Senate Democrat says coming immigration bill to be more generous to high skilled work

Ianus · 07-08-2009, 06:54 PM

Last time I checked most dreamers were considered 'high skilled' & hopefully Mr. Schumer also takes that into consideration.At they very least,it looks like we'll have to wait until Labor day for Comprehensive legislation.

Quote:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The lead Democrat steering an immigration overhaul through the Senate said Wednesday he expects to have a bill ready by Labor Day that is more generous to highly skilled immigrant workers than those who are lower skilled and is tough on future waves of illegal immigration.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Sen. Chuck Schumer said an immigration bill can be done by the end of the year or early next year that works out disagreements between labor and business interests on the flow of legal foreign workers.

"I think we'll have a good bill by Labor Day," said Schumer, D-N.Y. "I think the fundamental building blocks are in place to do comprehensive immigration reform."

Schumer said the way to get the bill done is to be very tough on future waves of illegal immigration. He declared himself pro-immigration and said the U.S. should encourage legal immigration and find some kind of path for people now here to find a way to legal citizenship.

"We have a shortage maybe of engineers here or Ph.D's in physics, but we probably don't have a shortage of people who can do construction work," Schumer said.

The AFL-CIO and the Change to Win labor unions earlier this year announced their support for immigration reform, which they have opposed in the past.

But the unions' continued opposition to increases in visas for foreign workers is at odds with the demand by business for legal foreign workers in industries ranging from high-technology to agriculture.

"I think one of the ways to bridge it is to look at the different areas of labor and where there are shortages and where there are not and where just workers are being brought in for exploitive purposes — broadly put meaning just get lower wages — rather than having a shortage," Schumer said. "I think if you look at each broad field you can see that one size does not fit all."

Schumer's office has met to dyscuss his bill with Compete America, a coalition pushing for more visas for foreign workers. Members of the group are skeptical of a labor proposal for an appointed commission to set limits on visas and green cards given to legal residents, said Robert Hoffman, an in-house lobbyist for Oracle, a software company and member of Compete America.

Ana Avendano, AFL-CIO's director of immigration policy, said Schumer's "one size doesn't fit all" view is shared by labor. "We want employers to have workers they need, but the key is determining when there is a real need, not one employers make up when they import temporary workers."

Earlier Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said beginning Sept. 8, businesses wanting federal contracts would have to use E-Verify, a Web-based system, to check whether their employees are legally working in the U.S. The Bush and Obama administrations had delayed implementing the rule.

The Senate voted for a proposal to make the E-Verify system permanent as it debated a spending bill for the Homeland Security Department.

The department also said it is abandoning a Bush administration plan to force employers to fire workers who can't resolve a mismatch between their Social Security numbers don't match their names. The administration said it would come up with a new rule.

The Bush administration had tried to root out undocumented workers through so-called "no-match" letters that the Social Security Administration sends employers. But a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union has prevented the rule from taking effect.

Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said the two announcements send mixed signals.

"The administration is saying illegal immigrants shouldn't have jobs by supporting the federal contracting rule, but making it harder for companies to follow the law by doing away with the Bush 'no-match rule,' " Smith said.

Hopefully,this placates any sort of tensions concerning the 'future flow' argument between the parties around the Labor day time period.

tiger66 · 07-08-2009, 07:21 PM

wWould teaching be good? lol.

i know it may sound like a dumb question but thats my major (history), and i want to use it to teach.

if not then ima change my major to engineering or physics lol

seriously tho, am i good?

ThespianDreamer · 07-08-2009, 07:24 PM

I said this in the other thread....

"September 7th is Labor day. The way Congress is rolling there might not be a vote until then end of the year. Whatever floats their boat.

DREAM Act should be a stand alone bill. Reid needs to change his mind. I am calling him tomorrow."

tiger66 · 07-08-2009, 07:42 PM

well if theres a bill by then that is being discussed thats a major win.

some people are talking about next year at the earliest, so if theres atleast a bill by then that would be good.

CIR_DREAM2009 · 07-08-2009, 07:45 PM

The Senate goes on recess starting the beginning of August and comes back after Labor Day. Sen. Schumer is saying a bill will be largely crafted by Labor Day and will be ready for debate whenever immigration is on the Senate calendar, which according to the list of priorities should be after health care and energy. Health Care should be done by the end of July, but as for cap and trade, I'm wondering if delays on cap and trade negotiations will allow immigration to leapfrog over energy by default.

Crafting an immigration bill shouldn't be as hard as crafting health care reform or cap and trade. The Congress hasn't discussed full scale health care reform since 1994 - which coincidentally was the last time the Democrats controlled the Congress - and the Congress has never discussed a cap and trade bill before. Immigration has been discussed in the 109th and 110th Congress so most of the particulars are decided on by now.

Hooray for Sen. Schumer!

CIR_DREAM2009 · 07-08-2009, 07:55 PM

Also, Judge Sotomayor could be confirmed this month and that will free the Judiciary Committee to do other things when they come back in September.

Oh and I meant to say this will be the first time the Congress has discussed a cap and trade bill on carbon dioxide.

manindark · 07-09-2009, 02:12 AM

well, i am engineering major, 3.7 gpa here...i am sure a lot of dreamers are just like me...hopefully they will consider dream act

ciscox3 · 07-09-2009, 04:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by manindark

well, i am engineering major, 3.7 gpa here...i am sure a lot of dreamers are just like me...hopefully they will consider dream act

Yeah, i think we are very luck to have such highly in demand majors (Mechanical Engineering here). And honestly i only chose this major because i thought it was going to be really fun, and i didn't get dissapointed. It has actaully become more fun the deeper i get in it (i start taking my capstones this fall), subjects like dynamic systems and control, and Mechatronics seem like a never ending fairy tale. Recently, i started getting into computer science because of embedded systems and now i think i will also major in cs because it is a very nice foundation to have no matter what happens or where you are (not to mention it also seems very fun). Since different countries economies are becoming ever more competitive and global i think Engineering could be applied just about anywhere, so it's a very good degree to have. Does anyone here personally attend UW and know how their masters in Mechatronics is? I heard it was really solid.

Alex · 07-09-2009, 08:38 PM

not everyone here is done with college... or are even in college yet... so umm?

stranger88 · 07-11-2009, 01:23 AM

Would a Finance/investments be a good major? becuase that's my major or should i swtich to engineering? Am i good?

Quote:

Originally Posted by tiger66

wWould teaching be good? lol.

i know it may sound like a dumb question but thats my major (history), and i want to use it to teach.

if not then ima change my major to engineering or physics lol

seriously tho, am i good?

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Senate Democrat says coming immigration bill to be more generous to high skilled work