RE-THINK IMMIGRATION
A Monday-through-Friday, non-partisan blog covering the most
contentious policy issue of our time: immigration.
Monday, June 29, 2009
The Schumer Seven
Posted By Cristina Noriega at 03:59 PM
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Since New York Senator Charles Schumer replaced ailing Edward Kennedy as the head of the Judiciary immigration subcommittee, he has been vocal about his ideas regarding comprehensive immigration reform.

Last Wednesday, at a speech at the Migration Policy Institute’s Sixth Annual Immigration Policy Conference, Schumer outlined seven principles that he believes could garner the Congressional support necessary to pass legislation. The principles, verbatim from his speech, are as follows:


1. Illegal immigration is wrong, and a primary goal of comprehensive immigration reform must be to dramatically curtail future illegal immigration.
 
2. Operational control of our borders--through significant additional increases in infrastructure, technology, and border personnel--must be achieved within a year of enactment of legislation.
 
3. A biometric-based employer verification system—with tough enforcement and auditing—is necessary to significantly diminish the job magnet that attracts illegal aliens to the United States and to provide certainty and simplicity for employers.
 
4. All illegal aliens present in the United States on the date of enactment of our bill must quickly register their presence with the United States Government—and submit to a rigorous process of converting to legal status and earning a path to citizenship—or face imminent deportation.
 
5. Family reunification is a cornerstone value of our immigration system.  By dramatically reducing illegal immigration, we can create more room for both family immigration and employment-based immigration.
 
6. We must encourage the world’s best and brightest individuals to come to the United States and create the new technologies and businesses that will employ countless American workers, but must discourage businesses from using our immigration laws as a means to obtain temporary and less-expensive foreign labor to replace capable American workers; and finally
 
7.  We must create a system that converts the current flow of unskilled illegal immigrants into the United States into a more manageable and controlled flow of legal immigrants who can be absorbed by our economy.
 

The Senator also said that legislation could be taken up later this year, but only if a crackdown on illegal immigration is given first priority. While I agree with some of Schumer’s principles, I have concerns about some of the wording, and the fact that they do not indicate just how the 12 million undocumented immigrants currentlyworking in America could obtain legal status.

Also important to note is that fact that the statements were made before the official White House meeting on immigration reform occured. After the White House meeting, Obama announced that Janet Napolitano woulld be leading a working group with members of both chambers to outline a bill, talk through the issue, and work out details. This being the case, it will be interesting to see how many of Schumer’s principles are reflected in the final legislation moving forward.

 


 



   
Comments
  said...

http://www.ed-hardy.cc/

June 30 , 2009 02:06:11 AM

  said...

June 30 , 2009 02:06:58 AM

  said...

Ahhhh....yet another skillfully crafted plan by the liberals to give amnesty to each illegal in the hopes of buying future votes.  The love story is disgustingly sweet, liberals and illegals what a romance story.

So do all the illegals in our prisons go through the same process so that once they are released they will be here legally.

A better idea would be for all of the illegals to leave and THEN start the process.  Maybe then we won't have the unemployment numbers we currently have.  California within about 2 years won't have the debt that they do....etc.

July 01 , 2009 08:07:54 AM

  said...

Please, shut the %&#@ up ukanthandelthe truth. I read in an earlier post that your parents were German and were ASHAMED to speak their native language. ASHAMED??? I too am from German decent but I am not ASHAMED! All you people that say that sh_t sound the same, but you know what? Your parents or grandparents came from the other side of the world to live here because they wanted a better life. If not...they would have stayed where the fu_k they were. Entonces (<---espanol for so; I'm married to a Mexican woman) Quit griping and do something about it or like I said before, shut the %&#@ up!!!      Ich bin der kraut mit der grossen schnitzel.

July 02 , 2009 06:07:38 PM

  said...

 It's really too bad that people get lost in their  "one-sided" view rather than looking at the whole picture.  I am a Hispanic US citizen living in the middle each and every day.  On the "labor" side of things, if you were out there every day being part of this process you would understand that there is no "replacement" for  hispanic labor in terms of production.  Employers are going to always use what works for them in terms of deadlines, timelines...etc.   US workers (even though, a US citizen myself) cannot compete with that in a lot of trades.   So I don't know what is going to take place in the future but I still feel that part of the solution is to issue temporary permits to a lot of those working in these fields and in many construction trades, even if for 8 mos. to a year to just come out here and do part of the work that US labor cannot ever compete with.  

Another thing that people sometimes don't understand is that maybe 50% of Hispanics come out here just to supplement incomes they couldn't possibly obtain in their home countries because these areas are just victims of poverty and are plain uneducated at that.  Not all people are the same, and not all situations are the same.  I'm sure that if they even just had a permit to work temporarily and send some money back home that this would be enough for a lot of them.  A lot of them will eventually return to their home countries anyway after having made some money here in the US.  if given the opportunity, they would prefer to be in their country as long as they had a home and food to put on the table.  So I don't think all immigrants are taking jobs away from americans intentionally, they are just doing some jobs better than americans can and have in the past.

My hope is that they find a solution somewhere in between.  I don't have tolerance for people committing crimes and breaking other sever laws.  They are breaking the law by being here illegally but that's why there should be an immigration reform so that they don't break laws.

August 13 , 2009 09:08:57 AM