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WASHINGTON (AP) The Homeland Security Department appears to be preparing for an increase in the number of immigrants applying for work permits after President Barack Obama announces his long-promised plans for executive actions on immigration reform later this year.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services confirmed to The Associated Press that it has published a draft contract proposal to buy the card stock needed to make work permits and Permanent Resident Cards, more commonly known as green cards. The proposal calls for providing material for at least 5 million cards a year, with as many as 9 million "during the initial period ... to support possible future immigration reform initiative requirements." The contract calls for as many 34 million cards over five years.

USCIS, the Homeland Security agency that oversees immigration benefits, produces about 3 million work permits and Green Cards annually, so the new contract would at least provide the Obama administration with the flexibility to issue far more work permits or green cards even if it chose not to exercise that option.

USCIS spokesman Christopher Bentley described the proposal posted earlier this month a routine contract solicitation.

"Solicitations of this nature are frequent practice," Bentley said. He said the number of immigration applications can rise "for any number of any reasons."

The contract proposal was first reported by the online news site Breitbart.com.

Obama said earlier this year that he would act on his own if Congress failed to pass immigration legislation. He has twice delayed making any changes, saying as recently as last month that he would hold off on executive actions until after November's midterm elections.

The administration has repeatedly declined to say what options Obama was considering, but it is widely believed that he will expand protections from deportation already extended to more than 500,000 young immigrants who came to the United States as children. Under that program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, many young immigrants who are in school or who have graduated and don't have a criminal record can win protection from deportation for up to two years. They are also eligible for work permits.

The president does not have the legal authority to unilaterally offer immigrants in the country illegally green cards or any other permanent immigration status. But administration officials have said the president can authorize protection from deportation for immigrants on a case-by-case basis, such as with the DACA program, and issue work permits.

USCIS Director Leon Rodriguez told an audience at a Georgetown University Law Center conference Tuesday that his agency was ready for whatever immigration changes Obama may announce. He declined to provide details.

Here is the original post:
Gov't Ordering Supplies for More Immigration Documents

WASHINGTON The Homeland Security Department appears to be preparing for an increase in the number of immigrants applying for work permits after President Barack Obama announces his long-promised plans for executive actions on immigration reform later this year.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services confirmed to the Associated Press that it has published a draft contract proposal to buy the card stock needed to make work permits and Permanent Resident Cards, more commonly known as green cards. The proposal calls for providing material for at least 5 million cards a year, with as many as 9 million during the initial period to support possible future immigration reform initiative requirements. The contract calls for as many as 34 million cards over five years.

USCIS, the Homeland Security agency that oversees immigration benefits, produces about 3 million work permits and green cards annually, so the new contract would at least provide the Obama administration with the flexibility to issue far more work permits or green cards even if it chose not to exercise that option.

USCIS spokesman Christopher Bentley described the proposal posted earlier this month as a routine contract solicitation.

Solicitations of this nature are frequent practice, Bentley said. He said the number of immigration applications can rise for any number of any reasons.

The contract proposal was first reported by the online news site Breitbart.com.

Obama said earlier this year that he would act on his own if Congress failed to pass immigration legislation. He has twice delayed making any changes, saying as recently as last month that he would hold off on executive actions until after Novembers midterm elections.

The administration has repeatedly declined to say what options Obama was considering, but it is widely believed that he will expand protections from deportation already extended to more than 500,000 young immigrants who came to the United States as children. Under that program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, many young immigrants who are in school or who have graduated and dont have a criminal record can win protection from deportation for up to two years. They are also eligible for work permits.

The president does not have the legal authority to unilaterally offer immigrants in the country illegally green cards or any other permanent immigration status. But administration officials have said the president can authorize protection from deportation for immigrants on a case-by-case basis, such as with the DACA program, and issue work permits.

USCIS Director Leon Rodriguez told an audience at a Georgetown University Law Center conference Tuesday that his agency was ready for whatever immigration changes Obama may announce. He declined to provide details.

Read the original here:
Homeland Security braces for flood of immigrants seeking work permits

Immigration is the definitive wedge issue in American politics, but it doesn't have to be. When the Senate's Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act failed to pass the House this year, it was the third such failure of comprehensive reform in a decade. Here's a good rule: Three strikes, you're out. It's time for a different approach. Congress should forget comprehensive reform and try for pragmatic and incremental change instead.

Skeptics will thunder that there's no room for compromise, the other party is unreasonable, the issue boils down to either amnesty or deportation and there's nothing in between that anyone can agree on.

Want to bet?

The Hoover Institution has been surveying immigration experts a 40-member working group of scholars from across the political spectrum to test that hypothesis. We have asked them to consider policy innovations that purposefully look at all aspects of immigration, not just the hypersensitive topic of illegal immigration.

Most recently we challenged our panel to think about work visas. The United States issues 60 million visas annually, but only 3 million are for work. Indeed, work visas in the United States are an excessively complex mixture of quotas, rules and bureaucracy.

How could work visas be improved? How would reforms affect the economy? And could liberal, conservative and independent wonks agree on any of it?

The answer is yes. Almost everyone surveyed (86%) thought that the bureaucratic thicket regulating temporary work visas should be reduced. There was strong consensus (79%) for eliminating the cap on non-agricultural H-2 visas (which cover seasonal jobs such as food servers or landscape crew members), for making the E-Verify program mandatory so that only legal workers could be hired (73%) and for unlimited visas for high-skilled STEM workers (66%). Sixty-one percent favored using visa pricing (61%) requiring employers to pay a fee when they hire guest workers which would provide an incentive for hiring the native-born and is a better way to allocate visas than the centrally planned and administered quotas in place today.

We also asked the scholars to judge nine components for a better temporary work visa system. One idea known as portability had overwhelming support, with 97% in favor. So if Congress could do just one thing related to immigration, this is it: Allow visa portability, so that guest workers can change employers and thus avoid exploitation.

As it turned out, some of the least popular ideas were ones that had been embedded in the Senate's latest failed comprehensive plan. Can you say poison pill?

Only 20% of experts supported the Senate bill's requirement for employers to certify that no U.S. worker could be found before they could hire guest workers. Only 14% supported the requirement that employers guarantee non-displacement of its U.S. employees.

Original post:
There's a better way to do immigration reform

I dont agree with Jeb Hensarling on everything. (For example, I think his attack on the Export-Import Bank is a needless distraction.) But he is spot-on when it comes to immigration reform.

In The Wall Street Journals Saturday Interview, Rep. Hensarling (R., Tex.) said that hesupports pro-growth immigration policies (my words, not his), which include a vibrant guest-worker program for low-skilled workers and more H-1B visas for high-tech workers.

He also acknowledged that we dont have to build a wall across our entire southern border and that a good guest-worker program makes it easier for law enforcement to focus on catching bad guys.

Contrast this sensible view of fixing our immigration system with the bombastic rhetoric coming from his Texas colleague, Sen. Ted Cruz (R.),who fulminated against illegal amnesty in an op-ed in USA Today.

James Freeman, who wrote the Wall Street Journal piece, said of Rep. Hensarlings position on immigration reform: This focus on immigrations economic benefits is consistent with his free-market principles, though it puts him at odds with the drift of many Republicans who are falling for the fallacy that there are a finite number of jobs in the country and every immigrant robs a job from someone already here.

Mr. Freeman and Rep. Hensarling are right. Fixing our broken immigration system is an important part of the strategy to expand our economy. I am glad that Jeb Hensarling understands that basic fact.

John Feehery is president of QGA Public Affairs and a former spokesman for then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert. He is on Twitter:@JohnFeehery.

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From Jeb Hensarling, Sensible Talk on Immigration Reform

The Trucker News Services

10/21/2014

In its first public response after Breitbart News reported that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is quietly preparing the capacity to issue more than double its baseline number of green cards and employment permits, a USCIS spokesman said such preparation is routine and that a spike in immigration applications could arise for any number of reasons.

Solicitations of this nature are frequent practice for all USCIS contracts and allow the agency to be prepared for fluctuations in the number of immigration applications received, which can arise for any number of reasons, Christopher Bentley, a spokesman for USCIS said in a statement.

At issue is a solicitation for materials to print as many as 34,000,000 IDs over the next five years. The request for proposals says vendors must be capable of handling a surge of five million IDs in one year to support possible future immigration reform initiative requirements.

Republicans have denounced the draft proposal, saying it shows the Obama administration is already beginning to implement a broad executive amnesty that President Obama has said he is planning for after the midterm elections.

The USCIS statement includes two examples of previous USCIS contracts that included options to increase capacity, one for security support services, the other for records operations support services.

It's not unheard of for federal agencies to plan for contingencies, but the request specifically explains that the surge is related to potential changes in immigration policy.

The Contractor shall demonstrate the capability to support potential 'surge' in PRC and EAD card demand for up to 9M cards during the initial period of performance to support possible future immigration reform initiative requirements, the document says.

A year ago, such a plan might have been attributed to a forthcoming immigration bill. Now, following the summer's border crisis, the chances of such a new law are extremely low, giving additional credence to the possibility the move is in preparation for an executive amnesty by Obama.

Here is the original post:
USCIS responds to reports over 'surge' in immigrant IDs