Reply #12: My notes on the first scan and perusal. They are very rough and

[Cleita]

I may have missed some things.

Title I—Border Enforcement and Title II—Interior Enforcement

(D)Worksite enforcement tools – page 8 of pdf document.

Refers to what we call the Green Card. All employers should be required to demand a verifiable one when hiring immigrants. My question is, what is to stop them from hiring employees and not entering them into the system or an under the table hire as they are called. Not putting a worker in the system enables a person to work here without the employer being caught and fined. It seems we need to expand our quotas to issue more green cards to meet the demand for these workers and to prevent them from being exploited by the employers.

It seems that improving the provisions of paragraph (D) would make the enforcements of (A), (B) and (C) unnecessary. I am not against providing 18,000 border guards, however, because it provides civil service jobs in a country where jobs are eroding. But that’s a socialist idea so ignore me.

Three fences to be built with roads in between. That should keep them out by land. Don’t know about by air and by sea. What an exercise in futility. However, on the plus side there are those jobs that will be created unless the building of the roads are subcontracted to Halliburton.

For those who resists a command from a law enforcement agent will get a fine and/or imprisonment of up to five years not to mention the special penalties that can incarcerate violators of immigration law up to twenty or thirty years. Yet Scooter Libby only gets 30 months in jail for a treasonous act. Talk about draconian measures.

About the building of detention facilites. Yes this also creates jobs, but certainly increasing the quotas so that not so many need to be detained would be a better solution. IMHO only those who have committed real crimes like drug trafficking should be detained. This should make further detention facilities unnecessary and are more alike concentration camps than not.

Establishment of a United States-Mexico border enforcement commission. What no United States-Canada border enforcement commission?

Felons and gang bangers? It seems this doesn’t belong in this document. Any law enforcement can claim that five or more immigrants consists of a gang is inviting abuse of the detainees by police who can designate anyone they please as gang bangers. This needs to be addressed separately, considering gangs that are in this country are mostly are formed on this side of the border. Gang bangers in Latin countries are doing well and don’t need to immigrate here.

Title III—Worksite Enforcement
I’m sceptical of letting the employer verify the documents. What we need is copies of the document, mainly the Green Card type work permit to be vetted by the INS directly whenever there is a hire. Also, there needs to be a way to do this quickly, which means more INS employees and modern electronic equipment. Since law enforcement agencies seem to be able to do this with driver’s licenses and other legal documentation and credit card companies do this instantly, I see no reason the INS and SSA can’t do this, too. The minute the middleman, the employer is allowed to do this through the I-9 and W-4 documents, it invites fraud. The EEVS will prove nothing. An alien can work under someone’s name and SS # if that person is willing to allow it.

The way I see it you need only two documents a Social Security card and a Green Card type work permit. Employers should verify the genuineness of both documents through the agencies that distribute them the Social Security Administration and the Immigration and Naturalization Service directly each time they hire an immigrant. It should be easy if both agencies are brought up to date both in personnel and electronically. All that other BS is just that BS and will continue the abuse of the system.

Good that the penalties have increased. I don’t know if it will make a big difference with the mega-corporations, who will probably outsource more than ever, but it should reign in the smaller companies and wealthy individuals who exploit the cheap labor offered by immigrants. It may be a step in the right direction.

Title IV—New Temporary Worker Program

Does this deposit to the treasury if the employer of Y immigrants doesn’t provide health insurance mean the the government will? Or do they just pocket the money? Just asking. At least it stipulates that the immigrant would be hired at the same wage and conditions that a native would be hired. So at least in theory it prevents that exploitation. Too bad the provisions against torture don’t extend to our prisoners of war.

I have mixed feelings about this. In a way I want these field laborers to be able to work without fearing La Migra. I worked alongside the braceros back in the fifties in the fields of So. California. For us American kids, It was our summer job. The pay was pitiful and the immigrant workers slept in the fields when we went home but at least they weren’t hunted down. We, as well as them, also had FICA and SDI taken from our checks back then.

I can see the abuse that can arise in the area of domestic and farm workers who don’t go home when their visas are up and they are liable to slip throught he cracks in the system. This extends to British, Irish and Scandanavian nannies too as well as the hispanic ones. I feel, either give them a work visa with permanent residency as the need for immigrant workers arises or forget about it. Why send the farm workers home if they don’t want to go home? They follow the crop harvests around the country anyway. I don’t like the possibilities at all.

My skin crawls when I read Homeland Security. I wish they weren’t involved.

Title V—Immigration Benefits

Merit based immigration IMHO is just plain wrong. Why bring over a bunch of professionals to compete with our professionals, when it’s the menial labor that we need? The old system of having an employer verify that he couldn’t find an American as well qualified as the immigrant he wants to bring over worked quite well until now. Why change?


Title VI—Nonimmigrants In the United States Previously In Unlawful Status.

This is of course amnesty, which I suppose is better than rounding up the millions of them, putting them in detention camps and then deporting them. I don’t like the fines. It opens up a business opportunity for predatory lenders who make their money on the backs of the poor. This must have come from the Republican side of the aisle who can’t punish economic victims enough these days just because they broke an unjust law.

Title VII—Miscellaneous

Declaration of English as the national language. Well, that went over so well in Canada and Great Britain. :sarcasm: Why don’t we try it here. :dunce: