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Congress Daily - Amid speculation that an enforcement-only immigration bill could obtain enough co-sponsors to force a House floor vote, the business community is lobbying heavily to make sure that such legislation includes language to make it easier to obtain guest-worker visas and employment-based green cards.
Industry lobbyists have met with dozens of congressional offices over the last several weeks playing defense against an enforcement bill. "An enforcement measure should be considered with a broader bipartisan package," said Information Technology Association of America Government Affairs Vice President Cindy Jimenez. ITAA is part of the Compete America coalition of high-tech groups advocating for increases in the H-1B visa caps. Other business groups are asking for greater availability for the low-skilled guestworker H-2A and H-2B visas as well as more green cards.
Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., who heads the Immigration Reform Caucus and favors the enforcement-only approach, is teaming up with some in the Blue Dog Coalition to advocate an enforcement bill. The measure, sponsored by Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., would require employers to verify the eligibility of all workers and establish a birth and death registration system among other things. House GOP leadership aides say that for now Bilbray is the sole Republican negotiating with Shuler and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on an immigration bill.
In addition to guest-worker visa provisions, the CHC is hoping to add language that would give temporary visas to illegal immigrants. Bilbray said that idea is a nonstarter, noting that any legalization of illegal workers, even temporary, is amnesty. Bilbray said he considers Shuler's bill to be the only immigration measure that can pass the Congress this year because it includes enforcement mechanisms on which everyone agrees. He added that he would be willing to consider some provisions for guest-worker visas, "but it would have to be very limited." A bill without provisions for illegal immigrants is unlikely to pass muster with Democrats, even if it gives some relief to the business community clamoring for green cards and guest-worker visas for their workers.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce Director of Immigration Policy Angelo Amador said the momentum behind Shuler's "flawed" enforcement-only approach is disconcerting.
"Congress must thoroughly address immigration reform, including reforms to the legal immigration system, whose H-1B visa, H-2B visa, and employment-based green card programs are woefully inadequate to meet our nation's economic needs," he said, adding that Shuler's bill "does nothing to address the most pressing aspects of the national crisis surrounding our immigration system."
The business community's response to the new attention on Shuler's bill is tame compared to the fear in the immigrant advocacy community. Some advocates consider it a dangerous precedent to lobby on temporary visas for illegal workers because they want those immigrants to eventually earn the right to become citizens. Others say there will be no incentive to pass a broader immigration bill if an enforcement bill has already been enacted.
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