What an absolute political turn-around to hear Lou Dobbs, on the Bill O’Reilly Show on January 8, 2010, sound like a kindler, gentler (as he puts it -”wiser”) soul.  If Lou Dobbs can advocate a comprehensive immigration reform that allows for undocumented workers to remain in the US based on practical and humanitarian reasons, then how can CIR not pass?  This is the most heartening news development I have heard for a very long time.  Let’s hope that it breeds some rationality in the hearts of the reactionaries.

In an April 27th editorial, the Wall Street Journal (WJS) supports immigration reform as the quintessential economic stimulus.  It states, “Immigrants are a smaller proportion of the U.S. population than in periods such as the late 1890s and 1910s, when immigrants gave the economy a jolt of growth.”  It then goes on to praise immigrants as the ultimate sources of job creation in the US: ”Immigrants have had a disproportionate role in innovation and technology. Companies founded by immigrants include Yahoo, eBay and Google. Half of Silicon Valley start-ups were founded by immigrants, up from 25% a decade ago. Some 40% of patents in the U.S. are awarded to immigrants. A recent study by the Kauffman Foundation found that immigrants are 50% likelier to start businesses than natives. Immigrant-founded technology firms employ 450,000 workers in the U.S. And according to the National Venture Capital Association, immigrants have started one quarter of all U.S. venture-backed firms.”

What’s more, the WSJ states that other countries are actively recruiting foreign workers when the US Congress is simultaneously trying to restrict the flow of highly skilled and needed foreign workers into the US.  WSJ quotes Intel Chairman Craig Barrett as suggesting that instead of sending the half million higher-education students from overseas home when they graduate, we should “staple a green card to their diplomas.”   

It is time that Congress smartens up, stops it scapegoating of immigrants and finally allows the US to effectively compete in globalization. 

President Obama’s recent pronouncement of his desire to move forward on comprehensive immigration reform within the next few months is being met by a growing chorus of support from a diverse array of groups.  The most recent bedfellows are two of the nation’s major labor groups - the A.F.L. - C.I.O. and Change to Win federation.  When Congress proposed comprehensive immigration legislation in 1997, these two groups could not agree on a common apprach and the legislation failed.

The accord between the A.F.L. - C.I.O. and Change to Win endorses legalization of the undocumented workers in the US but rejects any broad program for temporary nonimmigrant workers (guest worker program).  The business community will certainly oppose any legislation that does not include expansion of a temporary worker program, according to Randel Johnson, the Chamber of Commerce’s Vice President of Labor, Immigration and Employee Benefits.  Rather, the unions have endorsed the idea of a national commission to determine how many permanent and temporary foreign workers should be admitted each year to work based on the US labor market demand.  Tamar Jacoby, president of ImmigrationWorks USA, a group that organizes business to support comprehensive immigration reform, questions whether the commission will be effective in determining the supply and demand of workers.

Also, the unions face strong opposition from anti-immigration restrictionists who believe that undocumented workers are taking jobs from American workers.  However, the growing body of data shows just the opposite - that legalization of the estimated 12 million undocumented workers is the quintessential stimulus plan for our weakened economy.  More legal workers will mean an expanded tax base and the creation of new businesses and jobs for more Americans.  Furthermore, the A.F.L. - C.I.O. and Change to Win agree that legalizing the status of the workers would be the best way to protect labor standards for all workers.

One of the most demonizing myths about undocumented aliens is that they blatantly disregard our immigration laws and obtain an unfair advantage.   

The fact is, there is no avenue for the vast majority of undocumented aliens (those that are not documented or whose authorization to remain in the US has expired) to apply to become legal permanent residents or to even work here temporarily.  According to opinion surveys of undocumented aliens, 98 percent would prefer to live and work legally in the US if they were allowed to do so.  However, most of them are not eligible for temporary or permanent visas, and even if they were, the wait for such visas can be many years or even decades.

Nonimmigrant visas run almost the full gamut of the alphabet.  They are visas issued for a temporary period and for a specific activity.   For example, there is a B-1/B-2 visa for tourists, an E-1/E-2 visa for treaty traders and investors, an F-1 visa for students, an H-1B visa for professional workers, a J-1 visa for exchange visitors (au pairs, students, professors, etc.), an L-1 visa for intracompany transferees, a K-1 visa for fiancés, an O-1 visa for extraordinary ability aliens, a P visa for athletes and entertainers, an R visa for religious workers, etc.  These nonimmigrant visas categories are very narrow and restrictive.

The H-2A and H-2B visas, the two primary nonimmigrant visas granting employment-authorization to essential workers, are inadequate for the millions of such workers in demand.  The H-2A visa applies strictly to agricultural workers for a temporary or seasonal position.  For the H-2B visa, the employer must demonstrate that the request for labor is a one-time occurrence, a seasonal need, a peakload need, or an intermittent need.   There are only 66,000 H-2B visas available each year.

Last year when comprehensive immigration reform was on the political table, bipartisan guest worker legislation was proposed.  Such legislation would have created a nonimmigrant visa for sorely needed essential workers in positions that are permanent in nature, not seasonal like the H-2s.  If the guestworker visa had succeeded, it could have greatly ameliorated the illegal immigration conundrum in our country by legalizing essential workers alien in high demand.
 
There are four primary ways for foreigners to obtain the green card, which is legal permanent residency in the US.  These are through:  (1) employment; (2) family; (3) asylee and refugee status and (4) the Diversity Visa Lottery.  For the employment-based category, there are only 5,000 immigrant visas available each year for low-skilled workers such as gardeners and construction workers.  This means that it can be many years before they can apply for legal permanent residency.  As discussed above, there is no viable nonimmigrant working visa to allow the bulk of unskilled workers to remain in the US while they wait for permanent legal status in the US.

For the family-based category, if they are not sponsored by an immediate relative – US citizen spouse, parent or child (over 21) – then the wait can also be many years and even decades.  Also, the family-based category is restricted to spouses, parents and children (under 21) of US citizens (immediate relatives); unmarried children and spouses of legal permanent residents; married sons and daughters of US citizens; and brothers and sisters of US citizens.

Obtaining asylee or refugee status is very difficult and only a small percentage of applications for such status are approved each year.  The applicant must show that he or she has a reasonable fear of persecution, or suffered past persecution, on account of race, religion, political opinion, nationality or ethnicity, or membership in a particular social group.  Asylee or refugee status is not available for victims of civil war, natural disasters, violent crime or extreme poverty.  There is temporary protected status (TPS) for citizens of countries in which the Attorney General finds that there exist extraordinary and temporary conditions in the foreign state that are so unsafe as to prevent the return of the foreign national.  The current countries designated for TPS are Burundi, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Sudan, Somalia and Liberia.

The Diversity Visa Lottery is exactly what it says – a lottery.  Only 50,000 visas are available each year and 100,000 individuals are selected each year to apply for one of these visas.  Only individuals from certain countries – low demand countries - can apply and citizens from India or China are not included.

Almost all undocumented workers wish to become legal and permanent members of our society but are unable to do so because of the dearth of visas.  They do not gain any unfair advantages living in the shadows, but rather are some of the most disadvantaged, vulnerable and exploited members of our community.  It is time that we grant these hard-working and critically needed workers the status they covet and deserve.

The following is a strong statement from Commerce Secretary Gutierrez, from a June 9, 2008, State of Immigration Address,  in favor of  comprehensive immigration reform and acknowledging the deleterious dearth of immigrant, H-1B and H-2A and H-2B visa numbers, which are critical to allowing our economy to remain competitive:

“I would like to talk a little about the business environment and what is happening in the business community as it refers to immigration and the need for immigration reform. There’s a lot of discussion about the burden of immigration but there is not enough conversation about the risk of not having enough immigrants, especially a risk to our economy and a risk to our competitive position as it relates to the rest of the world.

So as you can see from the Secretary’s comments immigration reform remains a top priority for the Bush Administration. In the absence of legislation from Congress we’ve been proactively tackling this issue head on with as many administrative actions as possible.

The American people want and deserve a thoughtful, broad-based approach to immigration that focuses on the security and the economic prosperity of our country. Last August, Secretary Chertoff and I announced a package of administrative reforms that sharpened existing tools to protect our citizens and make our immigration system more workable.

We’ve made strides in securing our border. In fact, we’ve made great strides in securing our borders and enforcing existing immigration laws. But we cannot neglect our economic security; and that’s exactly what we’re doing by not passing comprehensive immigration reform.

At a time when we are facing tough economic challenges, our actions must boost our economy, not hamper it. The reality is that we simply do not have enough workers at both ends of the spectrum and I will repeat that. Our reality as a nation is that we do not have enough workers at both ends of the spectrum. That means for low-skilled, field laborers, all the way to high-skilled technology workers.

For example, for the fifth straight year our H-1B cap was filled at or before the start of the fiscal year. This year the cap was reached in one week. That’s why, as Secretary Chertoff mentioned, we are proposing administrative reforms to our high-skilled programs and to the H-2B non-agriculture temporary worker program.

In addition, we have proposed changes to the H-2A agricultural seasonal worker program. The changes will make the H-2A system more efficient and ensure an orderly and timely flow of legal, foreign workers. They will also protect the rights of all agricultural workers, American and foreign, and make no mistake we need both. We don’t have enough domestic workers to meet the food needs of our country.

The New York Times ran an article with the headline “Shortage of Labor to Cut Food Supply: Farmers Handicapped by Lack of Help Reduce Their Crop Acreage.” That headline and the article ran in 1920. Coincidently that was amidst one of the worst anti-immigration waves that we have ever seen.

Nearly a century later we face similar challenges, but this time, rather than reduce consumption we’ll have to turn to foreign producers or move our farms overseas to feed our families. In fact, that is already happening. A survey by the U.S. Farm Group, Western Growers, indicated American companies now farm more than 45,000 acres of land in Mexico employing 11,000 people.

At a time when we are looking to further secure our food supply to tighten our import safety and to continue to increase and contribute to world supply because of the prices of food, we should not encourage the outsourcing of American agriculture. And what Congress is doing by avoiding to pass comprehensive immigration reform is effectively encouraging the outsourcing of American agriculture.

We know there are employers who have not been able to fill many jobs with American workers. We simply can’t ignore the problem and hope that the issue will go away. A comprehensive solution remains the best and the most long term option. Without it, we’re getting a piecemeal approach, which is something we talked about when we mentioned the fact that comprehensive reform had failed, we talked about the fact that we were going to get a piecemeal approach to a national issue.

For example, in 2007 states enacted 240 immigration laws. That’s up from 84 the year before. Immigration is being debated in every capital in the country. A total of 1,562 immigration bills were introduced last year. This patchwork of laws is untenable in the long term. So we will continue to look at ways to improve existing programs and address all aspects of immigration. Other major economies around the world have realized the need for immigration policy to help them grow their economies, and we are all competing for growth, and everyone is trying to grow their economies and most major economies have realized that they cannot grow without a comprehensive immigration policy.

Our country has a long history of making immigration work. We have more experience than any other nation and it has been one of our greatest advantages, if you look back through our economic history we would not have accomplished what we have accomplished if it were not for the help and the work of immigrants.

We can make immigration an advantage that will last for a century. The issue is not going to go away. Regardless of who is President and regardless of which party is in power, immigration will remain both a tough challenge but also a tremendous opportunity for our country if we get this right, if we approach it in a thoughtful way, and if we are decisive about confronting a problem that will not go away.”

Such remarks ring with reason and practicality.  Let’s hope that such astute understanding will wash over the benighted in Congress.

The New York Times editorial is right on about the inappropriate and deleterious use of the word “illegal” to describe foreigners in the US who do not have proper immigration status.  The editorial states:

“Since the word modifies not the crime but the whole person, it goes too far. It spreads, like a stain that cannot wash out. It leaves its target diminished as a human, a lifetime member of a presumptive criminal class. People are often surprised to learn that illegal immigrants have rights. Really? Constitutional rights? But aren’t they illegal? Of course they have rights: they have the presumption of innocence and the civil liberties that the Constitution wisely bestows on all people, not just citizens.

. . . 

But at least “undocumented” — and an even better word, “unauthorized” — contain the possibility of reparation and atonement, and allow for a sensible reaction proportional to the offense. The paralysis in Congress and the country over fixing our immigration laws stems from our inability to get our heads around the wrenching change involved in making an illegal person legal. Think of doing that with a crime, like cocaine dealing or arson. Unthinkable!”

We must stop thinking of immigrants unlawfully in the US as dangerous, undesirable criminals.  Rather, we should view them as desperate, hardworking and brave, some willing to risk their lives to come here.  Who are we to judge people who escape countries with high poverty rates and little chance of a decent quality of life?  Where is our compassion for those who have the misfortune of not being born in a nation with relative security?  Let the Statue of Liberty once again stand for our true principles.