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Liveblog: Day 2 of Senate Immigration Bill Markup

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Liveblogging the CIR Markup, Day 2:

2:07 PMBy the way, during the earlier discussion of Sessions’ amendment 1, Sen. Sessions repeated the conservative claim that immigration reform will hurt African-American workers.

Peter Curstenow testified before our committee, a member of the civil rights commission along with Abigail Thurstrom a brilliant member of that commission wrote the president of the US and said, “This is a civil rights issue.” It’s going to pull down the wages and make it more difficult for working Americans to get jobs, particularly African Americans who are hurting today.

UMMM, what?  Sessions is the guy who once called a white civil rights lawyer “a disgrace to his race” for litigating voting rights cases for African-American clients.  Sessions has a whole troubled history with race relations–he once allegedly joked that he “used to think [the KKK] were OK” until he found out some of the were “pot smokers.”

It’s funny how the members of Congress who are most likely to bring up African-American rights as a reason to oppose immigration reform–including Sessions–often have THE worst records on supporting African-American rights.

 

2:06 PMHere’s a press statement from the Alliance for Citizenship, featuring an Alabama community leader discussing Jeff Sessions’ failed amendment #1:

Senator Jeff Sessions’ Amendment #1 Voted Down by Entire Senate Judiciary Committee

Local Leader Reacts to Sessions’ Failed Attempt to Lower Cap for Future Legal Immigration to the United States

Today, Senator Jeff Sessions’ attempt to limit future legal immigration was rejected by his colleagues on a 1-17 vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee.  In response to this failed amendment, Evelyn Servin, community leader from Russellville, Alabama, offered the following statement:

In Alabama, we’ve been feeling the impacts of Senator Session’s extremist immigration views for a long time.  Sessions has long said that he is only against “illegal” immigration, but that he supports legal immigration. Today, we not only saw our senator reveal his true position – that he seeks to limit any and all immigration to our country – but we saw that position rejected by every single one of his Senate colleagues. Jeff Sessions stands alone in denying our country’s legacy as a nation of immigrants. We hope that his fellow Senators and our fellow Alabamians continue to isolate his extremist views.

More about Sessions and how out there he’s been today from Jordan Fabian, in a post called “At the Immigration Hearings, Jeff Sessions Stands Alone.”

 

12:59 PM: the Judiciary Committee is recessed until 2:30 PM, but here’s a statement Sen. Schumer just released about amendment updates today:

SCHUMER: SENATE PANEL ACCEPTS PAIR OF GOP AMENDMENTS TO HIGH-SKILLED VISA PROGRAM

Grassley, Hatch Amendments on H1B Visas Both Approved By Voice Vote 

Judiciary Committee Has Now Approved Total of 10 GOP Amendments So Far 

WASHINGTON, DC—U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) on Tuesday hailed the passage of two Republican-proposed amendments to the high-skilled visa program in the Senate’s bipartisan immigration reform bill.

“These bipartisan amendments are good-faith improvements to the bill,” Schumer said. “This is as open a process as any I’ve seen since entering the Senate, and it is making for a better bill.”

An amendment by Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) would require employers to list more detailed information about open positions before they can be filled with H1B workers. A second amendment, offered by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), would increase certain fees related to H1B visas, and direct the fees towards math and science-related education

Both amendments were accepted by voice vote.

A full list of the amendments considered so far on Tuesday is pasted below. Republican-sponsored amendments are highlighted in yellow.

The following amendments were ACCEPTED:

Feinstein11 (as modified) — Limits the flight paths of unmanned aerial drones used by the U.S. Border Patrol to no more than three miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border in the San Diego region. ADOPTED BY VOICE VOTE

Coons2 (as modified) – Limits dangerous deportation practices that place migrants at increased vulnerability when deported at the Southern (not Northern) Border.  DHS is obligated to regularly certify that migrants are not being deported to lawless areas or a different region from where they were originally apprehended and that personal items confiscated from migrants during apprehension are returned. DHS must also conduct a study on the effectiveness of the Alien Transfer Exit Program in reducing recidivism.  Risk factors for a ” lawless areas” include locations with high rates of homicide and violent crime, lack of social services for migrants, and nighttime deportations. ADOPTED BY VOICE VOTE

Schumer1 – In addition to purely technical corrections involving spelling, grammar, or striking redundant language, the amendment would make the following quasi-technical changes/clarifications: clarifies the reauthorization of the Brand USA Travel promotion funding, clarifies the manner of backlog reduction so that all categories in the backlogs can be cleared proportionally; clarifies that the J-1 visa fee only applies to the summer work travel program; clarifies that fees funding the W-visa program may also be used to fund the Bureau of Immigration and Labor Market Research; clarifies that the Secretary of  Homeland Security shall have authority to determine the prevailing wage paid by a registered employer to a W-nonimmigrant. ADOPTED BY VOICE VOTE

Whitehouse6 – Requires the Department of Labor to create a toll-free hotline for employees to report violations of certain requirements relating to H-1B visas, and requires a report by the Inspector General on DOL’s enforcement of those requirements every five years. ADOPTED BY VOICE VOTE

Grassley58 – To amend the internet job posting section to include more information, such as title, description of job and location, and name, city and zip code of employer. ADOPTED BY VOICE VOTE

Hatch9 (as modified) – Increases the Labor Certification Fee for an employment based visa from $500 to $1,000, and places this money into a new STEM Fund that will provide funding for: states for STEM education enhancement; STEM capacity building at Historically Black Colleges and Universities; Workforce Investment Act (veterans); low-income college preparation; and management expenses. ADOPTED BY VOICE VOTE

The following amendments were DEFEATED:

Sessions4 – To require the use of a biometric entry and exit data system at ports of entry before the Secretary of Homeland Security may adjust the status of aliens who have been granted registered provisional immigrant status. NOT AGREED TO, 6-12

Sessions1 – To limit the total number of immigrants granted legal status in the ten years after enactment to 20 million and to also limit the total number of nonimmigrant workers granted admission in the ten years after enactment to 10 million. NOT AGREED TO, 1-17

The following amendments were WITHDRAWN:

Lee1 – Strike all and replace with S. 683, Border Security Results Act WITHDRAWN

Lee2 – Strike all and replace with S. 202, Accountability Through Electronic Verification Act. WITHDRAWN

Lee3 – Strike all and replace with S. 169, I-Squared Act. WITHDRAWN

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12:34 PM: About an hour ago, some members of the anti-immigrant House Immigration Reform Caucus wrapped up a press conference featuring Reps. Steve King (R-IA), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), John Fleming (R-LA), Paul Gosar (R-AL), and Mo Brooks (R-AL).

Steve King, ignoring the continuing controversy over the Heritage Foundation study, cited the flawed report as evidence of the negative effects on immigration and the economy.  If we were wondering who, if anyone, would continue citing such a panned report–no surprise that it’s Steve King.

Gohmert played his usual fearmongering card, talking about “radical Islamists” who adopt “Hispanic-sounding names, go to places like Mexico to get identification papers, try to blend in as if they were Latin Americans or Hispanic Americans, and then come across our borders.”  He also claimed that President Obama refuses to secure the border–despite the fact that the border is more secure–and more pumped up with resources, than ever.

Fleming said that “I’m told that the bill [the Senate Gang of 8 immigration bill] is 844 pages.”  He couldn’t bother to check himself?  He’s also in favor of tearing up the current Senate legislation and starting over at the beginning so that “we can pass a law that ensures border security first”–except that, like other anti-reform conservatives, he doesn’t mention where reasonable goalposts for the border should be or when we would be able to move beyond the border in order to actually address the immigration system.  Did we we mention that the border is already secure?  And that we’re spending more money on it now than ever before?

Kate Nocera at Buzzfeed wrote about this press conference in a piece titled “Small Turnout for Anti-‘Amnesty’ Leaders in Congress.”  She wrote:

It was difficult, however, to miss the fact that King had only rallied six members of a very conservative Republican caucus Tuesday (Reps. Lamar Smith and Lou Barletta were slated to attend but could not be there). When asked by BuzzFeed why he thought that more conservatives weren’t speaking out against the Senate bill, Rep. John Fleming said he hoped his fellow partisans would come around.

Also check out this Think Progress piece on some of the worst things said at the HIRC press conference today.

 

11:37 AM: This is the Senate Judiciary Committee Majority Staff on Sessions 1, the amendment being considered right now that would severely limit immigration into the country.  Even Ted Cruz plans to be voting against the amendment!

In today’s markup, Senator Sessions offered an amendment (Sessions1) to severely limit the number of immigrants allowed into the country.  He repeatedly provided a false and exaggerated number that the bipartisan immigration reform bill will result in the admittance of up to 30 million new immigrants.

Exaggerated Estimates of Future Immigrants

Senator Sessions falsely inflates his numbers by including the 11 million unauthorized immigrants who are already here and would have to earn their green cards by paying fines, fees, back taxes, and passing criminal and national security background checks. Immigration reform would bring them into our legal system so that they would be held accountable, pay taxes, and contribute to our economy.

Senator Sessions’ numbers also deceptively include the nearly 4.5 million immigrants who have followed the rules and are currently waiting in line.  These are people who have qualified for their green cards with or without reform, and have been waiting years or even decades to come to the country.

Actual Future Flow of Immigration

According to the Center for American progress, the bipartisan immigration bill would roughly maintain the current level of immigration, and potentially decrease it by 150,000.

The Bottom Line: Immigration Reform Will Strengthen Our Economy

The increase of human capital in our economy will benefit our economy, not harm it.  Conservative President of Americans for Tax Reform Grover Norquist has said, “People are an asset, not a liability. . . Those who would make us less immigrant-friendly would make us less successful, less prosperous, and less American.”

 

11:20 AM Jeff Sessions keeps citing Harvard Professor George Borjas and his thoughts on a biometric ID system.  Let’s be clear: Borjas has worked with the John Tanton group Center for Immigration Studies.  And he was the chair of Jason Richwine’s dissertation committee, and called Richwine’s “Hispanic immigrants will have low-IQ children” research “sound” (even as he denied having an opinion on the dissertation, which he, you know, advised).

Even Sen. Leahy is remarking at Sessions’ repeated citing of Borjas, saying “in all the years I’ve known you, I never knew you had such an affinity for Harvard.”

 

10:30 AM  Here’s a press release from the Senate Judiciary Committee Majority, discussing the topics to be discussed in today’s markup:

“The nation’s immigration system must be reformed to meet pressing labor needs.”

High-skilled immigrant workers, like high-skilled American workers, are part of the engine that fuels our economy, stimulating growth and keeping the United States at the forefront of innovation and invention.

From 1990 to 2005, foreign-born nationals founded more than 25 percent of the technology start-ups in the United States, including Google, eBay, Yahoo! and Intel, which now employ some 220,000 people in the United States. Immigrants or their children founded more than 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies. [Kauffman, 2009; PNAE 2012; BusinessWeek, 10/8/12]

Studies have estimated that foreign-born graduates of U.S. universities who work in STEM fields each create on average 2.62 jobs for American workers. [ITIC/Partnership for a new Economy/Chamber of Commerce, 11/30/12]

The Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act would exempt STEM graduates who receive a master’s degree or higher from an institute of higher education in the United States from the cap on employment-based visas.  It would also exempt STEM doctoral degree holders and other highly-skilled professionals from the cap.  The United States boasts some of the top educational institutions in the world; our immigration system should encourage those who come here to learn to stay and contribute to our growing economy.