Immigration issues - June 26, 2007 - M&M Senior Center

Immigration Attorney David Paruch Presenting

Immigration Issues – Based on a presentation by Attorney David Paruch to the Royal Oak Women’s Club at the M&M Senior Center on 26 June 2007.

Immigration issues currently facing the United Sates must address two separate categories of immigrants arriving in the country by different means and for different purposes. Immigration has always been the cornerstone of growth in the United States and a contentious issue of debate throughout the history of the United States. Who will be allowed in? How many will be allowed in? What will be expected of them when they get here? What are the criterion for setting limits and controls? These are some of the questions that we have struggled with for over 200 years. This presentation will present some of the background that has brought us to our current situation.

The first category of immigrant to be considered are legal immigrants working within the accepted systems of application, review and acceptance, and meeting the quotas set forth in various immigration bills passed by the Congress. The majority (~70%) of all immigrants to this country follow the rules and procedures set forth by the government to control the flow and characteristics of immigration.

The second and more problematic category are illegal immigrants, consisting of people clandestinely entering the country for personal benefit without detection, inspection or inclusion in the various information and social systems established to keep track of people. Many of these people are desparately impoverished and willing to risk all to enter this country and take advantage of the economic prosperity enjoyed in this country.

In addition to the two categories of immigration listed above, the United States economy has a market demand for two different qualities of immigrants. Skilled and Unskilled labor are in big demand in certain sectors of our economy.

Our technology and information sectors are always seeking brilliant scientists, engineers and computer specialists to drive the next wave of technological growth. Our immigration policy needs to be focused on making it easier for these people to enter the country in larger numbers than are currrently allowed.

Our agricultural and manufacturing sectors demand large numbers of unskilled workers capable of doing hard and dirty work. Most of the produce grown in the United States is picked by immigrant labor. Many of the packaging jobs created by the boom in internet commerce are filled by immigrant labor.

Scope of Immigration into the United States:

The number of immigrants entering the country over the last 20 years is based on solid data for legal immigrants and estimates of illegal immigrants. Legal Immigration status granted from 1986-2006, accounted for a net influx of 19,737,393 persons or an average of 940,000 persons per year. The United States has the largest absolute number of irregular (illegal) immigrants of any country in the world including 10 to 11 million persons or about 30 percent of its total foreign-born population living among us. Based on an estimate of approximately 2 million illegal immigrants in 1986 the country has experienced a net influx of about 9 million illegal immigrants during the 20-year period for an average of 450,000 per year.

Entry Methods for legal and illegal immigrants:

Legal immigrants follow a process of obtaining a visa and entering the country legally and then properly requesting citizenship after following all of the required steps and obligations. These people are accepted based on various identified quotas, which favor skilled individuals as well as those seeking political asylum. Many of these people wait for long periods prior to the issuance of a visa.

Illegal immigration has four main sources:

The first category is undocumented/unauthorized entrants who enter the country clandestinely. These people enter the country via land border, water crossing or air crossing. In all instances, the entrant manages to avoid detection and inspection. In the US, persons who use this type of entry account for about two-thirds of all illegally resident immigrants. Increasing proportions of such clandestine immigrants are smuggled or trafficked.

The second group includes violators of the duration of a visa. These include individuals who enter properly but "willfully" overstay their period of legal stay, thus lapsing into irregular status. Some estimates claim that up to 50% of all illegal immigrants enter via this method.

The third category includes individuals inspected upon entry, but admitted based on fraudulent documents. The fraud in question may involve the person's identity and/or the documentation in support of admission.

Finally, the fourth group includes violators of the terms and conditions of a visa, who enter with the proper documents and procedures, but at some point violate the terms of their visa. The most frequent such violation is the acceptance of employment.

Chronological summary of Immigration Laws of the United States:

The following list is a summary of the immigration policies of the United States as passed by the congress and signed into law by the president.

U.S. Constitution (1789) gave Congress the power to “establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization.”

Immigration Act of 1819 set standards for vessels bringing immigrants. Ship captains had to provide customs officials with a list of immigrants describing where they came from, where they were going, and their age, sex, and occupation. Passengers ill with contagious diseases had to be quarantined. States carried out the provisions of this law.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) granted U.S. citizenship to Mexicans living in the territory ceded by Mexico to the United States.

14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1868) guaranteed that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States . . . are citizens of the United States . . . .”

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) banned for 10 years Chinese immigration and eligibility for citizenship. The law was renewed in 1892 and 1892 and made permanent in 1902. It was not repealed until World War II.

Contract Labor Law of 1885 outlawed the practice of signing up foreign laborers to work in America for low wages. No immigrant could have a job or a promise of a job before landing.

Immigration Act of 1891 gave the job of processing immigrants to the federal government. Federal inspectors examined immigrants on arrival. The law also barred persons suffering from “loathsome or dangerous diseases,” those convicted of crimes involving “moral turpitude,” polygamists, and those whose passage was paid for by others. Those rejected for immigration were deported at the expense of the shipping companies.

Immigration Act of 1907 allowed the president to make an agreement with Japan to limit the number of Japanese immigrants. The law also barred the feebleminded, those with physical or mental defects, those suffering from tuberculosis, children under 16 without parents, and women entering for “immoral purposes.”

Immigration Act of 1917 banned all “aliens over sixteen years of age, physically capable of reading, who cannot read the English language, or some other language or dialect . . . .”

National Origins (First Quota) Act of 1921 limited the number of immigrants from any country to 3 percent of the foreign-born persons of that nationality living in the United States in 1910. This formula provided for relatively large immigrant quotas for Northern Europe and small quotas for Southern and Eastern Europe.

National Origins (Second Quota) Act of 1924 further discriminated against Southern and Eastern Europeans by limiting the number of immigrants from any country to 2 percent of foreign-born persons of that nationality living in the U.S. in 1890. Only 164,000 immigrants were to be admitted each year; this total was further reduced to 150,000 in 1929. The law also imposed new restrictions on Asian immigration.

Displaced Persons Act of 1948 allowed into the United States refugees from countries ravaged by World War II, but their entry was charged to the national quota limits established in 1924.

McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 maintained the quota system and limited immigration to 150,000 persons a year. In addition, refugees fleeing communist countries were admitted under special parole authority of the U.S. attorney general.

Immigration Act of 1965 abolished the national origins quota system. Preference is given to skilled persons and immigrants who are closely related to American citizens. After five years residency in the United States, immigrants may apply for naturalized citizenship.

Refugee Act of 1980 defined a “refugee” as any person leaving his or her own country because of a “well founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular group, or political opinion.”

Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 made it illegal for employers to knowingly hire illegal immigrants. It also set up a process to grant amnesty and legal papers to about 1.5 million undocumented people in the United States.

Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 authorized more Border Patrol agents and a triple fence along the San Diego border, made tougher penalties for smuggling people and creating fraudulent documents, and created an “expedited removal” process to remove anyone trying to enter the United States without proper documents. The law also extended the reasons for removal of illegal immigrants from 5+ year felonies to almost 40 different lower crimes.

USA Patriot Act of 2001 put immigration under the control of the newly created Department of Homeland Security and tripled the budget for Border Patrol agents along the Canadian border. It also opened criminal information databases to agents allowing more thorough background checks of potential immigrants.

Current legislation:

Recently in 2005-2006, the congress produced two bills H.R. 4477 and S. 2611 with the house version focusing on enforcement and border security and the Senate bill aimed at recognition and identification of illegal immigrants and allowing them opportunities to continue working in this country. The bills never came to conference and died, but a compromise bill would have included some of the provisions of both bills and might have included some of the following features.

The Comprehensive Immigration reform Act of 2006 would have created a citizenship path allowing illegal immigrants who had been in the country for more than five years, estimated to be 7 million in number, to apply for citizenship by paying fines and back taxes. Illegal aliens who had been in the country for 2 to 5 years, numbering around 3 million, would have been allowed to stay in the country without fear of deportation, but after 3 years would have to leave the U.S. and could apply for citizenship at border checkpoints. Those in the country for under 2 years would be required to return to their original nations. The Bill also included a new H-2C visa, or "blue card." This visa would have allowed employers to bring in outside (guest) workers for up to 6 years, after which the employee would have to spend one year in their original country. The Bill would also have included the following provisions: 370-700 miles of fencing along highly populated areas near the border, making English the national language, increasing the cap on H-1B work visas, lowered the standard for determining refugee status, allowing illegal immigrants to collect Social Security benefits that they had paid into the system.

The opponents to this Bill labeled it as another amnesty, allowing millions of illegal immigrants to bypass normal channels and gain citizenship through flouting the laws of our country. They complain that the bill does not provide enough enforcement of the existing laws and borders. Another major critiscism of the bill is that these people are breaking the law and being rewarded for it and they are taking jobs from hard working Americans.

The proponents point out that these immigrants are already here and working, paying taxes and social security, and doing many of the jobs that are beneath many current citizens. They point out the difficulty of rounding up 11 million people and deporting them. They point out the fact that this bill would identify and include 11 million people currently existing outside the system allowing them access to the American dream that they are helping to build with their labor.

Summary of the current legislation by David Paruch:

This bill should strive to attain the following five goals:

Secure the Borders (north and south)
Maintain Family unity during immigration
Allow market forces to guide immigration patterns (skilled and unskilled)
Relieve backlogs and restore judge’s discretion in refugee and removal cases
Skew the incoming population to highly skilled.

This bill does not address family or business market based needs.

This bill does not do it!

(The position and views of the speaker do not necessarily reflect the views of the Royal Oak Republican Women’s Club)

Questions and Answers:

1. What has been done to change the lax standards in issuing a Visa pre 9-11?

Since 9/11, they are in control. There about 90% denials at this time.

2. How can Welfare/Medicaid use by Illegal immigrants be changed for the better?

There were requirements for affidavits of support (1996) from employers and from sponsors. Gov’t can sue if support is not forthcoming. Need an infrastructure change to the support process.

3. What are we doing at the borders?

Emphasis is on human traffickers, gangs, sex rings.

4. What is the investor category all about?

United States started allowing investors into the country if they invest $1M and produce 10 jobs. This came about due to the Canadians inviting investors in also at $300K and five jobs.

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