New Immigration Bill Is Introduced in House

Spencer Collins · #1 (**permalink**) 12-15-2009, 11:05 PM

Quote:

The on-again, off-again drive to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws moved back to Congress on Tuesday with the introduction of legislation that would open a path to legal status for millions of illegal immigrants.

The bill, introduced by Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois, was seen as the opening volley in what Democrats and Republicans expect to be a hard-fought battle. President Obama has pledged to take up the issue early next year; efforts to overhaul the laws during George W. Bush’s presidency failed despite the backing of Mr. Bush and some Republicans.

Mr. Gutierrez, one of Mr. Obama’s earliest Latino supporters in Congress, said in an interview that the bill reflected a growing impatience with the pace of immigration change among a coalition of Democratic lawmakers, immigrant advocates and labor and religious groups.

“This says, ‘Here, this is what we want; our proposal is out of the box,’ ” Mr. Gutierrez said.

The pressing desire for “comprehensive immigration reform” — as it is known by supporters — was made clear in the acronym of Mr. Gutierrez’s bill: “C.I.R. A.S.A.P.”

Matthew Chandler, a spokesman for Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary, said she was pleased that “Congress is taking steps forward on immigration reform” but withheld comment on the details of the bill.

On Capitol Hill, the bill was declared dead on arrival by some Republicans — and, privately, by some Democrats — and denounced as impractical and amounting to amnesty for people who had entered the country illegally. Two previous Congressional efforts to revamp immigration laws in the Bush years failed largely because of similar objections.

Representative Brian Bilbray, a California Republican who heads the House Immigration Reform Caucus, said the bill would only generate a new wave of migrants to compete with Americans for jobs at a time of 10 percent unemployment.

Democrats in the Senate who would steer an immigration overhaul through that chamber generally welcomed Mr. Gutierrez’s bill, though aides said it was too liberal to win passage as written.

Still, the legislation hewed closely to some recent statements by Obama administration officials, mainly in its call for improved border security, a crackdown on employers who hire unauthorized workers and some way to open the door to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

Under the bill, to gain legal status and possibly citizenship, illegal immigrants already here would have to demonstrate they had been working, pay a $500 fine, learn English and undergo a criminal background check, among other provisions. Unlike previous proposals in Congress, they would not have to return to their homeland first, something known as “touchback.”

The measure also calls for additional training and equipment for border guards, though not the hiring of new ones, and would require the Homeland Security Department to improve immigration jails and eliminate a program that deputizes local and state officers as immigration agents.

The bill lacks a broad program championed by many Republicans, as well as Democrats including Mr. Obama, to address future labor demands and to better control the flow of immigration. To do that, they have advocated a program under which people could work only temporarily in the United States and then return home. Instead, the bill calls for a federal commission to study the best approach for the “future flows of workers.”

“In order for immigration reform to be effective, it needs to be comprehensive,” said Representative Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican who collaborated with Mr. Gutierrez on previous immigration bills but not this one. “Any bill without a temporary worker program is simply not comprehensive.”

Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, is working with some Republicans on a separate bill that he has said could be ready whenever Mr. Obama asked for it. Administration officials, juggling the economic crisis, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and a divisive fight over health care, have resisted promising a specific timetable.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/us...s/16immig.html

Oh what a tangled web past and (present) administrations have woven in their failure to enforce the rule of law for decades...

In my view...any discussion of reform must include much more secure borders and require "touchback".

-0-

saltwn · #2 (**permalink**) 12-15-2009, 11:56 PM

Have the able bodied who receive Welfare work in our warehouses, production plants, and fields.
When those jobs are filled with Americans, send the illegals back. Send them all back. Let them hitch hike or walk or drive their cars. And maybe some friendly people in the border towns will give them assistance with food and shelter till they can cross.
Kind of like now only in reverse.

Mustang Man · #3 (**permalink**) 12-16-2009, 08:09 AM

This bill is such frakking bull shiite. Any member of Congress who votes in favor of this travesty should be hung up and beaten on the bottoms of their feet regardless of party affiliation.

The United States continues to be the world's bitch and dumping ground for the rest of the planet's garbage. The inmates are running the asylum.

American · #4 (**permalink**) 12-16-2009, 08:41 AM

They'll have to swallow hard and disregard latino votes before they'll be able to pass the law that needs to be passed. Latino members of Congress should be leading this effort to make their own to the right thing. People will respect that.

dga · #5 (**permalink**) 12-18-2009, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by American

They'll have to swallow hard and disregard latino votes before they'll be able to pass the law that needs to be passed. Latino members of Congress should be leading this effort to make their own to the right thing. People will respect that.

That depends on what your definition of "the right thing" is. Having an opinion that diverges from others' opinions does not make it wrong, just different. It is arrogant on your part to assume that what you think should be done is "the right thing".

Just because Hispanics in general, politicians or otherwise, and many non-Hispanic Americans at that, have a different view on the situation of otherwise law abiding, hard working, undocumented aliens, does not make it wrong - just not in accordance to your view of what is 'right'.

What people do you speak of? Standing aside and throwing millions of people under the bus to win the upper hand in the political game certainly won't earn my respect,

. Closing the border might.

nursej007 · #6 (**permalink**) 12-18-2009, 12:27 PM

Our borders need to be secured FIRST...BEFORE any talk of immigration reform.

They are NOT...and any talk coming out of Washington that they are is pure, unadulterated BULL!!

Worse than that, we even have both Congresscritters and the Administration working to make our borders LESS secure.

mlurp · #7 (**permalink**) 12-18-2009, 01:04 PM

Another get it done now B-4 anyone knows just what is going to be the costs or ramifications...

This has to be the worst Congress and Senate in history...

check out the gangs thread.. Because these are for the most part citizen's and the news reports of the Drug gangs moving in are not what any citizen wants in the neighborhood..

All that is needed is for the Govt. to increase employment in immigration and speed up the regular process they let fail. Both houses are trowing those that have done the legal thing under the bus.........

Just like the boarders..... And our security... Under the bus........

This is more of the "CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN" BS.... Or IMO Treason...

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