Forum scheduled to examine good, bad in immigration reform plan

Attorneys, professors, student activists and otherstomorrow will drill into the federal immigration reform proposals recentlyintroduced in Congress, examining the legislation’s positives and negativesduring an open forum at UC Riverside.

The Forum on Comprehensive Humane Immigration Reform is a continuationof a summit held in March in response to the so-called Gang of Eight’s plans tomodify federal immigration laws and regulations.

On April 16, the gang — Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., John McCain, R-Ariz., BobMenendez, D-N.J., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. — unveiledproposed legislation aimed at broadening immigration opportunities whileupgrading border security.

The nation’s roughly 11 million or more illegal immigrants would begranted tentative authorization to remain in the country under the plan, butnot until security is improved at the border with Mexico.

Participants in the UCR forum will include ethnic studies ProfessorArmando Navarro; Thomas Saenz, president of the Mexican-American Legal DefenseFund; immigration attorney Russell Juaragui; ACLU staff attorney Lucero Chavezand Ellen Reese, professor of sociology and chair of the UCR Labor StudiesProgram.

More than 300 people attended the campus forum on March 16, whichtackled the same issue.

According to the Gang of Eight’s five-year “Comprehensive SouthernBorder Security Strategy,” 3,500 customs agents would be hired nationwide andthe use of U.S. National Guardsmen would be authorized to help withconstructing fencing along the southwest border and operating mobilesurveillance systems.

Border Patrol agents would need to achieve a 90 percent success rate inhalting illegal border crossings in the most highly trafficked areas, accordingto the proposal. The secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and thecomptroller general would have to jointly agree that such a standard has beenmet.

The lawmakers’ proposal, now under consideration in the U.S. Senate,would also incorporate a nationwide employment verification system, currentlyknown as E-Verify, which uses federal records to confirm whether an individualhas a valid visa authorizing him or her to work in the U.S.

The number of available H-1B visas, reserved for “high-skilled”foreigners with backgrounds in engineering and other in-demand fields, would beexpanded to 185,000 annually over five years. Fewer than 85,000 a year areavailable now.

The new law would also create a W-Visa program for low-skilled workers,paving the way for 75,000 laborers to be admitted to work in the U.S. everyyear.

Provisions related to granting visas to foreigners whose family membersare permanent legal residents would be loosened under the legislation, enablingboth married and unmarried adult children of settled immigrants to apply forresidency.

All citizen applicants would be subject to criminal background checks,according to the proposal.

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in Februaryto support the Gang of Eight’s legislative pillars that described thelawmakers’ intentions. One of the board’s conditions for backing the reformplan was that counties ultimately be reimbursed for the cost of incarceratingand providing social services to illegals. The Gang of Eight’s bill containedno such promise.

Critics of the plan liken it to blanket amnesty, comparing it to theImmigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which legalized more than 3 millionundocumented immigrants with the promise of tougher border security.

“The 1986 act . . . never delivered increased security and heavysanctions on employers who hired illegal immigrants,” said Joe Guzzardi withCalifornians for Population Stabilization. “Amnesty passed, but internal andborder enforcement never happened.”

Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform,said the senators’ framework is “designed to satisfy the demands of illegalaliens and their advocates, as well as business interests that want more cheaplabor.”

“American taxpayers will be saddled with staggering costs in the futureas millions of poorly skilled illegal aliens become eligible for governmentservices and programs,” he said.