IN THE wake of an announcement late last month that a Bipartisan “Gang of Eight” Senators has put for a blueprint for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR), a leaked internal Whitehouse memorandum outlining the President’s vision for Immigration reform sparked much controversy over the President’s Day Weekend. When news of the leak surfaced, President Barack Obama’s staff assured lawmakers that the proposal, which was not intended to have been made public, is merely a “back-up plan,” in case Congress fails to produce CIR legislation of their own. Republicans in Congress, however, criticized the Whitehouse for leaking the proposal with no bipartisan input.
On Monday, January 28, 2013, the bipartisan “Gang of Eight,” including Senators Shumer, McCain, Durbin, Graham, Menendez, Rubio, Bennett and Flake introduced a sweeping blueprint for immigration reform as a starting point for legislative action, however. lacking in specifics. At that time, it had been rumored that President Obama felt the blueprint did not go far enough and was formulating his own vision for reform that would be somewhat more “left-leaning” in spirit than that put forth by the Gang of Eight.
The Gang of Eight’s Proposals are gaining momentum in Congress, however, and John McCain moved for the President to shelve his proposal and allow Congress to continue working on legislation. “I believe we are making progress on a bipartisan basis,” said McCain. “I believe we can come up with a product.”
Starting with the recognition that our immigration system is “broken” and has created a shadow class of some 11 Million undocumented residents in the US, the overall tenor of the Gang of Eight proposal is to acknowledge the reality that the US Government cannot feasibly deport 11 million individuals and that millions of these people are contributing to the US economy, albeit “off the books.” The blueprint offered will commit resources to protecting our border, but offering a “tough, but fair” legalization program to draw the undocumented out of the shadows.
To achieve these broader gals, the Gang of Eight’s proposal highlights 4 legislative “pillars” that must be integral to the new system. First, the plan will include a Path to Citizenship for unauthorized immigrants, contingent on the securing of the borders and implementation of a tracking system to ensure that legally admitted nonimmigrants depart when required. Second, the plan will reform the legal immigration system to emphasize the importance of individual’s attributes and accomplishments that will help build the economy and “strengthen American families.” Third, the plan will create an employment verification system to prevent identity theft and end the hiring of unauthorized workers. Finally, the plan will establish an improved process for the admission of foreign workers to service our country’s needs, while protecting all workers.
The Border Security initiative will include a complete overhaul of security systems and increased use of unmanned surveillance aircraft to detect illegal entrants and improve safety along the border for international commerce. The law, however, will recognize that certain undocumented people in the US, such as those who came here as children, made no conscious decision to break the law and will face a more lax road to obtaining legal status than other individuals. Also, workers contributing to the US agricultural industry will be acknowledged as necessary to serving the important functions they fulfill in maintaining the nations food supply.
To attract the “best and brightest” foreign workers, the plan will authorize the granting of lawful permanent resident status to have received a Master’s or PhD degree from an American University in the Science, technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields. To protect existing US workers, the reform plan proposes to implement an accurate employment verification system and strictly punish US businesses that choose to hire unauthorized workers. Nonetheless, the Gang of Eight’s blueprint promises to provide for a safe and humane system for lesser-skilled workers to enter the country in the future, to avoid involvement with drug cartels and alien smugglers.
The leak of the Obama proposal, however, has aroused some animosity from the other side of the aisle and solicited immediate reaction from Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who issued a statement saying the plan would be “dead on arrival” and calling it “a mistake” for the White House to draft a plan without consulting with Republicans in Congress.
The White House proposal would allow illegal immigrants to become permanent residents within eight years, as well as create a lawful prospective immigrant visa, require employers to check the immigration status of workers and provide more border security funding. Nonetheless, the White House insists that its focus is to support the congressional process and that after the draft became public late Saturday, members of the administration reached out to Senators on both sides of the aisle.
* * *
Daniel P. Hanlon is a California State Bar Certified Specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law and a principal of Hanlon Law Group, PC, located at 225 S. Lake Ave., 11th Floor in Pasadena, California; Tel. No. (626) 585-8005. Hanlon Law Group, PC is a “full-service Immigration Law firm.” E-mail: [email protected] and www.hanlonlawgroup.com.
