offered was a Cornyn-backed bill providing emergency visas to medical personnel. "We'll see where we go from there," Durbin said.

Cornyn also floated the possibility of prioritizing protections for current recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program which the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute ballparked at 600,000-plus participants in December 2021 versus the millions of DACA-eligible individuals who have sought to stay stateside since the Obama administration rolled out the civic roadmap.

"I've always been sympathetic to giving them some certainty," Cornyn said of the current DACA crowd, adding, "They've been in litigation for 10 years."

Cornyn said he's looped in GOP Judiciary colleague Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina about the staff-level discussions and suspects that Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California, who chairs the Judiciary panel's immigration subcommittee, is also intimately involved.

Cobbling together a mutually agreeable bundle before the November election is doable, according to Cornyn. "I think it's just a matter of will," he said.

The can-do attitude on the Hill has inspired confidence in others that a last-ditch deal is within reach. "We think that it is similar to criminal justice reform," Jorge Lima, senior vice president of policy at Americans for Prosperity, said of the gradual approach that got the bipartisan First Step Act inked into law during the Trump administration.

Lima said the dozens of immigration alliance members have polling data that shows overwhelming support for a three-pronged package combining the Durbin-led Dream Act, the House-passed Farm Workforce Modernization Act, and the Bipartisan Border Solutions Act developed by Cornyn, Tillis, and Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire.

"By no means would just those three things solve everything we need solved on immigration," Lima said of the opening gambit. But securing something is preferable to accomplishing nothing.

"The history on this issue has always shown that you try to take something that does everything, and that's when the opposition can really break off and fragment folks," Lima said of the inherent danger of waiting.

"If Congress wants to add more to that, I think we would be excited. Because, again, this is only seen as a first step," Lima told Insider. "But we definitely think it's a very positive and impactful first step if they can get it done."

Noorani said he's hopeful that Republicans who genuinely "want solutions on immigration" will take this opportunity to act rather than allowing anti-amnesty hardliners to dictate harsher terms down the road. He cited Sens. Cornyn, Tillis, Dream Act co-sponsor Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska as lawmakers who've participated in immigration talks to various degrees in recent years.

"There's a way to get to 10 Republican senators," Noorani said. "The trick will be to do that while holding on to the Democrats."

Continue reading here:
Senators revive immigration reform talks ahead of midterm elections - Business Insider

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio is retired bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y.

By Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio Catholic News Service Posted April 1, 2022

Can our broken immigration system be reformed? I believe it can be to meet our nations labor, family reunification and humanitarian goals, and it can be done on the basis of sound information.

America has been the land of immigrants. The Statue of Liberty and the poem, The New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus, have been symbols of our nation. Unfortunately, the golden door, referenced in Lazarus poem, has always been closed to many. Reform of the immigration system must be done on the basis of national interest and not prejudices.

Looking at the past 100 years, we see three periods. The 1920s had a national quota system excluding many Southern and Eastern Europeans, as well as Asians. 1965 saw the reform of that prejudicial law, which improved things.

1980 to 1990 saw the passing of the Refugee Act of 1980, which put the U.S. in conformity with the international laws on refugee acceptance. In 1986, the Immigration Reform and Control Act legalized almost 3 million people.

In 1996, concerns over continued undocumented immigration gave rise to new restrictive laws. Since 1996, more restrictive laws and policies were passed, with immigration increasingly framed as a national security issue.

Immigration policies should meet national needs. Unfortunately, these policies have been politicized. An evidence-based system should guide the political process and can bring about a just and fair system.

One challenge is the regulation of undocumented people. This population is misunderstood and often demonized. The majority, however, have sought to build a secure life and contribute to their communities. Since 2010, the number of undocumented immigrants has been decreasing.

Unregulated immigration is not good for the country or for those without status who are excluded from full participation in our nation. As we look at reform, we must distinguish between different types of migrants and expand legal pathways for labor and family migration, as well as refugees, those seeking asylum and other humanitarian flows.

Reform must begin by dealing with those without status, and any reform must be flexible and continuous. Immigration reform deals with the lives of people and our national identity. We cannot revisit reform every 10 or 20 years.

A major contributing factor of the undocumented population is the backlog in the family-based visa system, which can stretch for decades. Many people, tired of waiting for long periods of time, come to join their families rather than stay abroad. Also, having a functional asylum system is critical because of the turmoil in Central America and other countries.

There are many children who have been brought here by their parents. These native-English speakers are well-integrated and deserve a chance to be educated and contribute to our nation.

We must learn from both our past mistakes and successes. In the Immigration Reform and Control Act process, 300,000undocumented residents were not able to legalize. Legalization must be complete and meet the needs of all people in the U.S.

There is another older section of the immigration law that has been in effect since 1929, called registry. This provision allows people who arrived before a certain date to obtain status and eventually citizenship. In 1929, the entry date for registry was 1921. If immigrants had good moral character and had resided in the country since 1921, they could apply for permanent status.

This program recognized the equitable ties developed in the U.S. over a long period of residence. It has allowed many who have owned homes, started businesses and had American-born children to remain.

Congress last advanced the registry cutoff date in 1986 when it moved the date forward to Jan. 1, 1972. In order to use the registry program today, an immigrant would need to have lived in the U.S. for more than 50 years.

By changing this date to Jan. 1, 2012, Congress would be able to legalize the majority of the undocumented population. In addition to changing the registry date one time, Congress should allow this date to advance automatically into perpetuity.

This would prevent our nation from having long-term undocumented immigrants and one way to put the U.S. on the road to having an immigration system that is truly in the national interest.

***

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio is retired bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y. He writes the column Walking With Migrants for CatholicNewsService and The Tablet.

Originally posted here:
Reforming immigration for the national interest Catholic Philly - CatholicPhilly.com

This type of policy is exactly what we need to move forward. While state lawmakers continue working to tap into the states immigrant and refugee communities, it is also the responsibility of our representatives in Washington to move immigration reform that recognizes the substantial role that immigrants play in our states economic success. Recently, the president of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce highlighted the importance of retaining and recruiting a robust workforce to build back Georgias economy and that federal immigration reform is necessary to achieve these goals.

Today, one in eight Georgia workers is an immigrant, making up 13 percent of our total labor force and filling roles in industries ranging from farming and agriculture, manufacturing, food services, and health care, all of which are strained by the statewide labor shortage. Further, undocumented immigrants contribute $7.1 billion to Georgias economy annually, and over two-thirds have lived in the U.S. for more than 10 years. Beyond the fact that establishing an earned pathway to citizenship could add $149 billion to Georgias economy annually, our workforce would get the boost it needs.

Immigration reform can change lives as well as the trajectory of our economy. I applaud the ongoing efforts at the state level and urge Congress to take action at the federal level to modernize our broken system and ensure we bounce back stronger than ever. Lawmakers in Washington have the opportunity to pursue bills such as the Dream Act, Farm Workforce Modernization Act, and Bipartisan Border Solutions Act that would improve the legal immigration system, protect dreamers and essential workers, empower doctors and nurses, and protect the border. I encourage our leaders to work together and explore all opportunities for necessary and critical reforms to jumpstart the states workforce.

David Casas is director of grassroots operations, The Libre Initiative Georgia. He is a former Republican member of the Georgia House of Representatives from Gwinnett County.

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Opinion: Georgia must explore immigration reform to keep workforce, economy growing - The Atlanta Journal Constitution

Immigration is woven into the fabric of American society. Its also complex, politically polarized and ever-evolving. This six-part, self-directed course will give journalists a thorough understanding of immigration and immigrants in the United States, as well as the skills and resources to produce strong, accurate storytelling.

Through readings and activities, you will evaluate and contextualize existing immigration research and the latest U.S. census data about immigrants. You will explore immigration enforcement practices, legal immigration processes, the policy positions of advocacy organizations, as well as the status of existing proposals and pending legislation for immigration reform. You will also learn key context for contemporary debates by reviewing the history of immigration laws and reform efforts from the first immigration law in 1790 which granted citizenship only to free white persons to the present day.

In addition to developing a foundational knowledge about immigration in the U.S., you will analyze examples of effective journalism and fact checks about immigration to hone your own story ideas, whether its quick turn-a-around articles to more extensive investigations.

You will think about how to get to know your local immigrant communities in their complexity Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern, European, African and how to approach them as a journalist. You will also develop strategies to obtain information and interviews from immigration officials, how to gain access to detention facilities, and persons in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

Whether youre looking to diversify your sources, tell more nuanced stories about your community, uncouple political rhetoric from policy proposals or simply level up as a well-rounded reporter, this immigration course is for you.

If you need assistance, email us at info@poynter.org.

People working in journalism who cover immigration, immigrant communities, labor, agriculture, government, education and more will benefit from this training. Anyone who wants to learn more about how immigration works in the United States is also welcome to enroll.

This self-directed course is free, thanks to the support of our sponsor, Catena Foundation.

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Understand US Immigration From the Border to the Heartland (2022) - Poynter