Immigrationists break out the Champagne

Date: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 5:52 PM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1584 -- 10/08/2006 >>>>>

It's not taking the immigration lobby long to celebrate the elections.

This newsletter contains some analysis from the Immigration Lawyers
website. The last one is an excerpt from the immigration law firm "Walker
and Ungo".

Put this stuff together and a picture starts emerging. The cheap labor is
gathering their forces for a major push for the Skil Bill during the "lame
duck" session of Congress.

Folks, the storm clouds are rising very quickly!

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November 9, 2006

http://www.ilw.com/immigdaily/digest/2006,1109.shtm

Election Sets Stage For Exciting Times Ahead

The capture of the House (and probably the Senate, too) by the Democratic
Party fulfills many dreams for the pro-immigrationists. Perhaps the best
news of all is that Mr. Tancredo's caucus has been decimated, losing as
many as 20 of its members (see article below by Greg Siskind). The loss of
these stalwart anti-immigrationists certainly makes the stance of even the
new Republican caucus less harsh on immigration than before.

Democratic advocates of comprehensive immigration legislation won many
contests yesterday:

Arizona: In House races, Ms. Giffords beat pro-vigilante candidate Randy
Graf by a convincing margin, and Mr. Mitchell defeated extremist incumbent
J. D. Hayworth.
Colorado: Elected were Mr. Ritter for Governor and Mr. Perlmutter to the
House.
Pennsylvania: Mr. Casey defeated immigration extremist Rick Santorum in the
Senate race by a thumping margin.
Showing that Republicans can win with a pro-immigration message, Mr.
Schwarzenegger was handily re-elected as Governor of the deep-blue state of
California in the midst of the Democratic wave.
But the best news of all comes from NumbersUSA, the staunchly
anti-immigration (not anti-immigrant) organization which is a loud voice on
the Hill arguing for a Fortress America. Quotes from a message intended to
shore up the falling spirits of its anti-immigrationist supporters speak
for themselves:

" ... Nearly everything about our cause got more difficult. We lost a lot
of really good allies, and a few true champions ... We have been thrown
into even more of a defensive mode than before ... Rather than weakening
Pres. Bush's resolve and ability to enact horrible expansions of
immigration and rewards for illegal immigration, the Republicans' loss of
the House seems to have emboldened the President. The White House already
sees a silver lining in having caused Republicans to lose control of the
House: It was the House Republicans who blocked Pres. Bush's immigration
plans. White House aides were saying through the late evening that one good
thing for the President is that, without a Republican majority, Pres. Bush
may be able to push through his massive foreign labor importation plan with
Democratic Speaker Pelosi's help. You could almost hear the glee in those
White House reports that Republican Hastert will no longer be in the
Speaker's chair."
So, is comprehensive immigration legislation in the bag? In "Immigration
and the 110th Congress" (see article below) Greg Siskind believes that it
is likely (some, however, are not so sure). We believe that for the
long-suffering immigrant community, some relief may be at hand.

We welcome readers to share their opinion and ideas with us by writing to
editor@ilw.com.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.ilw.com/articles/2006,1109-siskind.shtm

Immigration and the 110th Congress
by Gregory Siskind

The Democratic Party has won twice as many seats as needed to take over the
US House of Representatives and seem to be in a position to take over the
US Senate as well in a stunning defeat for the Republican Party. In
January, the 100th Congress will be sworn in and new leaders will be chosen
to run committees which focus on immigration legislation.

Immigration was set to be the Republicans secret political weapon this
year, but a funny thing happened on the way to the election. While most
Republicans promoted tough immigration positions that emphasized strong
enforcement and an opposition to any kind of relief for undocumented
immigrants, voters generally rejected this hard-line approach and supported
candidates more likely to support comprehensive immigration reform
proposals.

The most telling evidence of this is the fact that Tom Tancredo's
anti-immigrant Immigration Reform Caucus (comprised of 101 Republicans and
2 Democrats) had a horrible evening yesterday. As many as 20 of its members
will be gone in the next Congress. (See further details below)

The rejection of the anti-immigrant message was seen in the overwhelming
defeat of John Hostettler (R-IN), the chairman of the House Immigration
Subcommittee. Hostettler lost 61% to 39%, a landslide by any definition. He
made immigration his major issue and touted his record as rejecting any
form of relief for the undocumented immigrant.

Another high profile anti-immigrant Congressman to go down in defeat was
J.D. Hayworth, the Arizona Republican who frequently is seen on national
television discussing immigration. In another Arizona race, Randy Graf lost
by a large margin to Gabrielle Giffords to take over the seat of Jim Kolbe.
Graf, a Minuteman, not surprisingly took a number of extremely tough
immigration positions including opposing US citizenship for children born
in the US to non-citizens, opposition to earned legalization for
undocumented immigrants, and supporting of the CLEAR Act, a bill with
numerous provisions removing due process rights for immigrants.

Kolbe noted that the anti-immigration strategy of Republicans like Graf was
actually hurting the GOP. Kolbe told the Tucson Citizen newspaper "The
focus on immigration hurt Republicans. They need to focus on key issues
such as terrorism and economic growth."

That's not to say the message was totally one-sided. Arizona voters also
approved several messages that limit rights for undocumented immigrants
including

" Prohibiting bail for those who commit felonies
" Barring undocumented immigrants from receiving punitive damages in civil
lawsuits
" Requiring all official business to be conducted only in English
" Limiting access to public services

But Arizona voters' support of these measures might be misread to indicate
that voters have no interest in measures reforming the immigration system.
In fact, voters appear to simultaneously support making it tougher to get
into the country illegally and limiting rights for undocumented immigrants
while at the same time supporting measures to make it possible for the
undocumented to legalize their status. That is basically the position of
Arizona's Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano who won re-election last
night by a large margin despite strong opposition from the anti-immigrant
right wing.

So where does this leave immigration legislation? There is a possibility
that Congress could take up at least some immigration legislation in the
"lame duck" session that will start next Monday and go on for a few weeks
after that. Pro-immigration groups have been pushing for passage of the
SKIL Act during the interim session. This legislation would increase the
number of H-1B visas and also make more employment-based permanent
residency visas available. But the soon to be exiting House leadership will
need to decide if it wants to move on this while it still has some power or
pass on it until the Democrats take over.

The 110th House of Representatives is likely to have a much different
attitude on immigration issues than the 109th. For the last twelve years,
the House Judiciary Committee and its Immigration Subcommittee have been
chaired by a number of virulently anti-immigration Congressmen. House
Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensensbrenner's name is synonymous with
being anti-immigration and the combination of Hostettler and Sensenbrenner
have ensured that very little pro-immigration legislation has passed in the
last few years. This is the case even though the GOP overall is much less
anti-immigrant than the Judiciary Committee. In fact, if a measure like the
Senate's comprehensive immigration reform bill were voted on by the entire
House of Representatives, it would very possibly have passed.

The election will have a less profound effect on the US Senate (assuming it
changes hands as now appears likely). The US Senate's Republican members
have generally been moderate on immigration issues as was evidenced by its
passage of the bipartisan immigration reform bill last may.

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) is likely to take over the
Immigration Subcommittee and John Conyers (R-MI) is should be the next
chair of the Judiciary Committee. Both are strongly pro-immigrant and have
long track records on this issue. On the Senate side, it is less clear who
will take over the relevant immigration committees, though the odds are
quite good that the new chair will be strongly pro-immigration. Nancy
Pelosi will likely take on the position of Speaker of the House and Harry
Reid will assume the position of Senate Majority Leader. Each has a strong
record in support of comprehensive immigration reform.

Expect comprehensive immigration reform legislation to be re-introduced
early in the next Congress. The legislation could move quickly since
Democrats will be able to get the bills easily passed in friendlier
subcommittees and enough pro-immigration Republicans should sign on to
easily pass the bills. President Bush has strongly pushed for a
comprehensive immigration bill and Democratic leaders will likely be
interested in passing something quickly that will not be vetoed by the
President. And the President is likely to see immigration reform as one of
the few areas where he can enjoy success legislatively. It seems ironic
that it will take a Democratic Congress to give Bush this victory.

Editor's Note: The following item is from Mr. Siskind's blog posted @ 12:41
AM CT on November 8th.

TANCREDO'S ANTI-IMMIGRATION CAUCUS DECIMATED
You'll read tomorrow about the Democrats big win in the House (and possible
the Senate). You probably won't read about how badly anti-immigrants in the
House have done this evening. Between retirements and losses, at least 11
and as many as 20 hardcore anti-immigrant Congressman will be gone in
January. They include

Bass (R-NH)
Beauprez (R-CO)
Bradley (R-NH)
Gutknecht (R-MN)
Hayworth (R-AZ)
Heffley (R-CO)
Hyde (R-IL)
Ryun (R-KS)
Taylor (R-NC)
Sweeney (R-NY)

And another several races are too close to call including

Bilbray (R-CA)
Cubin (R-WY)
Doolittle (R-CA)
Drake (R-VA)
Kuhl (R-NY)
Musgrave (R-CO)
Otter (R-ID)
Renzi (R-AZ)
Schmidt (R-OH)

No matter what is said after this election, the American public spoke and
made it clear that they do not buy the anti-immigrant rhetoric of some in
Congress. Not a single pro-immigrant Congressman lost to an anti-immigrant
opponent as far as I can tell.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.immigrationpage.com/recentnews.php

[October 18, 2006]

Lame Duck Session in Congress to Offer Final Chance for H-1B and EB Relief

The H-1B blackout and employment-based (EB) green card backlogs are bad for
business and must be rectified. The post-election "lame duck" session will
offer Congress a final chance this year to fix the restrictive cap on H-1B
visas and alleviate the employment-based (EB) green card backlog.
Legislators will be unlikely to take action, however, unless American
businesses, hospitals, and universities demand it. If you or your employer
depend on H-1B visas or EB green cards, please advocate for the legislative
fix you need.

Please send a personalized letter to their legislators calling for H-1B and
EB relief. Download this model letter and add specific examples of
limitations imposed by the H-1B cap and EB green card backlogs. Then print
on company letterhead and fax to it your Representatives in Congress. You
can also visit the American Immigration Lawyers Association' s (AILA)
Contact Congress page and send a letter to your legislators urging them to
provide H-1B and EB relief during the lame duck session.

In addition, we encourage you to add your company name to the AILA
coordinated letter that will be sent to each member of Congress urging an
increase in the H-1B quota and relief from EB backlogs. This is a great way
for you to discreetly educate policy makers about the adverse impacts of
the cap and express your support for reform.

Thank you in advance for your help on this important issue!

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