“Members of the Gang of Eight say their immigration reform bill will not add a dime to the nation’s deficit. That anticipated Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score will defy conservative policy experts who recently claimed the measure would cost trillions of dollars,” The Hill reports.

“The budget office has announced it will depart from its usual practice and apply a dynamic scoring model to estimate the costs of the law over the next decade. This is good news for the Gang of Eight because the model will factor in the expected economic boost provided by millions of new legal workers. Projecting higher tax revenue from increased economic activity will produce a more favorable budgetary outlook.”

Poll Says Public Wants Border Security First

“Most American voters want tougher new border security measures before changing immigration policies. A Fox News national poll released Wednesday also shows a majority favors giving illegal immigrants already in the United States a chance to qualify for citizenship. On Tuesday, a Senate committee passed an immigration reform bill that would create a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. The bill would also strengthen border security. It now goes to the full Senate for a vote,” Fox News reports.

Boehner Says House Immigration Deal Will Happen

“House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Thursday he’s confident the House will “work its will on immigration” reform and come to a deal — he’s just not sure how,” the Huffington Post says.

“‘We’re not going to be stampeded by the White House or stampeded by the president,’ Boehner said at a press conference. ‘The Senate is working its will, a lot of good work that’s going on over there, but the House will work its will. Don’t ask me how, because if I knew I’d certainly tell you, but the House is going to work its will.’”

Rep. Labrador Says Obamacare Will Kill Amnesty

“A key House Republican negotiator on immigration is warning Democrats that the health care law – a favorite boogeyman of the GOP – could be the downfall of comprehensive immigration reform. ‘What might be the story at the end of this year, at the end of this session, is that Obamacare killed immigration reform,’ Rep. Raul Labrador said Wednesday. The Idaho Republican is one of eight House lawmakers who have engaged in private talks on immigration reform,” Politico reports.

“House Democratic leaders are uneasy with the idea of blocking undocumented immigrants from accessing publicly-subsidized care – such as health coverage if they have to be treated in an emergency room. That could have the effect of deporting the immigrants if they can’t afford those expenses, Democrats worry.”

Rep. Goodlatte Says Amnesty Bill Won’t Stop Illegal Immigration

“House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte leveled several criticisms of the Senate Gang of Eight bill on Wednesday, saying the legislation ultimately will not stem the flow of illegal immigration to the United States. Those remarks from Goodlatte — who will be a central figure in whether immigration reform is enacted — were his most critical yet on the landmark Senate legislation, which passed the Judiciary Committee Tuesday night on a bipartisan 13-5 vote,” Politco writes.

“Reflecting the concern of many House and Senate conservatives, Goodlatte said he was not convinced the Gang bill would sufficiently secure the border. The Senate legislation requires a series of security benchmarks before undocumented immigrants can transition into a provisional status and, a decade later, obtain a green card.”

Below is a list of key amendments offered during the hearing that would have improved the bill, but were ultimately rejected.

Title I

Cornyn 1: Revises border security provisions to:

1. require DHS and the Comptroller General to determine the borders are secure before permitting illegal aliens amnestied (receiving “registered provisional immigrant” status) to receive a green card;
2. require DHS to achieve 90% apprehension rate along all border sectors;
3. require DHS to develop and utilize new and improved border metrics;
4. authorize the border commission created under the bill to act as an advisory panel to the Secretary of DHS immediately following enactment (rather than taking over in 5 years if Secretary fails to meet goals); and
5. require DHS to develop a plan to decrease wait times at ports of entry, including by requiring the addition of 10,000 CBP officers, no less than 5,000 of which are mandated to be border patrol officers.

Cruz 1: Prevents illegal aliens from obtaining amnesty until the DHS Secretary:

1. triples the number of border patrol agents along the Southern border;
2. quadruples the number of drones, cameras, helicopters, and other equipment along the border;
3. completes the remainder of the border fence as mandated by the Secure Fence Act of 2006;
4. develops real-time information sharing w/ the DOH and all federal law enforcement agencies;
5. completes and fully implements the biometric US-VISIT entry-exit system; and
6. establishes operational control over 100% of the Southern border. If the DHS Secretary fails to substantially comply w/ all requirements w/in 3 years, the Department’s political appointees’ salaries will be cut by 20 percent and given in the form of block grants to Southern border states.

Grassley 4: Requires DHS Secretary to submit to Congress certification that the Southern border has been under “effective control” for at least 6 months before the Secretary can begin processing applications for amnesty (“registered provisional immigrant” status). Requires the 90% apprehension rate goal be met in all border sectors, not just those deemed “high risk.”

Lee 4: Requires the House of Representatives to vote to determine whether the DHS Secretary has achieved the goals in the Secretary’s border security and fencing plans before the Secretary can process applications for illegal aliens to gain amnesty (“registered provisional immigrant” status) or a subsequent green card.

Sessions 4: Requires the use of a biometric entry-exit system at all ports of entry before the DHS Secretary may adjust the status of RPIs to LPRs.

Sessions 9: Requires the completion of a double-layered border fence along the Southern border, replacing the DHS Secretary’s optional border fencing strategy.

Sessions 11: Ensures that “effective control” of the border encompasses all unlawful entries into the U.S., using the definition of operational control as under the Secure Fence Act of 2006.

Title II

Cruz 2: Prohibits aliens from receiving Federal, State, or local means-tested benefits while not in lawful status.

Cruz 3: Prohibits amnestied illegal aliens from receiving U.S. citizenship.

Lee 8: Prohibits absconders or illegal aliens attempting to reenter after receiving a deportation order from qualifying for RPI status.

Lee 10: Requires illegal aliens pay all back taxes, penalties, and fines before eligible for RPI status.

Lee 12: Prohibits the use of sworn affidavits for employment verification for RPIs seeking to adjust to LPR status.

Sessions 30: Amends the Internal Revenue Code to limit the additional child tax credit to citizens and LPRs.

Title III

Grassley 29: Requires all businesses regardless of size to use the electronic employment authorization system to verify work eligibility of new hires w/in 18 months of enactment.

Grassley 35: Allows state and local E-Verify laws to stay in place until the program is implemented and used nationwide.

Grassley 43: Makes it more difficult for criminal street gang members to gain amnesty; strips DHS Secretary of the authority granted to her to waive gang members into the amnesty.

Grassley 47: Strikes provision from bill making it more difficult to detain criminal aliens.

Grassley 52: Prevents certain changes to the asylum program from taking effect until the Director of National Intelligence submits to Congress a report on the U.S. Government’s handling of the Boston Marathon bombings, including the intelligence and immigration failures leading up to the attack. The changes put on hold include the provision eliminating the requirement those seeking asylum declare their intent to file w/in 1-yr of arriving the United States.

Sessions 31: Amends the Internal Revenue Code to limit the Earned Income Tax Credit to U.S. citizens and LPRs.

Sessions 32: Among other things, affirms in Fed law that state and local law enforcement have inherent authority to assist in the enforcement of fed immigration law.

Title IV

Grassley 56: Strikes the provision waiving for “low-risk” applicants the requirement under current law that all individuals (with the exception of those below age 14 and above age 79) seeking a visa be subject to an in-person interview.

Grassley 60: Requires all employers using H-1Bs (instead of only H-1B-dependent employers) to attest that they made good faith efforts to recruit U.S. workers first.

Grassley 67: Requires annual audits of one percent of employers employing H-1B and L-nonimmigrant workers.

Grassley Second Degree #1 to Hatch-Schumer Second Degree to Hatch 10: Requires all employers make a good-faith attempt to recruit U.S. workers before using H-1Bs.

Sessions 1: Among other things, revises the immigrant visa system and caps the number of green cards per year at 1.2 million. Caps the number of nonimmigrant visas at 1 million per year with 169,000 guaranteed to go to certain nonimmigrant categories.

Sessions 6: States changes made to the Visa Waiver Program (use of visa overstay rate to determine Visa Waiver Program eligibility) under bill would not take effect until the biometric entry-exit system is fully implemented.

Or, one might think that the highest priority of the labor movement would be representing the interests of union members, negotiating salaries, benefits and working conditions on their behalf.

Or, perhaps, one might think that given that real wages for American workers have stagnated over the past 40 years and declined for lower skilled workers, despite significant productivity increases, that improving the wages of American workers might be the top priority for the labor movement.

But, no, none of objectives tops the list of priorities for the AFL-CIO. The highest priority for the labor movement is amnesty for illegal aliens, according to a statement by Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO. “The labor movement has no higher priority in 2013 than a workable immigration system that will allow 11 million aspiring Americans to become citizens,” Trumka said on May 21.

Given the ALF-CIO’s self-proclaimed priorities, perhaps it is time that they cease calling themselves a labor union and register as an immigration advocacy lobbying organization.

California
Assembly Bill 4, the anti-detainer bill so-called the “trust act,” passed the Assembly (44-22) on May 16 and was introduced in the Senate and referred to the Rules Committee for assignment.
Assembly Bill 35, which grants ID cards and unemployment benefits to DACA recipients, passed the Appropriations Committee (14-3) on May 15 and is up for second reading.

Nevada
Senate Bill 303, which grants driver authorization cards to illegal aliens, passed the Senate (20-1) on May 20. The card is valid for one year and cannot be used for ID purposes. Identity can be proven by foreign passport, foreign birth certificate, consular ID card, or any other proof the Department deems acceptable. The card cannot be used to determine eligibility for any state benefits, licenses or services.

The bill also contains a provision that prevents the Director of the Department of Motor Vehicles from communicating the immigration status of any person who holds a driver authorization card to any person or federal, state or local governmental entity for the purpose of immigration enforcement.

New York
Senate Bill 5444, which grants driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, was introduced on May 16 and was referred to the Transportation Committee. The bill amends current law to allow proof of identity by foreign passports (visa stamps not required) and consular IDs. The bill state eligibility for a driver’s license shall not be conditioned on a particular immigration status.

Senate Bill 5346, which requires all employers, public and private, and public contractors to use E-Verify, was introduced on May 15 and has been referred to the Civil Service and Pensions Committee. New York currently has no statewide E-Verify law.

North Carolina
House Bill 786, an omnibus immigration-related bill that guts North Carolina’s E-Verify law and grants driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, passed the Finance Committee.

Ohio
House Bill 114, would amend Ohio’s driver’s license statutes to prevent deferred action recipients, including DACA, from receiving driver’s licenses, was heard on Tuesday, May 21 before the House Transportation, Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee.

Resolution No. 2013-01
The Ohio Latin Affairs Commission has passed a resolution (No. 2013-01) asking the Board of Regents to allow DACA recipients to obtain in-state tuition rates and financial aid in accordance with Ohio statute and regulation.

Texas
Senate Bill 361, which requires magistrates to inform defendants of the immigration consequences of their plea, failed to pass third reading by a vote of 60-86.

Last night the bill got worse.

With a final vote of 13-5, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved sending S.744 to be considered by the entire Senate.  

Backed by the White House, Senate leadership from both parties vowed to act on this bill as early as Monday, June 3. That’s just 10 days from now!

With only days to fight this, your help is critical in stopping the Gang of Eight legislation! Before the Memorial Day weekend starts, will you  e-mail your U.S. Senator today and tell him or her to oppose S.744?

 The bill might be called “immigration reform” but these “reforms” only gut border security and law enforcement and open the door for more than 34 million immigrants to come to the U.S. over the next decade.

With the media and pro-amnesty supporters from both political parties hammering the Senate, many U.S. Senators are on the fence about this bill, including some who voted against amnesty in 2006 and 2007.

Does this sound like “immigration reform” to you? Consider what the bill does:

• Only requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to submit a plan to secure the borders in order to start amnesty for the estimated 11-12 million illegal aliens in the U.S.

• Allows members of street gangs and criminals to receive amnesty.

• Permits illegal aliens to sue the government for amnesty, but does not require them to pay back-taxes or learn English.

• Allows the open borders and pro-amnesty lobbies to stop enforcement measures by filing lawsuits.

• Essentially halts all deportations by allowing every intercepted illegal alien to apply for amnesty and prohibits their deportation until the application is adjudicated.

• U.S. taxpayers will be forced to pay for legal fees incurred while illegal alien fights deportation at the Attorney General’s sole and unreviewable discretion.

• Fast-tracks green cards and citizenship to illegal aliens after just five years if they claim to have entered the U.S. before the age of 16 and meet certain criteria.

“On Sunday, police in Houston arrested Andres Munos-Munos, 23, after he reportedly ran through a red light on Little York at N. Shepherd, crashing into a pickup truck driven by 47-year-old Harris County Deputy Sheriff Dwayne Polk,” the Examiner reports.

“Deputy Polk was on his way home from work and died at the scene. Polk had been with the sheriff’s office for 16 years, reaching the rank of sergeant. The illegal alien charged with his death actually has a serious criminal record and should have been deported last year.”

National Review – Gang of Eight Bill Wrong Solution

“If there is an upside to the debate unfolding over the Gang of Eight’s immigration-reform bill, it is this: The simplistic version of the conversation — pro-immigration vs. anti-immigration — has been supplanted by a more relevant set of questions: How many new immigrants? Of what sort? On what timeline? Under what conditions? It is good that these questions are being asked — but the answers coming from Congress are anything but reassuring,” says a National Review editorial.

“One need not accept the wrongheaded dystopian views of the Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus to believe that there is some number that is too high, and one need not hew to an exclusively economic view of the question to conclude that some immigrants will be more desirable for the purposes of a nation with a highly complex modern economy than others. This bill would create more than 30 million new legal immigrants in the next ten years, including the 11 million illegals already here; with the new arrivals added to current immigration trends, nearly one in five Americans would be foreign-born.”

Who Are Schumer’s Republicans?

“Many on the right have remarked on the delicious video of Senator Chuck Schumer at yesterday’s Judiciary Committee markup of the amnesty bill saying “Do our Republicans have a pass on this one if they want?” with regard to one of the amendments being considered. But the comment is about more than the jockeying over one amendment. All members of the GOP caucus in the Senate who end up voting for S. 744 are as a practical matter Chuck Schumer’s Republicans,” says CIS Executive Director Mark Krikorian.

Big Loopholes in Amnesty Bill

“About those strict new rules and requirements for border security set forth in the Gang of Eight’s immigration proposal: They’re not so tough after all. In fact, the 867-page mega-bill gives the secretary of homeland security pretty much carte blanche to waive the vast majority of the requirements detailed in the bill. And that’s not sitting very well with the folks charged with enforcing immigration law,” says Hans von Spakovsky at National Review.

“What the bill really says, then, is that people living in the country illegally can receive amnesty not when the border is actually secured but when the secretary tells Congress that she is starting to try to secure the border. That’s a loophole big enough to drive a tractor-trailer truck full of illegal immigrants through.”