Justin's Political Corner

Of the 161 amendments offered during markup, the panel accepted numerous provisions to strengthen the bill, while keeping out any poison pills that could endanger the legislation. Below is a list of how the Senate Judiciary Committee improved immigration reform:

1. Racial profiling serves as a disincentive to prosecute an individual. Blumenthal 10 would prohibit federal government from reimbursing local detentions and prosecutions that were found to have come through racial profiling.

2. Children would be treated humanely. The Committee unanimously approved Franken 7, which provides a range of protections for children separated from their parents or guardians who are being deported. Hirono 22, as amended, would protect children trafficking victims by making sure that all unaccompanied children are provided care by the Office of Refugee Resettlement within three days of their apprehension while Feinstein 6 would allow children to receive both emergency and adequate medical and mental health care and basic necessities like food and bedding. Coons 2 will also limit dangerous deportation practices like dropping people off in the middle of the night.

4. Back taxes and penalties can be paid in an installment plan. Undocumented immigrants have to pay fines and back taxes before achieving legal status. Hirono 12 allows those fines to be paid in installments.

5. An expedited path to citizenship offered through military service. 
Blumenthal 12 will allow an expedited path to citizenship for DREAMers who want to join the military. This amendment will allow individuals in temporary legal status to apply for naturalization after they have honorably served in the military.

6. Federal aid for DREAMers. Hirono 21 would allow DREAMers to access some student loans and federal work study programs. They would not be eligible for Pell grants, however.

7. Streamlining E-Verify so that employers and employees can have assurance of its accuracy.The Senate bill requires employers to use E-Verify and three key amendments help address privacy concerns associated with the system’s accuracy. Blumenthal 18 prohibits employers from withholding employment-relevant records from employees. Coons 1 requires the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to put in place a system that would allow employees to know whether they have been confirmed or denied by the E-Verify system. Franken 2 also requires a study of accuracy rates.

8. Humane treatment for detained immigrants. Blumenthal 2 limits ICE’s policy of using solitary confinement and explicitly prohibits the use of solitary confinement to “protect” a detainee based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

9. More visas for sub-Saharan Africa and Caribbean countries. Responding to concerns from the African American community, who feared that the loss of the diversity visa program would impact immigration from African and Caribbean countries, Schumer 3 adds 10,000 nonimmigrant E Visas for certain nations in sub-Saharan Africa and Caribbean countries.

h/t: Esther Yu-Hsi Lee at Think Progress Immigration

National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent detailed a plan for immigration reform which calls for treating undocumented immigrants like “indentured servants” and requiring undocumented male immigrants to build a fence on the United States-Mexico border.

In his regular column for WND, Nugent proposed his “Nuge Immigration Plan” because “[w]e don’t need any more bloodsuckers” and promised to “apply Sherriff Joe Arpaio justice” to anyone who has been deported for committing a crime and caught trying to re-enter the country. The plan would also end birthright citizenship currently guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. According to Nugent, “The anchor baby scam should be immediately rescinded. You don’t need to be a constitutional expert like our president to know that the original intent of the 14th Amendment was not to provide citizenship to illegal women or their babies who are born on American soil.”

The “NIP” would also involve ending the United States government practice of printing some documents in Spanish and other languages, which Nugent calls “the most racist thing our government does” by “encouraging people not to learn English.”

Nugent has also been a proponent of Arizona’s controversial S.B. 1070 law, which was partially invalidatedby the Supreme Court in 2012. In a 2010 Washington Times column defending the law, Nugent wrote, “You would have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to see that the grand plan of the Democrats is to entrap illegal immigrants by giving them legal status and then enslave and destroy them with numerous Fedzilla handouts and programs.”

The bipartisan House immigration bill taking shape may soon make all undocumented immigrants plead before a judge for breaking U.S. criminal law. In a move certain to appease Republican lawmakers but anger immigration advocates, House group members have proposed that legal status and an eventual pathway to citizenship can be conferred once a federal judge places undocumented immigrants on “probation.” In a joint proposal meant to assuage conservative critics of “amnesty,” undocumented immigrants would have to serve out a minimum five year probation sentence before they can get on a path to citizenship.

Being undocumented is a civil infraction, not a criminal one. But as one GOP congressional aide described the process to Roll Call, it would be “similar to how judges handle small drug crimes, in which offenders are sentenced to probation, rather than jail, because it forces them to acknowledge that they broke the law but saves taxpayers the expense of incarceration.”

Comparing a large spectrum of undocumented immigrants (including so-called Dreamers who were brought to this country as children) to drug dealers serves as a reminder of how steadfastly disconnected the House Republicans remain in their widely condemned approach to immigration reform. 

The probation sentence furthermore exemplifies the House Republican belief that punishment is the only sensible immigration reform solution.

h/t: Think Progress Immigration

Within the past five years, more than 600 undocumented immigrants have been sent back to their native country while seeking care in American hospitals, according to a report from the Center for Social Justice. Undocumented patients are generally ineligible for public health insurance and unable to afford private health insurance. For some undocumented patients with insurance coverage, they still face deportation orders not by the U.S. government, but by hospitals seeking to avoid the costs of long-term care.

Hospitals are obligated to treat patients regardless of immigration status until their conditions stabilize. At that point, patients are transferred to long term care facilities such as rehabilitation centers. But in some cases the Center for Social Justice uncovered that immigrants were deported while unconscious, waking up in Mexico after undergoing extensive surgery for injuries sustained in a car accident. In another extreme case, a 20-year-old worker became nearly quadriplegic after a construction injury. When the hospital refused to prolong his care on a ventilator, he was deported and died in Mexico. Cases like these have become increasingly common in hospitals where medical repatriation occurs because hospital personnel believe that patients will be unable to pay their bills.

Meanwhile, anti-immigration voices even believe that there is nothing wrong with enforcing immigration checks before patients can be admitted to hospitals.

More reasons to support immigration reform.

H/T: Think Progress

Despite calls from LGBT and immigrant rights groups, the draft immigration reform legislation released by the Senate “Gang of 8” doesn’t include provisions that would allow same-sex couples to access the nation’s visa and immigration system. 

Under the current immigration system, individuals cannot sponsor a same-sex partner or spouse for a family visa, effectively forcing many families into exile abroad. This is codified by the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which is now under review by the Supreme Court, and activists have been pushing lawmakers to include provisions expanding rights to gay couples in the immigration bill.

The immigration bill also allows citizens and permanent residents in America to sponsor children, parents, and spouses from abroad to come to the country as “registered provisional immigrants,” the same limited legal status that would be made available to existing undocumented immigrants in the United States if it passes. But people in same-sex relationships would not be able to sponsor their spouse or partner under this provision. A recent studyestimated that there are 267,000 undocumented LGBT immigrants in America today and another 637,000 who are legal immigrants.

LGBT and immigration activists think they have a strong chance of adding protections later through the amendment process, however. Especially now that the majority of the Senate openly endorses gay marriage.

Mainstream media outlets should be aware of damaging economic attacks leveled by anti-immigrant groups in an attempt to derail comprehensive immigration reform. In reality, research indicates that comprehensive immigration reform would improve the U.S. economy, create jobs and boost American wages. Moreover, new findings show that immigrants are less likely to rely on public benefits than native-born Americans.

Full Story: MMFA

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R) surprised immigration observers by reversing his own recent position and coming out against a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. According to excerpts of his new book, obtained by the Huffington Post, Bush’s position is a hard “no” on citizenship, except for certain undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country before they were 18. He does, however, leave open the prospect that undocumented immigrants could return to their native countries and apply for a green card through revamped legal channels, a route that could eventually lead to citizenship. 

Angling for 2016, perhaps?

h/t: TPM LiveWire

WASHINGTON — A draft of a White House immigration proposal obtained by USA TODAY would allow illegal immigrants to become legal permanent residents within eight years.

The plan also would provide for more security funding and require business owners to check the immigration status of new hires within four years. In addition, the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants could apply for a newly created “Lawful Prospective Immigrant” visa, under the draft bill being written by the White House.

If approved, they could then apply for the same provisional legal status for their spouse or children living outside the country, according to the draft.

The bill is being developed as members in both chambers of Congress are drafting their own immigration bills. In the House, a bipartisan group of representatives has been negotiating an immigration proposal for years and are writing their own bill. Last month, four Republican senators joined with four Democratic senators to announce their agreement on the general outlines of an immigration plan.

One of those senators, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Obama’s bill repeats the failures of past legislation and would be “dead on arrival” in Congress.

“It fails to follow through on previously broken promises to secure our borders, (and) creates a special pathway that puts those who broke our immigration laws at an advantage over those who chose to do things the right way and come here legally,” Rubio said. “It would actually make our immigration problems worse.”

The draft was obtained from an Obama administration official who said it was being distributed to various agencies. The official requested anonymity because he was not authorized to release the proposal publicly.

In his first term, Obama often deferred to Congress on drafting and advancing major legislation, including the Affordable Care Act. He has openly supported the efforts in Congress to take the lead on immigration legislation, and just this week met with Democratic senators to discuss their proposals.

But two weeks ago in Las Vegas, while outlining his immigration plans, Obama made clear that he would not wait too long for Congress to get moving.

According to the White House draft, people would need to pass a criminal background check, submit biometric information and pay fees to qualify for the new visa. If approved, they would be allowed to legally reside in the U.S. for four years, work and leave the country for short periods of time. After the four years, they could then reapply for an extension.

Illegal immigrants would be disqualified from the program if they were convicted of a crime that led to a prison term of at least one year, three or more different crimes that resulted in a total of 90 days in jail, or if they committed any offense abroad that “if committed in the United States would render the alien inadmissible or removable from the United States.”

People currently in federal custody or facing deportation proceedings also could be allowed to apply for the Lawful Prospective Immigrant visa. Application forms and instructions would be provided in “the most common languages spoken by persons in the United States,” but the application and all supporting evidence submitted to the federal government would have to be in English.

They would also be given a new identification card to show as proof of their legal status in the country.

The immigrants could then apply for legal permanent residence, commonly known as a green card, within eight years if they learn English and “the history and government of the United States” and pay back taxes. That would then clear the path for them to apply for U.S. citizenship.

To combat fraud, the draft proposes a new Social Security card be developed that is “fraud-resistant, tamper-resistant and wear-resistant.” The Social Security Administration would be required to issue the new cards within two years.

A major requirement for many Republicans is enhanced border security. The bill calls for an unspecified increase in the Border Patrol, allows the Department of Homeland Security to expand technological improvements along the border and adds 140 new immigration judges to process the heavy flow of people who violate immigration laws.

The draft also expands the E-Verify program that checks the immigration status of people seeking new jobs. Businesses with more than 1,000 employees must begin using the system within two years, businesses with more than 250 employees within three years and all businesses within four years.

Homeland Security, working with the U.S. departments of Labor and Agriculture, the attorney general and other agencies, would engage in a $40 million-a-year program to educate business owners and workers about the program.

The draft obtained by USA TODAY does not include sections that would alter the nation’s legal immigration system to adjust the future flow of legal immigrants, which is expected to be a critical component of any immigration overhaul.

H/T: USAToday.com

Conservatives in the House of Representatives are rejecting the growing bipartisan consensus for permitting undocumented immigrants to earn citizenship. Instead, one prominent negotiatior, Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-ID), suggested a legal status “compromise” that would keep 11 million immigrants in a probationary grey area for an indefinite period of time, unable to participate in the full rights of citizenship. As the Washington Post warned, this so-called compromise would establish “a permanent underclass of workers.”

Creating a second class of Americans is not only unsustainable, but also damages the so-called American dream of equality and justice for all — a point proven each time the US has used the law to exclude a group in its history.

After the founding of the nation, lawmakers stipulated that citizenship excluded free and enslaved Africans, who comprised roughly 20 percent of the entire American population in 1776. The Supreme Court reaffirmed in the infamous Dred Scott decision that slaves could not claim citizenship, as they were considered property by the law. After the abolition of slavery, the law’s silence left African Americans in a legal limbo that denied them the right to vote and set the foundation for widespread segregation and economic exploitation. Even after the 14th and 15th Amendments nominally granted them full citizenship rights, state laws instituting poll taxes and literacy tests, as well as segregation and anti-miscegenation laws, immobilized African Americans in a second class of citizenship.

The Mexican-American War ended in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in which Mexico ceded the land that is now the American Southwest. In return, all Mexicans living on that land were to be granted full US citizenship. However, Congress and the Supreme Courtdenied American citizenship to Pueblo Indians and black Mexicans, though both groups had previously enjoyed Mexican citizenship. Pueblo Indians’ right to vote was revoked until 1924. Black Mexicans in Texas were given the choice to either stay in Texas and become slaves or be deported back to Mexico, where slavery was outlawed.

After initially encouraging Chinese migrant workers to come to the US and work on the Transcontinental Railroad, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to halt all immigration from China. At that point, large communities of Chinese immigrants, mainly in California, were permanently excluded from US citizenship. The law also threw families in limbo, as Chinese men could neither bring their families to the US nor leave the country, as they would be barred from re-entry to the US. Amendments to the law extended the law blocking entry to all Asians regardless of their country of origin — even those born in the US. American-born Chinese who traveled abroad were blocked from returning to their homes in the US. These restrictions pulled families apart and ensured that Chinese American communities already established would stagnate for four decades.

Japanese Americans were singled out as enemies during World War II and ordered to relocate to internment camps for the duration of the war. Japanese immigrants were already blocked from becoming full citizens, as naturalization laws banned citizenship for non-white people. American citizens of Japanese descent, however, were not spared from the internment camps, where they endured abysmal, overcrowded conditions for 3 years. When they returned, most found their homes looted or sold and their jobs long gone.

If this latest immigration reform does not include a path to citizenship, the shadow economy that exploits the ambiguous legal status of undocumented immigrants today could be cemented for decades to come.

Without a path to citizenship, undocumented immigrants will officially inherit the mantle of the many Americans who have endured inferior rights based on a narrow idea of who “deserves” to be an American.

h/t: Aviva Shen at Think Progress

Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh lashed out at Mexican immigrants Wednesday in a radio rant that portrayed them as lazy and government-dependent — the latest in a series of anti-Mexican statements spouted off by far-right conservatives angered by the possibility of a deal to pass a bipartisan immigration reform.

Limbaugh, who pundits for a living, described Mexican immigrants as lazy and government-dependent, though they are well known for working labor-intensive jobs for lower wages, fewer protections and less government benefits than the native born.

“They want relatively poor people who depend on government for their prosperity,” Limbaugh said of Democrats. The radio host went on to question Mexican immigrants’ work ethic:

For some reason, culturally, they think that they’re invested in hard work. And using the Cuban exile model, they’re exactly right. But the Hispanic demographic, if you will, or population, has shifted. And the Cuban exile model is no longer the dominant model. The Mexican immigrant model is. And that — they arrive with an entirely different view of America. And I’m sorry if this is offensive, but it’s true.

In fact, Latinos as a whole use less than their fair share of government benefits. According to a study released last year by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

Non-Hispanic whites accounted for 64 percent of the population in 2010 and received 69 percent of the entitlement benefits. In contrast, Hispanics made up 16 percent of the population but received 12 percent of the benefits, less than their proportionate share — likely because they are a younger population and also because immigrants, including many legal immigrants, are ineligible for various benefits.

People of Mexican origin account for nearly 65 percent of the Latino population, while Cubans account for just 3.7 percent, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

When making the comparison between Mexican immigrants and the Cuban exile generation that immigrated in the 1960s, the conservative radio host insisted that he was “not just asserting it,” and that “the scholarly research from academia is out there.”

Limbaugh then said that 75 percent of voting Hispanics believe that prosperity is the job of government, without citing a source or breaking down the Hispanic population by country of origin.

The unattributed figure was typical of Limbaugh’s approach during his radio talk. Using no source, Limbaugh estimated the undocumented population at “11 million, 12 million, 20 million or whatever.”

Roughly 11.1 million undocumented immigrants live in the United States, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

While Limbaugh drew an unfounded distinction between the Mexican and Cuban work ethic, he did not mention a key fact that helps explain the Cuban-American community’s economic success: Cuban immigrants qualify for legal permanent residence the moment they set foot in the United States.

h/t: Roque Planas at HuffPost Latino Voices

It seems everything’s coming up Milhouse for immigration reform this week. The Senate and White House are pushing fairly similar plans, conservative leaders like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) are working overtime to charm the right, and even some hardline amnesty foes like Rep. Steve King (R-IA) sound like they’re coming around. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, at least three things, according to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who identified these “very tough issues” as the biggest obstacles to a deal.

Democrats are still optimistic about passing a bill, but if things do go sour, it’s almost certain one of these three issues is the culprit. Here’s why.

Border Security

Tougher border security has always been the carrot immigration reformers dangle to try to get conservatives on board with a comprehensive bill and this year’s push is no exception. The standout feature of the Senate’s bipartisan plan is a series of border enforcement measures that have to be met in order to “trigger” the part of the bill that the right hates the most, namely a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

The White House isn’t opposed to tightening the border as part of a deal per se, but President Obama and reform advocates are concerned that making it a precondition to applying for a green card could become an excuse to delay citizenship indefinitely for millions of newly legal immigrants. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), the leading conservative voice in the bipartisan group, has warned he will walk away from the table if he thinks the final bill doesn’t keep the security threshold high enough.

The Senate’s plan also calls for a commission of Southwestern governors and other state officials to oversee the process. Members of the Senate group backing the idea say the ultimate decision on the trigger would be left to the Department of Homeland Security and that it’s unconstitutional to give the commission a veto, but conservatives could still press to expand their role in a final deal or give Congress a greater say in determining whether the border is secure. And then there’s the metrics used to define a secure border. Democrats want an easily measurable checklist, like number of agents deployed or whether or not they have enough drones in the air. But the vaguer the definition, the better chance immigration reform opponents have of slowing down the naturalization process in the future.

Pathway To Citizenship

Both the Senate and White House agree that any bill must allow undocumented immigrants to someday become citizens. But depending on how the legislation is crafted, that “someday” could mean “the near future” or “the future with flying cars.”

That’s because the current legal system is ill-equipped to process 11 million undocumented immigrants anytime soon. Many of them work in low-skill jobs, a category that offers up only 5,000 green cards a year, and the backlog for various other family and employment categories are already decades long as well.

The White House wants to overhaul the visa process to guarantee a “reasonable” timeframe for approval that doesn’t take decades. But Rubio has expressed skepticism of tinkering with the existing system and Democratic members of the working group told TPM they had yet to figure out a plan for how to address the green card backlogs.

One of the right’s biggest fears about a path to citizenship is that newly naturalized Hispanic immigrants will vote Democrat, so if they can’t stop a bill from passing at all, their next move is to try and make the process take as long as possible. Based on the early response from variousconservative media figures to the Senate plan this week, that fight is going to get ugly fast.

Future Immigration

Critics of immigration reform complain that Congress granted illegal immigrants citizenship in 1986 only to end up having the same debate today. Reformers agree, but they disagree on how to prevent it from happening again.

Business groups argue that the solution is a guest worker program that lets them bring in vastly more legal immigrants to work low-skill jobs like agriculture or meatpacking that they claim Americans don’t want to do. But labor unions are worried that employers will use imported labor to drive wages down and undercut organizing workers. They want stricter controls on how many legal immigrants are allowed in, ideally through a commission that determines which sectors of the economy actually have shortages.

This debate isn’t just a theoretical problem. Schumer cited it on Thursday as the leading factor in killing President Bush’s 2007 reform effort. 

H/T: TPM

Eliseo Medina, secretary treasurer of the Service Employees International Union and labor’s point man on immigration, has been waiting decades for a moment like this one.

“I think we get it this year,” a smiling Medina told TPM in his office in Washington. “And if we don’t, the discussion won’t be about whether it’s coming afterwards, just what it will look like and when.”

Over his long career, Medina’s witnessed dozens of promising immigration reform efforts, only to see them countered just as often by a restrictionist backlashes — backlashes that sometimes included support from unions. But everything seems to be coming together at the right time in 2013, with a broad coalition of labor, business, religious leaders, Latino groups, and even some prominent Republicans demanding immediate action.

With victory in sight, SEIU is committing the full force of its 2.1 million members to pushing comprehensive reform in 2013, with plans for rallies around the country, education campaigns for members, and an inside game aimed at lobbying lawmakers in Washington towards a final vote. The AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest federation of unions, is on board as well; and the two sometimes rival groups are united around a common set of policy principles after splitting on President George W. Bush’s failed immigration effort. Both organizations identify passing a bill that includes a path to citizenship for the undocumented population as one of their absolute top priorities for the 113th Congress.

“The inequality created by our current immigration system is having a deeper effect on our society then anything we’ve seen in recent history,” Ana Avendaño, director of the AFL-CIO’s director of immigration and community action, told TPM. “We have 11.5 million people who really are not benefitting from the hard fought gains that the labor movement and other social movements have accomplished in this country.”