As someone who has read this bill and worked on this bill feel free to ask me some questions. There are a ton of misconceptions about this bill out there as witnessed on this thread.
Nobody has seen the damn bill. That's the main problem.
I'll address a few quick ones that I have noticed in this thread. In regards to the "amnesty" the bill sets in place a ten-year path to citizenship that includes the illegal immigrants paying fines, back taxes, learning English and civics, and not being eligible for any gov't money (i.e. healthcare). These undocumented workers DO NOT jump the line, they are put at the back of the line behind all of the immigrants that have applied and are waiting lawfully to earn green cards and citizenship.
That is my understanding, but I'll believe it when all the waivers are known to the public. The devil is always in the details. Basically, the spin is they still end up serving the 10 year bar, but they can do it in country. They get a clean slate. Oddly enough, this is something I had been advocating for years as "an amnesty that isn't really an amnesty." Even wrote a big long letter to Kay Bailey about it and got a token form letter in response.
The a large percentage of the 12 million undocumented workers are not here after illegally crossing the border, but rather are visa overstays.
Some are. I don't think I'd call it a large percentage. Like the previous amnesties, the overwhelming majority of applicants are going to be Mexicans and other Latinos who are EWIs (entered without inspection), not student overstays from England.
"Job thieves" is an outrageous claim that is only echoed by Jeff Sessions and a select few, farmers and low-skilled job providers throughout the country have attempted to offer jobs to american's and simply can't find any willing to do this work. Say what you want to say about what that shows about citizens and government handouts, etc...but the reality is these low-skilled immigrants are NOT taking jobs that uneducated citizens are trying to get, that is just reality. This bill provides a seasonal visa program, the problem with just seasonal is though that some industries (see dairy) need year around low skilled workers. A huge part of this bill is devoted and shaped around the AG industries desperate need for low-skilled labor, while also protecting the rights of the workers.
Agreed on the "job thieves" and that the H2 seasonal work visas need an overhaul and a cap lift. Again, that is something that I have long been advocating.
This bill also gets rid of diversity visas and country caps. As to the argument that we should only pick and choose the high-skilled immigrants, we NEED the low skilled immigrants for this country to run. On top to that, the low-skilled workers kids many times grow into huge contributors and entrepreneurs (see the majority of ceo's in silicon valley).
When the low skilled workers become US citizens-- hell, when they become immigrants (immigrants meaning green card holders, as opposed to nonimmigrants, who are here on temporary employment visas like H2A seasonal workers)-- they won't be doing that low skilled labor anymore. Shit, they'll probably hop off that train once they get on this latest amnesty path and are guaranteed long-term security. That's just the way it is. The people who will will be the illegals and we'll be having this debate again in 10 years. And somehow, I don't think the majority of CEO's in Silicon Valley would be considered low skilled workers, either now or when they were founding their companies.
As to employment verification, this bill drastically increases the fines for employers who employ undocumented workers and phases in a e-verification that all businesses must use to verify that the worker they are hiring is here legally. I think the vast majority of people agree this is a good thing, as no one wants businesses undercutting wages and conditions while employing illegal workers.
Good. Won't do much good, but you can't ask for much more.
Border Security - this bill increases spending on border security a ton. Border crossings are already at a 40 year low, and the bill offers even more funding for hot spots along the southwest border to deter, capture, and process all illegal border crossings. The bill also implements a entry/exit system to better control visa overstays. It also puts money towards tougher central enforcement.
If they're at a 40 year low, it's because the economy blows and they all rushed up here when the amnesty talk first started. Given this administration's lack of enforcement priorities along the border, I'm reluctant to believe anything they say on border security. They're already fudging the numbers on how they've deported more people than anybody else by changing the way such removals are counted.
In maybe the most basic way, as Gover Norquist argues, we simply need these people. We need more workers, low-skilled and high-skilled, and we need their tax dollars. We also need a faster and easier way to process the people who so desperately want to be in this country, while also making it faster and easier to stop people trying to get into this country or stay in this country for insidious reasons.
We need their tax dollars to feed the monster that keeps eating. We can't continue to allow tax money to be an excuse for a negligent immigration policy. As for whether we need them or not, that always depends on the economic situation. I remember when we raised the H1B cap in the 90s when the dotcom economy was hustling and bustling along unrestrained. When the economy started to slow in 2000 but especially after 9/11 and WorldCom and Enron, we didn't need all that excess.
