The immigration reform bill that was sent to the Senate this week has been the subject of a tremendous amount of media coverage so far, and will be subject to much more as it (probably and gradually) moves into law in some final form.
It’s easy to ignore what goes on in Washington; besides being literally far removed from most people, the arguments and animosity are bitter and unpleasant, proposals themselves and coverage of them are verbose and dull, the spin becomes disinformation that confuses, compromises produce watered-down slabs of bureaucracy that usually do not move boldly in any particular direction. But some aspects of this proposed immigration reform legislation (and the process that produced it so far) stand out for the ways in which they bring into sharp focus the essence of the players in this political business:
1. Big Business Lobbied Harder Than Ever
According to The Sunlight Foundation (a Washington-based nonprofit that promotes government transparency) 680 lobbying organizations from 170 sectors have worked to influence policy on immigration issues from 2008 to 2012, including hundreds of lobbyists representing tech companies, agriculture interests and students. Facebook’s lobbying budget swelled from $351,000 in 2010 to $2.45 million in the first three months of this year, while Google spent a record $18 million last year. However, high-tech is not alone (as described by a report in the Charlotte Observer):
Agribusiness has been fighting for ways to hire more foreign workers for years, and service industries such as tourism and casinos also want to bring in more foreign workers. The National Council of Farmer Cooperatives spent more than $320,000 on federal lobbying this year. President Charles Conner told senators last month that finding enough workers to pick crops has become the No. 1 concern for many farmers across the country. He cited a California Farm Bureau study when he told senators last month that 71 percent of the tree fruit growers, and nearly 80 percent of raisin and berry growers, were unable to find enough workers to prune trees and vines or pick crops. “I daresay,” Connor said, “that for many producers this immigration legislation, and this debate before us, is more important to the survival of their operations than any other legislation pending before Congress.”
Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch’s vote was a case-in-point: he changed from no on Tuesday to yes on Wednesday based on a compromise with Democrats concerning H-1B visas that had been the top priority for the high-tech lobby.
2. Amnesty is Obama’s Hope and Change Manifested
President Obama likes to say that people are entitled to their own opinions, but not entitled to their own facts. The fact is that America was founded on ideals that embraced immigration and claims to be a beacon of hope to anyone who wants to seek a better life. The argument against harsh punishments for people who have violated U.S. immigration laws is that the intent of “illegal immigrants” is simply to live a better life, thus the punishment of deportation is too severe – especially for those who have been in the U.S. for long periods of time, have had children who only know the U.S. as home, and who have virtually no remaining ties with countries to which they are connected by passport only. There are an estimated 11 million undocumented people in the U.S. today, and until now their “hope” had been that they could avoid the police while they struggled to establish and maintain American lives. Now, although the path is long and likely to be somewhat complex, many of those people have a real chance to overcome their fears and reach for their full potential – for themselves and their families. Obama is trying to deliver the hope he has promised, and he deserves credit.
3. High Skills are Your Ticket to America
Between the sheer number of additional visas for highly skilled workers in specialty occupations, and the reasons companies like Microsoft are seeking them, the message is clear: competition at the top means that if you want to live and work in America in the future, you need to be highly skilled. The New York Times quoted Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, who told the Senate Judiciary Committee “We are not able to fill all the jobs that we are creating.” The Times states that the high-tech industry sees immigration reform as a fix to a stubborn problem: job vacancies, particularly for engineers. The raw numbers are staggering: The number of H-1B visas available annually will increase from 65,000 to 110,000. Are you an engineer? Come on in.
4. Big Brother is Watching – and Being Watched
As the bill was crafted in committee and changes were proposed and made, any interested person could watch every second and submit comments through several social media channels. A website allowed observers to follow the process (americasvoiceonline.org), Senators and their staffs took comments through Twitter, Facebook and other platforms. This followed the “Virtual March for Immigration Reform”, specifically meant as an updated version of the historical practice of political rallies. Yahoo! news noted:
The country’s technology leaders wanted to influence the immigration debate in a medium that they thought would be more successful than traditional forms of activism, according to Bloomberg’s chief policy adviser, John Feinblatt. “There are differences between using social media and traditional forms of influence,” Feinblatt said. “With old-fashioned forms, you set a date for a march in Washington for 9 a.m. and it ends at noon, and you can’t change that. But with social media, you can unleash [the movement] when it is most important.”
Social media and instant connectivity are a permanent part of society at large and government in particular, and although lobbying on a personal level is expensive and exclusive, individuals who want to observe or participate have unprecedented ability to do so.
5. Republicans Find Equal Rights for Homosexuals Totally Unacceptable
Late in the final day before the bill finally passed committee, the bill survived perhaps its most serious challenge when the Democratic committee chairman Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., introduced and then withdrew an amendment that would have granted homosexual couples the same rights as heterosexual married couples to sponsor their foreign-born partners for immigration. Republicans said they would walk away if the amendment was included, which caused the Democrats to acknowledge that it would have fractured the fragile, bi-partisan coalition that wrote the delicate legislation. The result was that Leahy vowed to fight the battle another day: “So, with a heavy heart, and as a result of my conclusion that Republicans will kill this vital legislation if this anti-discrimination amendment is added, I will withhold calling for a vote on it at this time,” he said. “But I will continue to fight for equality.” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., also stated his opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act, which affirms the power of states to decide whether to accept same-sex marriages in other states. “I believe in my heart of hearts that what you’re doing is the right and just thing,” Durbin said. “But I believe this is the wrong moment, this is the wrong bill.” (Referencing reports in USA Today and ABC News). Right wing groups have always been the last obstacle to be removed in the march of progress for civil rights, whether the discrimination that needs to be overcome is based on gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation. The future will come as it inevitably does, but some will have to wait a bit longer.
All said and explained in this article does not constitute a legal opinion and does not replace legal advice. Responsibility for using the wordings and opinions conveyed in this article relies solely and entirely on the reader.
This article was written by Dotan Cohen Law Offices, working in the field of immigration law in the United States, Canada, Australia and England.
