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Photo: JOHN DAVENPORT, STAFF / San Antonio Express-News

Immigration advocate Ali Norani speaks Thursday July 13, 2017.

Immigration advocate Ali Norani speaks Thursday July 13, 2017.

Immigration advocate Ali Norani speaks Thursday July 13, 2017 at the Plaza Club to the World Affairs Council.

Immigration advocate Ali Norani speaks Thursday July 13, 2017 at the Plaza Club to the World Affairs Council.

Immigration expert: Debate not about policy, its about culture

A well-known immigration expert speaking in San Antonio on Thursday borrowed from the presidents campaign platform and a recent release from a Broadway star to illustrate the polar opposites of the U.S. immigration debate.

Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, said immigration is too often presented as a political issue with two sides, America First, a slogan with a controversial history championed by President Donald Trump, and Immigrants get the job done, a reference to the recent release Immigrants (We Get the Job Done) by musician and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The people who get lost in the debate are those who want to live in an America that puts Americans First, but also want to live in America that is welcoming and inclusive, said Noorani, who spoke at the Plaza Club on Thursday. He was invited by the World Affairs Council of San Antonio and the Mexican Consulate General in San Antonio.

Noorani is the author of There Goes the Neighborhood: How Communities Overcome Prejudice and Meet the Challenge of American Immigration, released this year. He said he interviewed 60 people across the country, mostly faith, law enforcement and business leaders, for the book.

What I found was, for the majority of Americans, the immigration debate is not about politics and policy, its about culture, Noorani said

There is a fear among many Americans that immigration will change their way of life and change the culture of the U.S. Noorani, who advocates for comprehensive immigration reform that would provide a pathway to citizenship for those here illegally who meet certain criteria and a reform of the legal immigration system, said its perilous for immigration activists to not take their opponents concerns seriously.

By reaching out to them through religious, business and law enforcement leaders traditional conservative allies who tend to oppose draconian immigration laws those pushing for immigration reform can win over skeptics, he said.

I firmly believe that the majority of Americans, they respect or they love the Jose or Mohammad that they know, but they still have questions about the Jose or the Mohammad that they dont know, he said.

jbuch@express-news.net

Twitter: @jlbuch

See more here:
Immigration expert: Debate not about policy, it's about culture - San Antonio Express-News (subscription)

Donald Trump and his aides are quietly working with two conservative senators to dramatically scale back legal immigration a move that would mark a fulfillment of one of the president's biggest campaign promises.

Trump plans to get behind a bill being introduced later this summer by GOP Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia that, if signed into law, would, 2027, slash in half the number of legal immigrants entering the country each year, according to four people familiar with the conversations. Currently, about 1 million legal immigrants enter the country annually; that number would fall to 500,000 over the next decade.

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The senators have been working closely with Stephen Miller, a senior White House official known for his hawkish stance on immigration. The issue is also a central priority for Steve Bannon, the president's chief strategist, who has several promises to limit immigration scribbled on the walls of his office.

The forthcoming bill is a revised and expanded version of legislation the two senators unveiled in February, known as the RAISE Act, which they discussed with Trump at the White House in March, and which the president praised at the time.

Though lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have at least paid lip service to the need to crack down on illegal immigration, reducing legal immigration is more controversial, even among Republicans.

Its unclear how the White House could pull off such contentious legislation, given Congress is already bogged down in its attempt to repeal Obamacare and has not yet seriously started on tax reform and an infrastructure package two other major GOP priorities. Congress must also pass legislation by this fall to avoid a government shutdown and to raise the debt ceiling.

"Sen. Cotton knows that being more deliberate about who we let into our country will raise working-class wages, which is why an overwhelming majority of Americans support it. He and Sen. Perdue are working with President Trump to fix our immigration system so that instead of undercutting American workers, it will support them and their livelihoods," said Caroline Rabbitt, a Cotton spokeswoman.

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The reintroduction of the bill is likely to mark the beginning of an important battle within the GOP between immigration hawks, now led by Cotton, who will have the backing of the White House, and dovish lawmakers such as Arizonas John McCain and South Carolinas Lindsey Graham.

Lawmakers like Cotton, who has inherited the hard-line mantle long held by Millers former boss, Jeff Sessions, now the attorney general, argue that low-skilled immigrants decrease job opportunity and suppress wages for native-born workers particularly those on the lower-end of the income scale. Graham and his allies say that the overall economy benefits from the ready availability of cheaper labor.

The last time Republicans seriously attempted to curb legal immigration was over two decades ago, in 1996, when a Republican Congress led by Newt Gingrich pressured President Bill Clinton to include a provision that slashed legal immigration in a broader immigration reform package. It was ultimately dropped from the bill, though, after Clinton faced opposition from some of the countrys top business leaders.

The Cotton-Perdue legislation would also mark a broader shift away from the current immigration system, which favors those with family currently in the U.S., toward a merit-based approach. It would, for example, increase the number of green cards which allow for permanent residency in the U.S. that are granted on the basis of merit to foreigners in a series of categories including outstanding professors and researchers, those holding advanced degrees, and those with extraordinary ability in a particular field.

Those admitted to the U.S. on the basis of merit have accounted for less than 10 percent of all legal immigrants over the past 15 years, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute and the Department of Homeland Securitys Immigration Yearbook, and Trump pledged as a presidential candidate to shift the U.S. to a merit-based immigration system.

Miller is also working with Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) to put new limits on sanctuary cities and has convened meetings at the White House on limiting refugees.

A senior White House official described the moves as part of a broader reorganization of the immigration system. The official said the White House particularly wanted to target welfare programs and limit citizenship and migration to those who pay taxes and earn higher wages.

"In order to be eligible for citizenship, you'll have to demonstrate you are self-sufficient and you don't receive welfare," the senior administration official said.

"You're going to reduce low-skilled immigration substantially, which will protect American workers and recent immigrants themselves," this person said.

The move to curtail legal immigration would not only mark the partial fulfillment of one of the president's most controversial campaign promises, but with the future of the Obamacare repeal bill in doubt it would provide a badly needed political victory to a White House that has been unable to escape accusations of collusion with Russia during the presidential campaign.

A second White House official said the push is real, "but it's a difficult one in the current Congress, and we know that."

Trump praised the virtues of the merit-based models of Canada and Australia in his remarks to a joint session of Congress in late February. "Switching away from this current system of lower-skilled immigration, and instead adopting a merit-based system, we will have so many more benefits," he said. "It will save countless dollars, raise workers' wages, and help struggling families including immigrant families enter the middle class."

Immigration hawks praised the White House for following through on a broad range of immigration-related promises, from loosening the constraints on border-patrol agents to shining a spotlight on the victims of crime committed by illegal immigrants.

At the same time, they remain harshly critical that the president has yet to act on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, the Obama-era measure that granted legal status to those brought into the U.S. illegally as children, who are known as Dreamers.

"What I find really shocking is not just that they didnt discontinue DACA ... but that they are continuing to issue new DACA work permits to those who didn't have them before," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. "To me, that's the biggest failure on immigration."

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Originally posted here:
Trump crafting plan to slash legal immigration - Politico

WASHINGTON, July 12, 2017 Witnesses and lawmakers at a House Agriculture Committee hearing todayshowed broad support for immigration reform and mechanization research to address labor shortages faced by specialty crop producers.

Consumer demand is increasing but natural resources remain fixed and the labor supply is shrinking, said Rep. Collin Peterson, the panels ranking Democrat. Peterson represents Minnesota, a state that produces large amounts of specialty crops like apples, pumpkins, strawberries and sweet corn.

Specialty crops, including fruits, vegetables and tree nuts, represent just 1 percent of farm bill funding, according to Paul Wegner, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation. But another witness, Andrew LaVigne, CEO of the American Seed Trade Association, said specialty crops have an impressive farm gate value of $11 billion.

Although the industry is ripe with challenges, witness Gary Wishnatzki, owner of Wish Farms located in Plant City, Florida, said availability of labor is the greatest of these challenges.

Wegner echoed Wishnatzki: While it is outside the jurisdiction of this committee, we ask first and foremost that Congress move rapidly toward allowing a legal workforce in the United States to guarantee that future immigrants who desire to work in American agriculture be allowed entry.

Additionally, Wegner said he strongly opposes mandatory E-Verify, an online system that provides immigration status which is used as a prescreening for hundreds of thousands of employers. E-Verify has been voluntary since 1996, but the Trump FY 2018 budget calls for implementation of mandatory E-Verify.

Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas, noted that the House Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction over immigration reform and that he is in conversation with that panels chairman, Bob Goodlatte R-Va., about his proposed reform plan. In his concluding statement, Conaway emphasized that the impact of an E-Verify mandate is not lost on Mr. Goodlatte or the rest of us in terms of how we implement that.

Wegner told the lawmakers that mechanization may be the industrys future with robots harvesting specialty crops that are currently collected by humans. If we dont aggressively invest in the development of new technologies, the consequence will be to lose a large share of our nations specialty crop production, Wegner said.

Witness Kevin Murphy, CEO of Driscoll's Inc., the California-based berry producer, said that private industry is currently spearheading research for mechanization, and he encouraged the government to support public-private partnerships and innovation in the next farm bill.

But until mechanization eliminates the need for people to hand-pick crops, immigration reform is a top priority to ensure an adequate and legal labor force, the witnesses said.

(Conaways opening statement and the written testimony of all witnesses can be found by clicking here.)

Link:
Witnesses push immigration reform, mechanization research at Ag panel hearing - Agri-Pulse

Editor's note: This piece was originally published in the Indianapolis Star.

Most Americans get it: We cant continue to reward people who come to our country illegally, while those who work hard and play by the rules struggle to get ahead. What our tax and immigration policies need is a return to common sense.

Take our tax credit system. Right now, billions of dollars in refundabletax credits are being paid out to illegal immigrants. Thats because of a loophole in the Child Tax Credit program that allows this benefit to be claimed without a Social Security Number.

The cost of this broken policy has fallen squarely on the shoulders of the people its designed to help hardworking American families. And the numbers are astounding.

AU.S. Treasury Inspector Generalreportestimated that up to $7.1 billion was being paid out each year to illegal immigrants and individuals illegally claiming children through the Child Tax Credit.For context, thats equivalent to the State of Indianas entire annual budget for K-12 education.

Whats worse, alocal TV news investigationin Indiana found that illegal immigrants were claiming the credit for children and other relatives who didnt even live in the United States, sometimes claiming up to 10 or 12 dependents at a time.

A U.S. Treasury Inspector General report estimated that up to $7.1 billion was being paid out each year to illegal immigrants and individuals illegally claiming children through the Child Tax Credit.

The Child Tax Credit is supposed to provide low- and middle-income Americans relief up to $1,000 per child to help support their families. But instead, billions in tax dollars are flying out the door, running up our debt and padding the pockets of those who game the system.

To close this senseless loophole and protect U.S. taxpayers, I filed legislation that would require individuals to have a Social Security Number that is valid for employment before they can claim the Child Tax Credit. This idea has gained the support of President Trump, and he included my proposal in his budget request to Congress.

But closing the Child Tax Credit loophole is just the start. There are countless other examples of broken and backwards policy at the federal level that have real-world consequences for Americans.

Passing broad tax and immigration reform in our country to fix these issues is long overdue, and Washington must deliver.

With President Trumps leadership, Congress is working toward comprehensive tax reform that eliminates wasteful loopholes, cuts taxes for everyday Americans, and restores our countrys competitiveness.

No less of a priority is taking action to build a wall, secure the border and pass meaningful immigration reform. Its time for policies that reward law-abiding citizens and help our economy grow.

This work has already begun. The House of Representatives recently passed legislation to combat sanctuary city policies that shield criminal immigrants from federal immigration enforcement, as well as legislation to strengthen penalties for deported felons who return to our shores.

With a return to common sense, we can steer our country back to the rule of law and finally address illegal immigration in the United States.

Rep. Luke Messer serves as Congressman for Indiana's 6th Congressional District.

Read more:
Tax reform and immigration policy - time for a return to common sense - Fox News

That is huge news for immigration reformers because a legal wipeout of the 2012Deferred Actionfor Childhood Arrivals amnesty for younger illegal aliens wouldpressure Democrats to accept pro-American immigration reforms.

The reforms could include mandatory use of the E-verify system to block company hiring of illegals, a reduction to the annual inflow of 1 million legal immigrants and 1 million contract workers (such as the H-1B white-collar professionals), plus extra funding for the border wall. President Donald Trump has already sketched out plans for a merit-based reform that could help raise the productivity and income of Americans, especially the four million young Americans who join the labor market each year.

According to Politico:

Kelly told the lawmakers [on July 12] that although he personally supports DACA, he cant guarantee that the administration would defend it in court. He also said that hed consulted attorneys who told him the program wouldnt survive a legal challenge.

Its not a pretty picture, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who attended the meeting, told reporters. The legal authorities that hes spoken to suggest that DACA cannot be sustained legally. We have a different view.

The secretary declined to take questions after the meeting, but a department spokesperson confirmed accounts from lawmakers

Its not a pretty picture, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who attended the meeting, told reporters. The legal authorities that hes spoken to suggest that DACA cannot be sustained legally. We have a different view.

Rep. Michelle Lujn Grisham, who chairs the Hispanic caucus, urged Kelly to support the amnesty from the pending lawsuit. We believe there is sufficient legal discretion in the current law to allow to continue to protect DACA and Dreamers, we believe that it would be much stronger if the department would say publicly and take a position, which is their job, if thats what theyre saying to us, she said, according to TheHill.com.

Pro-amnesty Democrats reacted with alarm to the possible repatriation of the so-called young Dreamer migrants. A statement from Rep. Luis Gutierrez declared:

Kelly was basically telling us DACA is facing a death sentence. They actually want to take millions of people who are documented with our own government make them undocumented, and then go after them and their familiesSec. Kelly says it is up to Congress, but his party is the obstacle standing in the way of a modern immigration system

Trump, [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions and Kelly want to take 800,000 DREAMers with DACA and hundreds of thousands with [temporary residency] who are registered with the government and in compliance with the law and make them into criminals, felons, and deportees in the next few months. Anyone with a conscience who thinks legal immigration is an integral part of who we are as a country just got called to action.

The threat of deportation if Democrats dont cut a deal was included in a Washington Post article, which reported:

This is what hes being told by different attorneys, that if it goes to court it might not survive, DHS spokesman David Lapan said. If Congress does not pass a bill to protect the program, he added, theyre leaving it in the hands of the courts to make a decision.

White House officials are already touting their plans for a merit-based immigration reform led by pro-Americans Senators, Sen. Tom Cotton and Sen. David Purdue. The bill would try to half the annual inflow of immigrants, so boosting wages for Americans.

Pro-American reformers said ending DACA can help the United States and immigrants home countries. DACA represents the politics Americans are tired of, saidDale Wilcox, Executive Director & General Counsel of the Immigration Reform Law Institute. He added:

DACA-pushers missed their mark because the best thing for these kids isnt to stay here and push down blue-collar wages, but to return to Latin American and reform it. Ending DACA will help them deal with whats really the root of the problem: corruption south of the border.

The issue has become critical since a group of GOP Attorneys General announced last month that they would extend their successful Texas lawsuit which defeated Obamas 2014 DAPA amnesty to include the 2012 DACA amnesty. We respectfully request that the Secretary of Homeland Security phase out the [2012] DACA program Just like [the 2014] DAPA, DACA unilaterally confers eligibility for work authorization and lawful presence without any statutory authorization from Congress, said a June 29 letter from the group to Kelly.

The group set a September 5 deadline for when they will extend their lawsuit to include the 2012 DACA amnesty, which has provided work permits and Social Security numbers to roughly 685,000 illegal immigrants who crossed the border as youths or children.

The groups threat against DACA followed a mid-June decision by Kelly to quit the courtroom defense of Obamas 2014 DAPA amnesty, which would have provided work permits to roughly 4.5 million parents of U.S. citizen children.

In his June letter announcing the end of DAPA, Kelly hinted that DACA could share the same fate as DAPA, saying I remind our officers that (1) deferred action, as an act of prosecutorial discretion, may only be granted on a case-by-case basis, and (2) such a grant may be terminated at any time at the agencys discretion.

Manypolls showthat Americans are very generous, they do welcome individual immigrants, and they do want to like the idea of immigration. But the polls also show that most Americans are increasingly worried that large-scale legal immigration will change their country and disadvantage themselves and their children.

The currentannual floodofforeign laborspikes profits and stock valuesbycutting salariesfor manual and skilled labor offered by blue-collar and white-collar employees. It also drives up real estate prices, reduceshigh-tech investment, increasesstate and local tax burdens, hurtskids schoolsandcollege education, and sidelinesat least 5 million marginalized Americansand their families.

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The rest is here:
DHS John Kelly to Dems: Accept Immigration Compromise or Watch DACA Die - Breitbart News