FAIR Legislative Update 03-10-2008

March 10, 2008 

In this update:

• Senators Introduce Immigration Reform Package
• Talk Resurfaces of Discharge Petition on the SAVE Act
• U.S. Economy Loses Thousands of Jobs; Congress Considers Importing More Guest Workers
• Report Details Costs of Criminal Illegal Immigration to Border Counties
• In Face of Sharp Criticism, Homeland Security Continues to Defend Expenditures on Virtual Fence
• Press Release
• Recent Floor Statements

Senators Introduce Immigration Reform Package

At a press conference on Wednesday coinciding with George Bush's endorsement of John McCain for President, a dozen Senators announced the introduction of an enforcement-oriented legislative package aimed at tackling our immigration crisis. Many of the bills represent ideas discussed during last year's immigration debate; others are new bills being introduced to address emerging problems. According to Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), one of the leaders of this effort, the goal of introducing the package was to "illustrate to the American people that we have not forgotten the importance of the issue." (CQ Today, March 5, 2008)

Although the text of each bill is not yet public, information provided by the Senator's offices indicates that the package includes the following legislation:

• S. 2710, sponsored by Senator Sessions, authorizes Homeland Security to use an employer's failure to resolve a "no match" notice as evidence that the employer knowingly hired an illegal alien in violation of federal law (INA §274A(a));
• S. 2711, sponsored by Senator Sessions, requires employers to use E-Verify and raises the penalties on employers who hire illegal aliens;
• S. 2712, sponsored by Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), mandates that Homeland Security complete the 700 miles of fence required by the Secure Fence Act by 2010;
• S. 2713, sponsored by Senator David Vitter (R-LA), prohibits federal community policing funds from being distributed to states and municipalities with sanctuary policies;
• S. 2716, sponsored by Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), authorizes the National Guard to continue guarding the border;
• S. 2717, sponsored by Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), expands the participation of state and local officials in the enforcement of immigration laws through the 287(g) program;
• S. 2720, sponsored by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), denies financial aid to countries and prohibits the issuance of visas to nationals of countries that unreasonably delay or deny repatriation of those ordered removed by the U.S.;
• S. 2721, sponsored by Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), modifies the U.S. citizenship examination; and
• S. 2722, sponsored by Senator Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), prohibits aliens who are repeat drunk drivers from receiving legal status or immigration benefits.

The Senators promoting the true immigration reform package intend to bring the measures directly to the floor using Senate Rule 14. (The Hill, March 5, 2008) However, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), a co-sponsor of the 2007 Bush-Kennedy amnesty legislation, dismissed the enforcement-based package as dead-on-arrival. "I don't think that that's going to get very far in the Senate," said Kennedy. "I think there's an increasing appreciation of the need for comprehensive reform and I expect we'll get to it in the next administration." (Fox News, March 5, 2008)

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Talk Resurfaces of Discharge Petition on the SAVE Act

On Tuesday night, House Republican leaders met to discuss forcing the enforcement-only SAVE Act (H.R. 4088) authored by Heath Schuler (D-NC) to the floor. Although they did not agree on concrete action, the minority leadership is considering circulating a discharge petition, which would require 218 signatures of House members, to force the bill to the floor of the House. According to one Congressional aide, the decision to launch a discharge petition may come as early as mid-week. Capitol Hill newspapers report that the minority leadership does not expect to get enough signatures to force the vote to the floor, but they believe that circulating the petition will put Democrats who have co-sponsored the bill in the precarious position of refusing to let legislation they support come to the floor. (The Politico, March 5, 2008)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has indicated that she opposes bringing the SAVE Act forward. (Congress Now, March 7, 2008) Pelosi said there are ongoing conversations within the Democratic Caucus about "having some balance in what we do" when taking on immigration measures. (Id.) But while Pelosi said parts of the Shuler bill "are principles of our policy," she emphasized that Democratic leaders want immigration legislation that addresses the issues of illegal immigrants and guest-worker visas as well as enforcement. (Id.)

For FAIR's analysis of the SAVE Act, click here.

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U.S. Economy Loses Thousands of Jobs; Congress Considers Importing More Guest Workers

In a report "far worse than most analysts had expected," the Labor Department reported last week that the nation lost 63,000 jobs in February. (New York Times, March 8, 2008) This job loss marked the second consecutive monthly decline, and the third straight drop for private-sector jobs. (Id.) This news led even some of the relative optimists on Wall Street to "throw in the towel" and concede that the U.S. is in a recession. (Id.) Investors had expected an increase of 25,000 jobs. (Washington Post, March 8, 2008)

Despite the job losses, some Members of Congress are considering an increase in foreign guest workers. Thursday, Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) introduced a discharge petition on legislation that would raise the number of unskilled foreign workers who may enter the U.S. under H-2B visas. The petition would force floor consideration of legislation sponsored by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) that would reinstate the returning worker exemption to the H-2B unskilled guest worker program. Despite the fact that the H-2B worker program is capped at 66,000 foreign workers each year, the returning worker exemption last year allowed U.S. businesses to circumvent the cap and import about 134,000 unskilled workers with H-2B visas.

According to Congress Now, Republicans are not expected to secure the required 218 signatures to force a vote on Stupak's bill. (Congress Now, March 7, 2008) While Pelosi has not indicated her support for addressing this stand-alone expansion of the h-2B program. House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) indicated that Boustany is also working on another bill that is similar to Representative Shuler's SAVE Act, but that might be "more appealing" to her. (Id.)

To read more about recent attempts to expand the H-2B unskilled guest worker program, click here.

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Report Details Costs of Criminal Illegal Immigration to Border Counties

On Wednesday, the U.S.-Mexico Border Counties Coalition released a study showing that between 1999 and 2006, the 24 southern border counties spent a total of $1.23 billion on criminal aliens. The study also revealed that during the same time period, the federal government only reimbursed those counties a mere 4.5 percent ($54.8 million) of those costs through the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP). The study, paid for with a $150,000 Justice Department grant secured with the help of Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), was jointly conducted by the University of Arizona and San Diego State University. (New York Times, March 6, 2008)

According to the report, in 2006, border counties spent $192 million on detaining, prosecuting, and sentencing illegal aliens. This expenditure is high, the report notes, "considering the rural nature and poverty level of most of these border counties." (Undocumented Immigrants in U.S.-Mexico Border Counties: The Cost of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Services, March 5, 2008) For that same year, the federal government only reimbursed the 24 border counties a total of $4.7 million under through SCAAP — a meager 2 1/2 percent of the total cost.

Despite the heavy expenditures incurred by state and local governments to apprehend, detain and prosecute criminal aliens, the Bush Administration has resisted making even token SCAAP reimbursements. In each of the first six years of his administration, the study notes, President Bush proposed cutting the budget for SCAAP. And each year Congress, led by Representatives from border states, has reinstated some portion of that funding. (San Diego Union Tribute, March 6, 2008) The proposed budget for fiscal year 2009 is no different. (Legislative Update, February 11, 2008)

Local officials are upset that they bear the overwhelming fiscal burden with respect to criminal aliens because it prevents them from using the money on other important projects. "This is a huge problem because we can't keep up with fixing roads, the other costs of law enforcement, keeping up health agencies," noted Paul Newman, a board of supervisors member in the border County of Cochise, Arizona. (New York Times, March 6, 2008) But, according to Erik Ablin, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, any money that might be spent mitigating the cost of criminal aliens to border counties "could be put to better use helping to control the border and improving immigration enforcement." (San Diego Union Tribute, March 6, 2008)

To read the U.S./Mexico Border Counties Coalition's study, click here.

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In Face of Sharp Criticism, Homeland Security Continues to Defend Expenditures on Virtual Fence

At a press briefing last Thursday regarding Homeland Security's five-year anniversary, Secretary Michael Chertoff took pains to dismiss recent testimony by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that the agency had spent $20.6 million on a virtual fence that did not meet agency goals. According to Chertoff, the virtual fence project was neither a failure, nor had delayed completion of the first phase of the Secure Border Initiative Net (SBINet) project. Indeed, countered Chertoff, while the first phase of SBINet will not be completed in 2008, as originally planned, the agency would begin to implement its second phase this year. (Chertoff Remarks at Pen-and-Pad Briefing, March 6, 2008)

Secretary Chertoff then disputed the importance of the virtual fence. Likening it to a single cruise ship in the U.S. Navy, Chertoff described the virtual fence purchased from Boeing as a limited portion of the SBINet project, "a concept of taking -- marrying together cameras and radar, and having an automated way to have the camera track where there's a radar hit so that a single agent could cover 28 or 30 miles with a single common-operating picture, as opposed to having individual agents sitting in individual ground-based radar cars." The Secretary admitted the virtual fence was "not optimal," but defended the final product by saying it "did add value." (Chertoff Remarks at Pen-and-Pad Briefing, March 6, 2008)

To read more about the controversy surrounding the virtual fence, click here.

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Press Release

• The Southern Poverty Law Center Manipulates Crime Data and Terminology in Last-Ditch Attempt to Stop the Immigration Debate (March 10, 2008)

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Recent Floor Statements

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) commented on Immigration (March 7, 2008)
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) commented on Enforcement-Only Immigration Bills (March 6, 2008)
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) commented on Immigration (March 6, 2008)
Rep. Harry Reid (D-NV) commented on Immigration (March 6, 2008)
Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX) commented on New Employee Verification Act (March 6, 2008)
Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) commented on Border Security (March 5, 2008)
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) commented on MEASURES READ THE FIRST TIME--S. 2709, S. 2710, S. 2711, S. 2712, S.2713, S. 2714, S. 2715, S. 2716, S. 2717, S. 2718, S. 2719, S. 2720, S.2721, and S. 2722 (March 5, 2008)
Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) commented on Democratic Freshmen Hour (March 5, 2008)

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