This blog provides news and views on U.S. Immigration Law and Policy. It discusses recent developments in Immigration Law and invites user comments and questions. The Blog will be updated and Attorney Kamana Mathur will respond to questions on a weekly basis.
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By Kamana Mathur
April 25, 2010
In recent days, Immigration has become a hot button issue. It evokes passionate and heated debate in arenas as diverse as our classrooms, coffee shops, and our neighborhoods. Why? Immigration impacts the fabric of our being – it impacts our jobs, security, and lifestyle.
The draconian immigration enforcement law enacted in Arizona on April 23rd smacks of a desperate attempt to appease the fears and concerns of those who believe that immigrants are taking away our jobs and responsible for spiraling crime. Undoubtedly, with its vast border with Mexico, Arizona has become an avenue of choice for Mexicans willing to forsake everything for the opportunity of a better life.
They come here for jobs and a better future for their children. Lack of jobs and economic opportunity in Mexico is indeed the driving cause of illegal immigration to the U.S. The vast majority work long hours for low wages with no benefits to keep prices low for Americans.
But it is inevitable that in a period of high unemployment and job scarcity, Americans want to stop immigration, legal or illegal. They assume things will be better if there are fewer immigrants. While economic studies on the impact of immigration demonstrate that immigration has enhanced rather than drained our economy because immigrants have started businesses, invested in our economy, paid taxes, and actually created jobs, the sentiment against illegal immigration is understandable. We are a nation of laws. Even the vast numbers of individuals waiting years on end to enter the country legally do not support “legalization” programs that would make their wait even longer.
Despite this, the Arizona law is not the way to go. It simply makes no economic sense for a state with a $3 billion deficit. The cost of enforcement, defending civil rights lawsuits, and lost revenue and jobs is likely to be several billion dollars.
Prince William County, Virginia failed to implement the police enforcement portion of a 2007 immigration ordinance after they found that the price tag would be $14 million over five years. Worse yet, catching and deporting illegal immigrants does not end it – they simply come back. An overwhelming number of illegal immigrants who have been deported reentered and were back at their jobs within weeks.
Catching and deporting illegal workers would result in lost revenue and jobs. A recent University of Arizona’s Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy study estimated that the total economic contribution of Arizona’s immigrant workers was $44 billion in 2004, which sustained roughly 400,000 full-time jobs. The Perryman Group has estimated that if all unauthorized immigrants were removed from Arizona, the state would lose $26.4 billion in economic activity, $11.7 billion in gross state product, and approximately 140,324 jobs. The cost of defending civil rights lawsuits should also be a concern.
The requirement that law enforcement officers question a person about his or her immigration status if there is “reasonable suspicion” that the person may be illegally in the country opens a hornet’s nest in terms of racial profiling and civil rights violations. Asked what criteria will be used to establish reasonable suspicion of someone’s legal status, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said, “I don’t know. I do not know what an illegal immigrant looks like.” This begets the question: do we simply live with this? Can we do nothing?
We can and should pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform that provides an avenue for immigrants to legally work in the U.S. to build our economy, invest, and create jobs. Doing so will help keep jobs in America by making outsourcing less attractive.
At the same time, we must strengthen our borders and make employers accountable for hiring illegal immigrants. Illegal immigration is largely an economic issue – the undocumented come here to find jobs. Quite simply, if they can’t find jobs, they will not come.
Senators Schumer and Graham have prepared an outline for immigration reform that offers a fair, bi-partisan approach to fixing our immigration policy. It focuses on cracking down on illegal immigration while providing more opportunities for highly trained professionals and hard-working immigrants to come to America and contribute to our society and our economy. I believe we can get this one through Congress, unlike previous failed attempts to pass reform bills. An article from today’s Washington Post is attached.
The right way to mend immigration
The Washington Post
By Charles E. Schumer and Lindsey O. Graham
Friday, March 19, 2010
Our immigration system is badly broken. Although our borders have become far more secure in recent years, too many people seeking illegal entry get through. We have no way to track whether the millions who enter the United States on valid visas each year leave when they are supposed to. And employers are burdened by a complicated system for verifying workers’ immigration status.
Last week we met with President Obama to discuss our draft framework for action on immigration. We expressed our belief that America’s security and economic well-being depend on enacting sensible immigration policies.
The answer is simple: Americans overwhelmingly oppose illegal immigration and support legal immigration. Throughout our history, immigrants have contributed to making this country more vibrant and economically dynamic. Once it is clear that in 20 years our nation will not again confront the specter of another 11 million people coming here illegally, Americans will embrace more welcoming immigration policies.
Our plan has four pillars: requiring biometric Social Security cards to ensure that illegal workers cannot get jobs; fulfilling and strengthening our commitments on border security and interior enforcement; creating a process for admitting temporary workers; and implementing a tough but fair path to legalization for those already here.
Besides border security, ending illegal immigration will also require an effective employment verification system that holds employers accountable for hiring illegal workers. A tamper-proof ID system would dramatically decrease illegal immigration, experts have said, and would reduce the government revenue lost when employers and workers here illegally fail to pay taxes.
We would require all U.S. citizens and legal immigrants who want jobs to obtain a high-tech, fraud-proof Social Security card. Each card’s unique biometric identifier would be stored only on the card; no government database would house everyone’s information. The cards would not contain any private information, medical information, nor tracking devices. The card will be a high-tech version of the Social Security card that citizens already have.
Prospective employers would be responsible for swiping the cards through a machine to confirm a person’s identity and immigration status. Employers who refused to swipe the card or who otherwise knowingly hired unauthorized workers would face stiff fines and, for repeat offenses, prison sentences.
We propose a zero-tolerance policy for gang members, smugglers, terrorists and those who commit other felonies after coming here illegally. We would bolster recent efforts to secure our borders by increasing the Border Patrol’s staffing and funding for infrastructure and technology. More personnel would be deployed to the border immediately to fill gaps in apprehension capabilities.
Other steps include expanding domestic enforcement to better apprehend and deport those who commit crimes and completing an entry-exit system that tracks people who enter the United States on legal visas and reports those who overstay their visas to law enforcement databases.
Ending illegal immigration, however, cannot be the sole objective of reform. Developing a rational legal immigration system is essential to ensuring America’s future economic prosperity.
Ensuring economic prosperity requires attracting the world’s best and brightest. Our legislation would award green cards to immigrants who receive a PhD or master’s degree in science, technology, engineering or math from a U.S. university. It makes no sense to educate the world’s future inventors and entrepreneurs and then force them to leave when they are able to contribute to our economy.
Our blueprint also creates a rational system for admitting lower-skilled workers. Our current system prohibits lower-skilled immigrants from coming here to earn money and then returning home. Our framework would facilitate this desired circular migration by allowing employers to hire immigrants if they can show they were unsuccessful in recruiting an American to fill an open position; allowing more lower-skilled immigrants to come here when our economy is creating jobs and fewer in a recession; and permitting workers who have succeeded in the workplace, and contributed to their communities over many years, the chance to earn a green card.
For the 11 million immigrants already in this country illegally, we would provide a tough but fair path forward. They would be required to admit they broke the law and to pay their debt to society by performing community service and paying fines and back taxes. These people would be required to pass background checks and be proficient in English before going to the back of the line of prospective immigrants to earn the opportunity to work toward lawful permanent residence.
The American people deserve more than empty rhetoric and impractical calls for mass deportation. We urge the public and our colleagues to join our bipartisan efforts in enacting these reforms.
Charles E. Schumer is a Democratic senator from New York. Lindsey O. Graham is a Republican senator from South Carolina.
By Kamana Mathur
MathurLaw LLC
On December 16, Rep. Gutierrez introduced a Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) Bill, HR 4321, called the “Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009” (CIR ASAP). The Bill aims to encourage legal immigration by making more visas available to U.S. educated advanced-degree professionals or those possessing a critically needed skill. It also treats spouses of permanent residents on par with spouses of U.S. Citizens, going a long way to eliminating the long separation that spouses and families of Green Card holders must often endure. At the same time, the Bill seeks to deter illegal immigration by increasing penalties for employers who willfully flout immigration laws in their hiring process and also steps up border security. The Bill also includes a path to legalization for those undocumented workers who have lived, worked, and paid taxes here, involving payment of fines and waiting six years before becoming eligible for permanent residency.
Passage of this Bill will not be easy. Controversial provisions such as the path to legalization for undocumented workers were responsible for the failure of similar bills introduced in previous years. The time is ripe to pass a common sense bill that will keep families together, discourage illegal immigration, and allow the hardworking and talented individuals that form the backbone of our nation to live and work here and contribute to America’s innovation, technical leadership, and financial security. While there are valid arguments on both sides of the legalization issue, passing legislation that will prevent husbands and wives and parents and children from being separated for years on end is just common sense – it’s the American way. I urge you to contact your Congressman and Senator and let them know that you support legislation that would unite families and encourage legal immigration.
By Kamana Mathur, Esq.
MathurLaw LLC
Given the current recession, immigration reform has taken a back seat to bailout plans, energy independence, the war in the Middle East, and practically everything else. With the increasing number of jobless Americans, how can we as a nation justify immigrant-friendly policies? Immigration has always been a subject of heated debate. We have accused immigrants of taking away American jobs, increasing crime, and fundamentally changing our way of life. Economists have long argued the opposite – that immigrants by taking jobs U.S. workers are unwilling or unable to do, make us a more productive and competitive nation. Immigrants come here to make a life for themselves and their families. They work hard, pay taxes, and try to fit in.
The bottom line at a time of high-unemployment is this: does immigration help or hurt America and Americans? Some interesting studies, one most recently done by Kerr and Lincoln at the Harvard Business School, indicate a strong correlation between immigration and the number of patents filed in the U.S. The link could be attributed to the fact that individuals who are willing to take the risk of leaving their known surroundings to immigrate to the U.S. tend to be more innovative in thinking and more entrepreneurial in spirit. They are more likely to find innovative problems-solving solutions and take the risk of starting a new enterprise in an effort to attain the “American dream.” A spinoff effect is that those who work, play, or study with them tend to become more innovative in thinking as well.
Pittsburgh has a long history of immigration. During the early 1900’s, a large number of German, Polish, and other workers were brought here to work in the coal mines. With the decline of the steel industry, workers lost their jobs but stayed here in Pittsburgh.
Currently, with the “reinvention” of Pittsburgh as a high-tech haven and medical super-center, it is attracting another type of immigrant – a highly educated, professional worker in the engineering, high-tech, or medical field. Although Hispanics constitute the largest immigrant group in the U.S., Pittsburgh is home to more Indian immigrants that any other nationality. But with job losses across the board, it is not surprising that employment-based immigration to the U.S. has started to decline, and this trend is likely to continue.
Congress is burdening taxpayers with the costs of bailing out industries in order to stave off even more job losses. But why not use immigrants to bail out the economy? We already provide E2 visas to those individuals from select countries who are willing to start or invest in a business in the U.S. Why not expand the program to individuals from more countries? A little-known visa category, the EB-5, qualifies foreign investors for a Green Card if they are willing to invest at least $500,000 in a “targeted employment area” and create at least 10 jobs. Pittsburgh is one such area. We would do well to seek out such investors, individuals who could not only create jobs and invest in our growth, but who would make Pittsburgh a more attractive place for the young and talented.
America is undoubtedly one of the most desirable places to live in the world. Here, we can still reap the benefits of hard work and enterprise, express our opinions freely, and live wherever we choose. We should consider taking steps to attract the many well-qualified, hardworking, and talented people from all over the world who would like to live, work, and invest in our country. It is time the Obama Administration take a close look at our immigration policies and make it easier for foreign investors to come to the U.S., start businesses, create jobs, and help rebuild our nation