DREAM Act Portal Forum - Senate panel pushes immigration reform

This article basically gives a summary of the immigration hearing that was held today.I'm quite surprised that Senator Cornyn & Kyl actually agree with Schumer on dealing with the immigration issue,or they are just looking at the GOP's shot to grandstand.

Quote:

"I pledge that I will work and work and work and work to strike the right balance and achieve the critical reforms to our immigration system that the American people are asking us to do," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who took control of the Senate Judiciary Committee's panel on immigration and border security in February after Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., stepped down because of illness.

Schumer's sentiments were echoed by both Republicans and Democrats on the subcommittee, who said they were happy that President Barack Obama this week called the issue a high priority for his administration and urged Congress to begin the process of passing a sweeping new immigration bill.

Recent polls have shown that nearly 60 percent of Americans want Congress to address the difficult issue.

"This will be very, very hard to do, make no mistake," Schumer said. "But we have to try, for the sake of our country."

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said he thought it was significant that he, Schumer, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., all agreed on the need to take action soon on a bill to beef up border security, offer a path to citizenship to illegal immigrants and improve employers' ability to verify workers' immigration status.

"We've got a huge problem to solve," Kyl said.

And it must be solved now, or the nation's economy and safety will suffer, expert witnesses told the senators Thursday.

"America will be strengthened by a rational and sensible approach toward this issue," said Jeff Moseley, president of the Greater Houston Partnership, a business group that sees immigrants as crucial to meeting the labor demands of American employers.

Doris Meissner, former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, recommended the creation of a standing commission that would advise Congress and the president about when and how to adjust immigration levels to meet market demand and strengthen the U.S. economy.

She also called for improvements to the current E-Verify system so that employers can more reliably check the immigration status of potential employees. E-Verify is too vulnerable to identity fraud, and it mistakenly disqualifies too many legal immigrants and U.S. citizens, said Meissner, who is now director of the U.S. immigration policy program for the Migration Policy Institute.

With illegal immigration down because of the recession, Congress has "an historic opportunity to craft reform legislation" before the problem picks up again, Meissner said.

But Kris Kobach, a law professor at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, warned that federal immigration officials are not ready to handle a flood of new visa and citizenship applications if Congress offers millions of illegal immigrants amnesty and a chance to remain in the U.S. legally.

Amnesty has been the most controversial aspect of previous reform efforts and has doomed earlier bills.

Kobach said federal officials would be overwhelmed by the demand for legal status and would not have the time or the manpower to screen applicants to ensure that they are not criminals or terrorists.

He recommended that all applicants be required to show a secure passport that contains embedded biometrics to prevent fraud.

"If the authors of any comprehensive immigration bill in the future are truly serious about national security, then they must include this requirement," Kobach said.

If I'm not mistaken,a lot of countries haven't really implemented E-passports yet in their countries of origin,not to mention what would happen to those whom cannot produce such documents.