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Immigration hard-liners on Monday blasted Homeland Security Secretary John Kellys decision to admit 15,000 additional low-skill guest workers under authority granted by Congress earlier this year.

The decision is a win for the business lobby, which had argued that the increase was needed to fill a labor shortage in industries such aslandscaping and tourism. But organizations favoring tighter restriction on immigration argued the companies should be turning to Americans and legal permanent residents.

Its a complete sellout of the people who voted for President [Donald] Trump, said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. One of his core promises was that he was going to protect the most vulnerable Americans.

The H-2B visa program allows foreigners to work temporarily in America in low-skilled, non-agricultural occupations. The one-year visas can be extended for up to three years; visa holders then must return home for at least three months before coming back to the United States.

The law caps the number of visas each year at 66,000, although Congress in previous years had exempted returning workers from the cap. The spending bill passed in May eliminated the requirement that exempt workers must previously have worked under the visa. The Department of Homeland Security received authorization to grant additional visas equal to the year with the highest number of returning workers.

For the first time, the government is adding a requirement that employers demonstrate they would suffer irreparable harm if they cannot hire the guest workers.

"It's not just the number, it's a lot of the qualifications and a lot that goes through to ensure that we are hiring and bringing in the people" that are needed, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday.

The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute released a study Monday indicating there is little evidence in wage data to support the contention of a labor shortage. All but one of the 10 most popular H-2B job categories saw wage growth that was slower than the overall growth from 2004 to 2016. In some cases, wages actually declined.

"Expanding the H-2B program without reforming it to improve protections and increase wages for migrant workers will essentially allow unscrupulous employers to carve out an even larger rights-free zone in the low-wage labor market," study author Daniel Costa said in a prepared statement.

Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, said in a statement that Kelly's decision threatens to disincentivize companies from working harder to recruit Americans.

"Congress gave Kelly the authority to put around 70,000 more of those jobs out of the reach of Americans; at least Kelly limited the damage to keeping just 15,000 more Americans out of the labor market," he stated. "Nonetheless, this is yet another example of the administration and Congress failing to keep the Trump campaign promise of putting American workers first."

Kelly's decision comes on the heels of a study by the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies that shows the average hourly pay of H-2B visa holders last year was $12.31. Those higher-than-minimum-wage jobs should go to Americans, Beck argued.

H-2B Visas

Source: State Department

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, said 15,000 new workers is a big increase for the rest of the fiscal year. Under ordinary rules, the 66,000-visa limit is divided, with half awarded in the first half of the year and half in the second.

"That's a very substantial increase. It's a 45 percent increase," she said. "This is a program that's already controversial. According to our research, these are workers that for the most part don't have any skills or education. And there are hundreds of thousands of American workers who can do those jobs."

In addition to the impact on the labor market, Vaughan said, it also is a source of illegal immigration. She pointed to statistics from the Department of Homeland Security that 33,000 people who entered through guest worker visas of various types remained in the country illegally after those visas expired.

Vaughan said it also is unclear how the government will determine if businesses will be irreparably harmed.

"We don't know to what extent these are needed workers, as opposed to wanted workers," she said.

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Immigration Hard-Liners Blast Trump Guest Worker Expansion - LifeZette

President Trump caused some head scratching when he told a plane full of journalists en route to France that what Id like to do is a comprehensive immigration plan. But as the Russia investigations drag on, the prospects for health care reform are on hold, and tax reform continues to be a work in progress, this seemingly far-fetched plan may in fact be the most likely opportunity for the president to land a signature legislative victory during his first year in office.

Its not the conventional bet, but this is not a conventional time nor a conventional president and, this is not the first time weve seen him lay some groundwork for such a pursuit.

The travel ban and aggressive enforcement have been the face of the administrations immigration policy thus far, but the facts on the ground have changed of late. The president just announced the number of illegal border crossings has dropped by 75 percent since his inauguration. This may create the opportunity to do more.

Getting to yes on immigration would be a legacy-making move for President Trump his Nixon-goes-to-China moment.

Even before his comments on Air Force One, President Trump had signaled a desire and willingness to go beyond enforcement to fix the broken visa system and address the fact that 11 million people live here without legal status.

A couple weeks ago he told Apple CEO Tim Cook and a gathering of tech leaders that he would put more heartinto the immigration debate and pledged to work on comprehensive immigration reform, a sentiment he had expressed a couple months earlier to a room full of broadcast journalists.

These comments may be far from setting administration policy indeed, Secretary of Homeland Security Kelly just indicated he may not defend Obama-era protection for DREAMers and Politico is reporting that some in the Trump Administration are advocating for cutting legal immigration in half but they do make clear that a broad immigration overhaul is on the presidents mind and he is open to taking on the issue that has stymied every president since Reagan.

Ill be the first to acknowledge reasonable skepticism, but working on this issue from a nonpartisan vantage point, I believe there are three compelling reasons to believe immigration reform is and should be at the top of the agenda:

First, this is how President Trump can fulfill his promises on immigration enforcement. On its own, a bill to build a wall is dead on arrival in the Senate. However, in 2013, a comprehensive bill passed the Senate with votes from 54 Democrats and 14 Republicans. And it passed because instead of focusing solely on enforcement, it overhauled our outdated legal immigration system.

The bill didnt skimp on the border, either. It included $46 billion for security and enforcement, double what President Trump is requesting for his wall now. It mandated hundreds of miles of walls and fences, doubled the number of border patrol agents, and funded aircraft, watchtowers, ground sensors, and mobile surveillance to further monitor the border, while also cracking down on employers who hired undocumented immigrants.

Second, and in contrast to many of the administrations other legislative priorities, overhauling the immigration system already enjoys major bipartisan support in this Congress. Since the 2013 bill, new Republican supporters like Senator Thom Tillis have joined longtime Republican stalwarts like Senators Flake and Hatch in calling for broad immigration reform.

In this Congress, Republicans in both chambers have already introduced four distinct bills that would provide undocumented immigrants with legal status. (One such bill in the House has attracted more than 200 co-sponsors, including 99 Republicans.)

Finally, despite all the political rhetoric, immigration is actually one of the least controversial policy issues out there. Americans dont want open borders and amnesty, but they also dont want to deport 11 million people, the vast majority of whom are not criminals, are working, and are active members of their communities.

Multiple polls show that Americans of all political persuasions, including a clear majority of Trump voters, overwhelmingly support immigration reform that would secure the border, grant legal status to non-criminal undocumented immigrants, and bring the visa system into the 21st century by increasing protections for American workers while also allowing companies to recruit the top talent and necessary workers to fill gaps in the American workforce.

Importantly, popular support for these policies is only growing but to enact them, well need a dealmaker who can succeed where so many others have failed.

To get a deal, President Trump needs to sweeten the pot by adding broadly popular reforms that would grow the American economy. According to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, such comprehensive reform would cut the deficit by $900 billion over 20 years because of tax revenues from the millions of people who would be able to formally enter the workforce, and would actually result in a 0.5 percent wage increase for all American workers. It would go a long way toward supporting the administrations economic growth and job creation goals the presidents own chair of the Council of Economic Advisers has written extensively on the large gains immigration reform can bring while also creating the budget room for other major priorities.

Of course, the loudest voices might insist on an enforcement-only approach, and decry anything they suspect to be amnesty. But balanced against such a challenge will be the enormous political, historical, and economic upside of passing comprehensive immigration reform. Getting to yes on immigration would be a legacy-making move for President Trump his Nixon-goes-to-China moment, one that would put his deal-making skills on a level with the last president to sign immigration reform, Ronald Reagan.

After decades of gridlock on immigration, political necessity and popular demand seem to have aligned. Now its in the power of the Dealmaker in Chief to make immigration reform a reality.

Jeremy Robbins is the executive director of New American Economy.

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Immigration may be the biggest -- and least expected -- legislative victory this year - Fox News

Immigration coverage has been a hot button issue in the US since the 2016 presidential election. Increased discussion and legislation on immigration correlates with the rising level of coverage on both local and national levels.

From Donald Trumps travel ban to increased deportation forces immigration, and the discussion around sanctuary cities has taken a more personal turn, especially in areas of with large immigrant populations. With the increase in coverage there is also an increase in incorporating personal stories into the reporting.

National publications such as The Washington Post and The New York Times have published many articles sharing the stories of those affected by the various immigration policies and changes since the beginning of this year. This shift and increase in coverage humanizes the immigration battle and putting names and faces to the people that deal the struggle of immigration reform everyday. From police enforcement, to undocumented immigrants and their children the nation is now able to take a closer look at the lives of those who make up the immigration statistics.

Reporters are getting also taking a closer look into local communities and sharing these stories all over the nation. This is seen in coverage of towns across the country affected by the threats to sanctuary cities, or how everyone is affected by deportation efforts in Oregon.

After the 2016 elections national media faced criticism over their lack of connection to Middle America and are still struggling with legitimacy in a turbulent time for media and press relations. In terms of immigration coverage, national newspapers are taking steps to tell stories from a wide variety of peoples and speak to all ends of the spectrum when it comes to immigration coverage.

The leaders in immigration coverage are Spanish language media, especially Telemundo and Univision. Both stations are taking great strides and talking directly to people that are affected by the current shifts in immigration.

On Telemundo, journalist Jorge Ramos and his Sunday afternoon political show Al Punto has created a segment centered around telling the stories of those affected by immigration. He speaks with children, mothers, employers and organizations focused on immigration reform about the effects of Donald Trumps proposed policies and the increase in deportation efforts.

Coverage has not only increased at a national level, but in local newspapers as well. Uriel Garcia of The Santa Fe New Mexican said that since the election his coverage of immigration has increased. Though his approach to immigration has not changed, the demand and reception for his pieces on immigration is increasing.

When writing, Garcia focuses on both personal stories and immigration enforcement, but writes in a broader national angle because stories from Northern-New Mexico are worth telling someone in DC and the rest of the nation.

Statistics and ICE raid reports are one way to tell a story, but by putting names and faces to those affected by the new policies, the press is able to connect the people of the US to more than just a number. Learning about the effects of immigration on schools, families and even local police enforcement helps to give people more information and connect the nation.

Link:
Making Immigration Reform Personal - MediaFile

The bill from Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia was introduced in February but will be re-introduced with some changes, Cotton's office confirmed.

The original version of the bill cut back on what's referred to as "chain migration," ways of immigrating to the United States that are based on family or not based on skills. The bill would limit the types of family members of immigrants that can also be brought to the US to primarily spouses and minor children, would eliminate the international diversity visa lottery and limit the number of annual refugee admissions.

The over-arching goal for the Cotton-Perdue bill, the official said, is to install a system where immigrants are allowed into the country based on their skills and contributions, as opposed to familial connections or a lottery.

"The bottom line here is that the President believes we should have a merit-based system of immigration in this country," the official told CNN. "What the merit-based system would do is bring our immigration policy more in line with what's good for American workers and taxpayers, so that's the overarching goal, and that I'm sure is the driving force behind talks with Congress and these senators."

The official acknowledged that it remains to be seen whether the White House goes all in to support a final version of the bill, which faces an uphill climb in Congress.

"I think we're a long ways away," the official said.

The President spoke about a desire for comprehensive immigration reform while flying to Paris Wednesday night as well.

"What I'd like to do is a comprehensive immigration plan. But our country and political forces are not ready yet," Trump told reporters.

Perdue and Cotton's offices both confirmed the senators continue to work on the "RAISE Act" but wouldn't elaborate on details.

While a move to end chain migration was part of the ill-fated Gang of Eight comprehensive immigration reform bill that passed the Senate but died in the House in 2013, that bill was loaded with other side deals that helped pave the way for passage.

"To me it's more of almost a political discussion vs. actual enactment or trying to enact policy," said former Bush administration Homeland Security deputy James Norton, who now works as a strategist.

Rosemary Jenks, the vice president and director of government relations for NumbersUSA, a group that advocates limited legal immigration and supports the RAISE Act, said her group stands ready to support it, she said, but still lacks a clear feel for where the administration wants to go.

"(We're) feeling a little bit more optimistic about some of them and pushing forward that much harder because it appears there may be an opportunity here and if there is, we want to be ready for it," Jenks said.

In addition to the difficulty of building a bill that works for the many constituencies represented in both parties, the Senate calendar has proven daunting for lawmakers this year, who are still struggling to pass an Obamacare repeal bill, need to extend government funding by the end of September, hope to pass tax reform and need to pass a defense authorization.

A nasty fight over immigration reform could also scuttle efforts to pass government funding that includes money for Trump's border wall.

"It has momentum in the sense that there are definitely people who have been working on immigration since day one," Norton said, "but I think in terms of active legislation I think it has a very difficult road for it to go down to become law."

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White House working with senators on immigration limits - CNN

President Trump said Wednesday that hell make the final decision on whether to defend President Obamas 2012 deportation amnesty for Dreamers, and said he wished Congress would pass a comprehensive immigration plan though he said the countrys not ready for that.

The call for a comprehensive bill was a stunning remark from Mr. Trump, who during the campaign had said he wanted to see a crackdown on illegal immigration. Comprehensive immigration reform is the description used by advocates who want to see most illegal immigrants legalized, with a full pathway to citizenship.

What Id like to do is a comprehensive immigration plan. But our country and political forces are not ready yet, Mr. Trump said.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to France, Mr. Trump was asked about the 2012 program known as DACA, which is currently protecting some 780,000 young adult illegal immigrants. Mr. Obama created the program but Mr. Trump and Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly have kept it going despite questions about its legality.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has said that if Mr. Trump doesnt revoke the program by September, hell challenge DACA as part of a lawsuit that already halted DAPA, Mr. Obamas broader 2014 amnesty. Legal analysts say that they cant see DACA surviving a challenge in a world where DAPA has already been ruled likely illegal.

Mr. Kelly, speaking to Hispanic members of Congress on Wednesday, had said he doubted DACA could withstand legal scrutiny but said the final decision was up to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Mr. Trump said, though, that hell make it.

Its a decision that I make and its a decision thats very very hard to make. I really understand the situation now, he said.

He added, There are two sides of a story. Its always tough.

Immigrant-rights groups say the DACA program has been a major success, saying its helped illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. by their parents and grew up here to have a chance in the U.S. economy.

Activists are demanding Mr. Trump fight the program in court, despite the legal obstacles, saying its a major test of his presidency.

This is a moment of truth, and history has its eyes on us, said Frank Sharry, executive director of Americas Voice.

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Trump says he wants 'comprehensive immigration plan' but country isn't ready - Washington Times