Archive for the ‘Immigration Reform’ Category

Arizona launches statewide coalition to address immigration reform – KTAR.com

PHOENIX A new statewide coalition that advocatesfor the importance of immigrants, immigration and immigration reform for Arizona launched on Thursday.

Andrew Moriarty with Fwd.us, anational organization created by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, said the coalition represents a broad and diverse group of voices.

Whether its agriculture, traditional business, high-tech business, students and teacherseveryone understands that the immigration system is broken, he said.

The national coalition is on the ground in 11 states and is made up of local groups like the Arizona Farm Bureau, Arizona Technology Council and Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce.

Moriarty said groups like these are highlighting the importance of immigrants, immigration, and immigration reform because those issues affect them directly.

Immigration has long been our nations greatest competitive advantage, he said. Thats true if were talking about high-skilled that has allowed us to build some of the most incredible companies that the world has ever seen.

Half of the billion-dollar value companies in Silicon Valley were founded by immigrants. But its also true, Moriarty continued, if were talking about the 80 percent of agricultural workers here in Arizona who are immigrants.

And thats true of the 750,000 Dreamers young undocumented people who came here at a young age, he said. Who have no way, as of right now, to come forward, get right with the law and pursue their dreams in this country.

Voters, and business, community and political leaders all agree itll take three things to fix this, he said.

Making sure that we have secure boarders, making sure that our immigration system makes sense for the 21stCentury and making that those who are living here without documentation, have a pathway to legalization, he said.

The coalition plans to call on Arizona legislators to make immigration reform a priority for Congress.

This is a really important time to being doing this work, he said. We are seeing record high support from American voters on both sides of the isle for common sense immigration reform.

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Arizona launches statewide coalition to address immigration reform - KTAR.com

Katy Perry’s World Has Borders and Barriers but Yours S… – ImmigrationReform.com (blog)

Hollywood celebrities seem to have become convinced that they are capable of providing better commentary on world events than people who actually have relevant expertise. This would be amusing if political leaders took advice from pop idols with a grain of salt. Unfortunately, politicians love the easy press that comes when superstars speak out on a particular political agenda. Meanwhile those of us who care about the safety and security of the nation look on in horror at pseudo-spectacles, like comedian Stephen Colberts testimony to congress on the need for immigration reform.

The latest Hollywood lunacy-cum-commentary comes from pop music icon Katy Perry. On the continuum of hypersexualized nonsense that passes for entertainment these days, Ms. Perry falls somewhere between Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus. She also holds the dubious distinction of being the worlds most followed person on Twitter. How that qualifies her as an expert on geopolitics isnt clear.

Nevertheless, in a recent appearance on the Elvis Duran and the Morning Show, Ms. Perry held forth on the Manchester terrorist bombing. Her prescription for eradicating jihadist extremism: No barriers, no borders, we all just need to co-exist. Of course, that is utterly absurd. The Manchester bombing resulted from Britains embrace of lax immigration controls and poor vetting. Open borders, and a lack of barriers, caused this problem. Therefore, it should be self-evident that they cannot be the solution. In effect, Ms. Perry is arguing that the best cure for a case of poisoning is to administer even more of the toxin.

The Manchester bomber, Salman Abedi, was a natural born citizen of the U.K. However, prior to being admitted to the U.K. as a refugee, his Libyan father Hashim Abedi had been a member of a jihadist group with links to ISIS and Al Qaeda. That information was rapidly obtained by investigative authorities in the days following the attack. If it could be uncovered so quickly in the wake of tragedy, there is absolutely no reason why it couldnt have been uncovered as part of a thorough vetting process prior to admitting the Abedi family to Great Britain. Contrary to Ms. Perrys advice, appropriate barriers, designed to keep terrorists out of the refugee process, might have saved the lives of 22 innocent Britons.

Of course, Ms. Perrys less than insightful commentary is just one more example of Hollywood hypocrisy. She comments disdainfully on the negative effects of borders and barriers that protect the cultural, economic, and national security interests of average Britons and average Americans. However, she does seem committed to maintaining one border, the one that protects her from the real world. Ms. Perry lives in a $19 million mansion, in a gated community, located in a secluded section of the Hollywood hills. Co-existence is easy when you live in a fantasy land.

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Katy Perry's World Has Borders and Barriers but Yours S... - ImmigrationReform.com (blog)

FWD.us Launching Arizona Coalition To Address Immigration Reform – KJZZ

FWD.us Launching Arizona Coalition To Address Immigration Reform
KJZZ
It aims to keep the business community involved in the discussion over immigration reform. They say to keep America competitive in the global economy common sense immigration reform is key. Today, they're launching a new Arizona Coalition that includes ...

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FWD.us Launching Arizona Coalition To Address Immigration Reform - KJZZ

Will the Tech Industry Be Trumped By Immigration Reform? – JD Supra (press release)

The Trump Administration could soon make it more difficult for talented immigrants to obtain tech jobs in the United States. As President Trump takes aim at technology companies throughout the nation who use H-1B visas and a variety of other business visa programs to bring skilled foreign workers into the workforce, science and technology sectors of the economy could suffer a significant blow.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows foreign workers to obtain temporary employment in the U.S. It is designed to help satisfy the need for skilled workers who have a Bachelors Degree or higher, or who have a combination of education and experience that equals a Bachelors Degree or higher.

Each year, thousands of highly educated, skilled foreign workers attempt to secure one of about 85,000 H-1B visas. About two-thirds of those who are successful go on to pursue careers in technology. Illinois ranks in the top five for states that hire the most workers via the program. A recent CNN report states that approximately 70 percent of H-1B workers come from India, and another 10 percent are from China. Some of the most sought after positions for H-1B visas in 2016 include:

Demand for workers in technology was three-times more than the number allowed in 2016.

In addition to H-1B visas, a number of other business visa programs that are important to the tech community could be facing reform. The J-1 visa program, which is used by foreign workers on summer work travel, the OPT program, used by foreign students after graduating, the E-2 visa used by investors, and the L-1 visa program, which is used by foreign workers who are transferring from a companys overseas location, are all subject to review.

Over half of all unicorn (privately held) companies worth $1 billion or more are founded by at least one immigrant. The National Foundation for American Policy reports that about 760 jobs in the United States have been created by each immigrant founder.

According to experts, Trumps visa reform could significantly reduce the number of skilled foreign workers and entrepreneurs who bring talent and jobs to the U.S.

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Will the Tech Industry Be Trumped By Immigration Reform? - JD Supra (press release)

7 Principles of True Comprehensive Immigration Reform …

It is critical to distinguish the reform that the public seeks from the deceptive package of measures that the immigration lobby is peddling. We feel it time the nations largest immigration reform organization speak out about true comprehensive immigration reform.

The evidence that illegal immigration and mass immigration are harming our country is overwhelming and irrefutable. Congestion, environment, crime, health care, education the costs are too high for the American family to continue to bear.

Since immigration burst on the scene as a major national issue some 20 years ago, the term reform has been associated with those who believe that large-scale illegal immigration is a serious problem and overall levels of immigration need to be reduced. Weve been educating the public for the last 25 years on the need for true and comprehensive reform, so when it comes to defining reform, weve written the book on it. Opponents of these reforms claimed that a problem did not exist and therefore reform was unnecessary.

Recently the political winds have shifted. As opponents of reform learned that the majority of the public were pro-reform, they changed their tune and have tried to wrap their defense of unchecked illegal immigration and record levels of legal immigration as being reform measures when, in fact, they are measures that will deform our already broken system.

True comprehensive immigration reform, as FAIR the nations largest immigration reform organization and the overwhelming majority of Americans believe it to be, must adhere to this set of immutable principles:

Any level of illegal immigration is unacceptable, and current legal immigrant admissions of about one million persons each year are entirely too many. Any measure that increases either illegal or legal immigration violates this principle. Immigration is a discretionary public policy. Its primary purpose, since our founding, is to advance the interests and security of the nation.

The 1986 amnesty was a failure; rather than reducing illegal immigration, it led to an increase. Any new amnesty measure will further weaken respect for our immigration law. Therefore, all amnesty measures must be defeated.Laws against illegal immigration must be enforced, if they are going to act as a deterrent. Redefining illegal aliens as guest-workers or anything else is just that: a redefinition that attempts to hide the fact it is an amnesty, not reform.

Immigration policy should not be permitted to undermine opportunities for America's poor and vulnerable citizens to improve their working conditions and wages. The need for guest workers must be determined by objective indicators that a shortage of workers exists, i.e., extreme wage inflation in a particular sector of the labor market. The current system accepts self-serving attestations of employers who seek lower labor costs as protections of American workers. True reform requires an objective test of labor shortage demonstrated by rising wages to attract more American workers.

Employers who knowingly employ unauthorized workers are the magnet that attracts illegal entry into the U.S. These employers are complicit in the illegal alien cartel activity of smuggling, trafficking, harboring, and employing and must be punished. We must reform the current system by enforcing employer sanctions and fully punishing employers who break the laws of this country. These punishments will be fines, jailing for repeat offenders, and loss of corporate charters.Employers who knowingly or unknowingly employ illegal workers must be weaned off of their growing use of such workers by assuring a level playing field for all employers and demonstrating effective enforcement actions against employers who continue to exploit illegal workers. No U.S. industry has jobs in which there are no American workers. If illegal workers are decreased over time, wages offered will rise to attract back more American workers. Real shortages, as noted above, can be met with short-term temporary foreign workers.

The Basic Pilot Employment Verification program must be made mandatory and at no extra cost to employers.

Effective immigration enforcement on the border and the interior of the country requires that staffing, equipment, detention facilities, and removal capabilities be adequate to fully meet current needs. The measures needed to identify and remove illegal aliens will also remove the ability of potential terrorists to operate freely in our country as they plot the next catastrophic attack on our people.

Reforming the refugee and asylum system means returning to the original purpose and definition of the program: any person who... is unable or unwilling to return to, and is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion....America must honor it responsibilities to protect people who are fleeing true political persecution as defined by U.S. and international law. Efforts to expand those definitions to include all forms of social persecution invite massive fraud and endanger the security of this nation. Similarly, treating aliens illegally residing in the country the same as foreigners on legal visitor visas for purposes of the Temporary Protected Status designation is illogical and a form of amnesty that must be ended.

We must restore moderation to legal immigration. Beginning with the recommendations of the Jordan Commission in 1995, we need to restrict immigration to the minimum consistent with stabilizing the U.S. population.Overall immigration must be reduced to balance out-migration, i.e., about 300,000 per year while still permitting nuclear family reunification and a narrowly focused refugee resettlement program. A moratorium on all other immigration should be immediately adopted pending true comprehensive immigration reform. We should abolish the extended relation preferences.

There should be no favoritism toward or discrimination against any person on the basis of race, color, creed, or nationality.All admission of immigrants should come within a single, stable ceiling which is periodically reviewed on the basis of a reasoned, explicit goal of achieving population stability. We should abolish special preferences such as the Cuban Adjustment Act.

7 Principles (252 KB)

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