Immigration Reform Act 2007

The overriding positive of S.1348, Comprehensive Immigration Reform, is that it provides an earned path to legal residency for the 12 to 15 million immigrants illegally present in the in U.S. before 2007.

(See quick-reading summary of major provisions of S.1348, Comprehensive Immigration Reform, at page one of this article.)

Poverty-stricken immigrants and their families were lured by illegal jobs at U.S. corporations and in the agricultural industry. In their home countries, they were usually unemployed and destitute.

And undocumented workers, grateful for any job, have worked for below-market wages, minimal or no benefits and under poor working conditions, therefore enabling employers to make higher business profits.

The Clinton and Bush administrations turned a blind political eye to illegal immigration practices as a means to support corporate America. (For more info, see Why the U.S. Allows Illegal Immigration.)

Undocumented workers and their families live in constant fear of apprehension, mistreatment and imprisonment, which affects every aspect of their lives, from housing and medical care to education, transportation and even grocery shopping.

Freedom from Fear and Mistreatment

S.1348 would set these immigrants free from fear, to emerge from the back alleys and shoddiest housing in America and beyond the reach of smugglers, blackmailers, human traffickers and harassers.

Like the African-origin slaves set free by Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, this heavily Latino underclass of unskilled, poorly-paid U.S. workers would be freed from the shackles of unequal treatment as a human beings.

And that is what America’s noble ideals of freedom and equality are all about.

On May 17, 2007, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) proudly proclaimed of this bill, "Politics is the art of the possible, and the agreement we just reached is the best possible chance we will have in years to secure our borders, and bring millions of people out of the shadows and into the sunshine of America."

Problem is... the negatives of S.1348, Comprehensive Immigration Reform, are so numerous and so virulent, that they may cause Congress to fail to pass this legislation.

Below are a few of the most egregious negatives of S.1348 .

Guest Worker Program

S.1348 sets a guest worker program for low-skilled labor that creates a separate class of workers with few protections granted to other U.S. workers and little hope for permanent residency.

The New York Times dubs S.1348's guest worker program as "massive indentured servitude."

And the guest worker program includes provisions that are overly onerous to fulfill. One is a mandate that between the 3 renewable 2-year visa periods, the worker must return for a year to his home country where he may have neither job nor home.

Another is the severe limitation on workers' ability to bring spouses or minor childen with them while they labor in the U.S.

An amendment sponsored by Sen. Jeff Bingman (D-NM) was passed to reduce to reduce the annual cap on workers from 600,000 to 200,000. An amendment by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) to strip it from S.1348 was defeated by a vote of 64-31.

Retention and Internment Facilities

S.1348 provides “resources” for the daily detention of 27,500 illegal immigrants.

Internment centers are privatized warehouses for immigrants awaiting wrongful detention appeals or pending deportation proceedings. Like the hotel industry, the corporations running the centers make profits by keeping the centers at full occupancy.

While in internment centers, immigrants have virtually no rights. Like slaves in pre-civil War days, detainees are usually unable to communicate with children and spouses. Identification is often stripped from their possession.

Reports abound of denials of medical care, overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, lost ID documents, lack of access to info, and callous treatment. (For more info, read Lost in Detention published by The New Mexican on May 20, 2007.)

Impossible Path to Citizenship

S.1348 creates an unachievable path to citizenship for the majority of formerly illegal immigrants, resulting in millions of low-wage earning U.S residents without voting rights.

The legislation requires upfront payment of $5,000 in fines plus $2,000 in “processing fees,” unthinkable sums for poverty-level earners. It requires the head of household (usually the wage earner) to return to their home country, and then reenter the U.S. Few could afford to return to their home countries, and, if they did, they would likely lose their jobs.

And even if all these and other conditions are met, the waiting period is estimated to be 8 to 14 years.

In early June 2007, S.1348 is mired in U.S. Senate backroom negotiations, and the bill hotly debated in the media and public forums.

No one knows whether or not S.1348 will pass both houses of Congress, despite the urgings of President Bush and a determined bipartisan band of senators led by Sen. Kennedy and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

Another vital area of contention that must be resolved is the proposed new U.S. approach to selecting future immigrants.

Past Immigration Goal: Family Unification

In the past, America immigration policy was tied to the humanitarian goal of family unification.

The 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868 in reaction to the abolition of slavery and its abuse of families, declared all children born in this country of illegal immigrants to be U.S. citizens. This was reconfirmed by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. As a result, parents of children who are U.S. citizens often stay in this country as legal residents (i.e. green cards holders).

Currently, there is no limit on the number of green cards that can be issued to foreign spouses and children of workers holding U.S. work visas, or for foreign-born parents of minor children.

S.1348 Immigration Goal: Support Corporations, Not Families

S.1348 radically shifts U.S. immigration to skills-based from family-based goals, and places a cap on all permanent residency green cards issued annually.

Objecting to this change, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) wryly commented to the media, “For those who often speak about family values, this is your opportunity to match your rhetoric with your action.“

Briefly, the cap for H-1B visas, used by corporations and universities to import higher wage-earning scientists, computer specialists and the like, will be raised from 65,000 to as much as 180,000 annually.

The remainder of green cards would be issued based on a point system that places highest values on graduate and post-graduate education; achievement in technology, science and math; areas of high labor demand; and English language proficiency.

Family ties would be given scant consideration, and then, mainly for spouses and minor children. Under S.1348, even U.S. citizens would encounter difficulties bringing elderly, foreign-born parents into the country.

At this writing, Sen. Clinton and Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) have introduced an amendment to eliminate limits on the number of green cards for spouses and minor children of legal immigrants.

View the original article here

Obama on Immigration

"Under the new system, just a few of the current family preferences would be retained in any recognizable form. Spouses and children of U.S. citizens would still be able to come.

Bush Plan: Foreign-Born Parents of U.S. Citizens Denied Residency

"However, parents of U.S. citizens would no longer be counted as immediate families, and thus most parents seeking to join their children and grandchildren in the United States would be denied green cards. The rest of the current family preferences – siblings, adult children, and many parents -- would be eviscerated.

"The new points system also would eliminate employment-based green cards altogether, forcing employers recruiting workers abroad to rely exclusively on short-term H-1B and Y visas. This proposal takes an admittedly problematic, employment-based visa system and replaces it with a far more problematic, temporary worker program.

Pushing Latino Workers to the Back of an Endless Line

"The design of the points system leaves numerous questions unanswered. Beyond pushing workers from Latin America to the back of an endless line, with no hope of ever reaching the front, the new points system leaves unspecified the crucial question of how migrants with sufficient points will be prioritized.

"Government bureaucrats would thus be left with unprecedented discretion to determine which immigrants have acceptable education, employment history, and work experience to merit admission into the country.

"Taken together, the questionable design of this points program and the fundamental shift away from family preferences in the allocation of visas raise enough red flags that we should not simply rubber stamp this proposal and allow it to go forward.

"Let me be clear: Senators Menendez, Feingold, and I are not proposing to strike the program from the bill. But this system should be revisited after a reasonable amount of time to determine whether it’s working, how it can be improved, and whether we should return to the current family and employer based system that has worked so well.

This Is Not Who We Are as a Country

"We live in a global economy, and I do believe that America will be strengthened if we welcome more immigrants who have mastered science and engineering.

"But, we cannot weaken the very essence of what America is by turning our backs on immigrants who want to reunite with their family members, or immigrants who have a willingness to work hard but who may not have the right graduate degrees.

"This is not who we are as a country.

"Should those without graduate degrees who spoke Italian or Polish or German, instead of English, have been turned back at Ellis Island?

"Should the immigrants from Asia who arrived at Angel Island to build our railroads have been told that they could only come for two years because they had no hope of passing a points test?

"How many of our ancestors would have been allowed to enter the U.S. under this new system?

America Does Not Have a Caste or Class Based Society

"Character and work ethic have long defined generations of immigrants to America. But these qualities are beyond the scope of this bill’s points system.

"It tells us nothing about what people who have been without opportunity can achieve once they are here.

"It tells us nothing about the potential of their children to serve and to lead.

"We are Americans. We do not have a caste or class based society, and we do not need a caste or class based immigration system.

"In short, the points system raises some serious concerns for me.

"Now, I’m willing to defer to those senators who negotiated this provision and say we should give this a try. But I’m not willing to say that this untested system should be made virtually permanent.

"For that reason, I urge my colleagues to support this common-sense amendment to sunset this points system after five years so we can examine its effectiveness and necessity."

View the original article here

Obama on Immigration 2010

Our founding was rooted in the notion that America was unique as a place of refuge and freedom for, in Thomas Jefferson’s words, "oppressed humanity."

But the ink on our Constitution was barely dry when, amidst conflict, Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which placed harsh restrictions of those suspected of having foreign allegiances. A century ago, immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Poland, other European countries were routinely subjected to rank discrimination and ugly stereotypes. Chinese immigrants were held in detention and deported from Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay. They didn’t even get to come in.

U.S. borders have been porous for decades

So the politics of who is and who is not allowed to enter this country, and on what terms, has always been contentious. And that remains true today. And it’s made worse by a failure of those of us in Washington to fix a broken immigration system.

To begin with, our borders have been porous for decades. Obviously, the problem is greatest along our Southern border, but it’s not restricted to that part of the country. In fact, because we don’t do a very good job of tracking who comes in and out of the country as visitors, large numbers avoid immigration laws simply by overstaying their visas.

Unscrupulous businesses exploit undocumented immigrants

The result is an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. The overwhelming majority of these men and women are simply seeking a better life for themselves and their children. Many settle in low-wage sectors of the economy; they work hard, they save, they stay out of trouble.

But because they live in the shadows, they’re vulnerable to unscrupulous businesses who pay them less than the minimum wage or violate worker safety rules -– thereby putting companies who follow those rules, and Americans who rightly demand the minimum wage or overtime, at an unfair advantage.

Crimes go unreported as victims and witnesses fear coming forward. And this makes it harder for the police to catch violent criminals and keep neighborhoods safe. And billions in tax revenue are lost each year because many undocumented workers are paid under the table.

The legal immigration system is broken

More fundamentally, the presence of so many illegal immigrants makes a mockery of all those who are going through the process of immigrating legally. Indeed, after years of patchwork fixes and ill-conceived revisions, the legal immigration system is as broken as the borders: Backlogs and bureaucracy means the process can take years. While an applicant waits for approval, he or she is often forbidden from visiting the United States –- which means even husbands and wives may be forced to spend many years apart. High fees and the need for lawyers may exclude worthy applicants. And while we provide students from around the world visas to get engineering and computer science degrees at our top universities, our laws discourage them from using those skills to start a business or power a new industry right here in the United States.Instead of training entrepreneurs to create jobs on our shores, we train our competition.

Reform held hostage to political posturing

In sum, the system is broken. And everybody knows it. Unfortunately, reform has been held hostage to political posturing and special-interest wrangling -– and to the pervasive sentiment in Washington that tackling such a thorny and emotional issue is inherently bad politics.

Just a few years ago, when I was a senator, we forged a bipartisan coalition in favor of comprehensive reform. Under the leadership of Senator Kennedy, who had been a longtime champion of immigration reform, and Senator John McCain, we worked across the aisle to help pass a bipartisan bill through the Senate.

But that effort eventually came apart. And now, under the pressures of partisanship and election-year politics, many of the 11 Republican senators who voted for reform in the past have now backed away from their previous support.

Arizona's new law: divisive, dangerous, unenforceable

Into this breach, states like Arizona have decided to take matters into their own hands. Given the levels of frustration across the country, this is understandable. But it is also ill conceived. And it’s not just that the law Arizona passed is divisive -– although it has fanned the flames of an already contentious debate.

Laws like Arizona’s put huge pressures on local law enforcement to enforce rules that ultimately are unenforceable. It puts pressure on already hard-strapped state and local budgets. It makes it difficult for people here illegally to report crimes -– driving a wedge between communities and law enforcement, making our streets more dangerous and the jobs of our police officers more difficult.

Violating the rights of innocent Americans

And you don’t have to take my word for this. You can speak to the police chiefs and others from law enforcement here today who will tell you the same thing.

These laws also have the potential of violating the rights of innocent American citizens and legal residents, making them subject to possible stops or questioning because of what they look like or how they sound.

And as other states and localities go their own ways, we face the prospect that different rules for immigration will apply in different parts of the country -– a patchwork of local immigration rules where we all know one clear national standard is needed.

Our task then is to make our national laws actually work -– to shape a system that reflects our values as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. And that means being honest about the problem, and getting past the false debates that divide the country rather than bring it together.

For example, there are those in the immigrants’ rights community who have argued passionately that we should simply provide those who are [here] illegally with legal status, or at least ignore the laws on the books and put an end to deportation until we have better laws. And often this argument is framed in moral terms: Why should we punish people who are just trying to earn a living?

View the original article here

Obama on Immigration 2010

Our founding was rooted in the notion that America was unique as a place of refuge and freedom for, in Thomas Jefferson’s words, "oppressed humanity."

But the ink on our Constitution was barely dry when, amidst conflict, Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which placed harsh restrictions of those suspected of having foreign allegiances. A century ago, immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Poland, other European countries were routinely subjected to rank discrimination and ugly stereotypes. Chinese immigrants were held in detention and deported from Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay. They didn’t even get to come in.

U.S. borders have been porous for decades

So the politics of who is and who is not allowed to enter this country, and on what terms, has always been contentious. And that remains true today. And it’s made worse by a failure of those of us in Washington to fix a broken immigration system.

To begin with, our borders have been porous for decades. Obviously, the problem is greatest along our Southern border, but it’s not restricted to that part of the country. In fact, because we don’t do a very good job of tracking who comes in and out of the country as visitors, large numbers avoid immigration laws simply by overstaying their visas.

Unscrupulous businesses exploit undocumented immigrants

The result is an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. The overwhelming majority of these men and women are simply seeking a better life for themselves and their children. Many settle in low-wage sectors of the economy; they work hard, they save, they stay out of trouble.

But because they live in the shadows, they’re vulnerable to unscrupulous businesses who pay them less than the minimum wage or violate worker safety rules -– thereby putting companies who follow those rules, and Americans who rightly demand the minimum wage or overtime, at an unfair advantage.

Crimes go unreported as victims and witnesses fear coming forward. And this makes it harder for the police to catch violent criminals and keep neighborhoods safe. And billions in tax revenue are lost each year because many undocumented workers are paid under the table.

The legal immigration system is broken

More fundamentally, the presence of so many illegal immigrants makes a mockery of all those who are going through the process of immigrating legally. Indeed, after years of patchwork fixes and ill-conceived revisions, the legal immigration system is as broken as the borders: Backlogs and bureaucracy means the process can take years. While an applicant waits for approval, he or she is often forbidden from visiting the United States –- which means even husbands and wives may be forced to spend many years apart. High fees and the need for lawyers may exclude worthy applicants. And while we provide students from around the world visas to get engineering and computer science degrees at our top universities, our laws discourage them from using those skills to start a business or power a new industry right here in the United States.Instead of training entrepreneurs to create jobs on our shores, we train our competition.

Reform held hostage to political posturing

In sum, the system is broken. And everybody knows it. Unfortunately, reform has been held hostage to political posturing and special-interest wrangling -– and to the pervasive sentiment in Washington that tackling such a thorny and emotional issue is inherently bad politics.

Just a few years ago, when I was a senator, we forged a bipartisan coalition in favor of comprehensive reform. Under the leadership of Senator Kennedy, who had been a longtime champion of immigration reform, and Senator John McCain, we worked across the aisle to help pass a bipartisan bill through the Senate.

But that effort eventually came apart. And now, under the pressures of partisanship and election-year politics, many of the 11 Republican senators who voted for reform in the past have now backed away from their previous support.

Arizona's new law: divisive, dangerous, unenforceable

Into this breach, states like Arizona have decided to take matters into their own hands. Given the levels of frustration across the country, this is understandable. But it is also ill conceived. And it’s not just that the law Arizona passed is divisive -– although it has fanned the flames of an already contentious debate.

Laws like Arizona’s put huge pressures on local law enforcement to enforce rules that ultimately are unenforceable. It puts pressure on already hard-strapped state and local budgets. It makes it difficult for people here illegally to report crimes -– driving a wedge between communities and law enforcement, making our streets more dangerous and the jobs of our police officers more difficult.

Violating the rights of innocent Americans

And you don’t have to take my word for this. You can speak to the police chiefs and others from law enforcement here today who will tell you the same thing.

These laws also have the potential of violating the rights of innocent American citizens and legal residents, making them subject to possible stops or questioning because of what they look like or how they sound.

And as other states and localities go their own ways, we face the prospect that different rules for immigration will apply in different parts of the country -– a patchwork of local immigration rules where we all know one clear national standard is needed.

Our task then is to make our national laws actually work -– to shape a system that reflects our values as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. And that means being honest about the problem, and getting past the false debates that divide the country rather than bring it together.

For example, there are those in the immigrants’ rights community who have argued passionately that we should simply provide those who are [here] illegally with legal status, or at least ignore the laws on the books and put an end to deportation until we have better laws. And often this argument is framed in moral terms: Why should we punish people who are just trying to earn a living?

View the original article here

Check Immigration Status

The Canadian federal government Client Application Status service lets potential immigrants to Canada check the status of their immigration applications using the Internet, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Information on the Client Application Status service is updated weekly.

To use the online service, you first must certify that you are the applicant, applicant's executor, guardian, authorized officer, or agent of the person for whom the application was submitted. For information on the use of authorized representatives see Citizenship and Immigration Canada's Immigration Representaives: Who Can Represent You.

The online service can be used to check the status of the following types of Canadian immigration applications: applications to sponsor a family class relativeapplications for permanent residence from either within or outside Canadaapplications for permanent resident cards. Includes initial, replacement or renewal permanent resident cards.

You can find out how long it is currently taking Citizenship and Immigration Canada to process different types of immigration applications by checking Application Processing Times.

To use the online service to check on the status of a Canadian immigration application or application for a permanent resident card, applicants should have the following information available: a copy of all documents sent or received relating to your applicationa copy of your applicationfinancial receipt(s) - IMM 5401any official letter or document received from Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

View the original article here