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The leading Copyright |
Senator Schumer, You are Wrong!by Charles Kuck
Last Week Congress passed its first major piece of immigration legislation in several years. The Border Security Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2010 (H.R. 5875) Besides the fact that the bill itself is a joke–passed without debate, study or analysis as to its effectiveness, there are two major problems–Funding of the $600 Million Dollars Bill, and the “Real” purpose of the bill. First the “real” purpose of the bill–Schumer and other Democrats have barked loudly that the bill is intended to shut the mouths of border crazies who refuse to discuss any change to our nightmarish national immigration policies until America is safely tucked inside a sealed bubble, invulnerable from entry by anyway but the purest foreign national. Senator Sessions from the border state of Alabama, who can only be described as absolutely crazed on the issue of immigration, responded to this strategy:
So much for Republicans now happily agreeing to Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Just in case Senator Schumer (and President Obama) did not get the message from Senator Sessions, let me make it perfectly clear: Republicans will NOT support any type of immigration reform that recognizes the reality we are currently in. Period. President Obama, Senator Schumer–If you cannot do it without Republicans, you are not going to do it. My suggestion is that you get the Democrats to fulfill the campaign promise of immigration reform, or kiss the Latino vote goodbye. Clearly, the Republicans do not care about their future as a party of inclusion, do the Democrats also not care? Now, the Second BIG problem with this bill–It is NOT paid for! Senator Schumer said that this bill would funded on the backs of employers of foreign national employees–specifically those who have more than 50 employees, and who’s workforce is more than 50% made up of H-1B and/or L-1 workers. For those specific companies, the USCIS is now going to collect an ADDITIONAL $2,000 fee, over and above the H-1B filing fee of $2,230 and the L-1 filing fee of $820 these companies already pay to USCIS to file (but not necessarily approve) the application. This full funding of this bill is unclear (like most bills that come out of Congress), but the funding is summarized as follows:
So, while it is unclear how much Senator Schumer hoped to raise from his H-1B and L-1 visa stunt, perhaps a little math is in order. So far this fiscal year, the USCIS has received about 43,000 H-1B applications for new H-1B workers (of a total 85,000 that are available). That leaves 42,000 potential H-1B applicants to pay the $2,000 Schumer Fee. If every one of those cases paid the Schumer Fee, that would raise $8,000,000. That leaves only about $598,000,000 to be funded by the L-1 visa program and the other cost shifting noted above. There are not even 85,000 L-1 applications filed in an entire year by all applicants, let alone the specific applicants to which this law applies. Couple the numbers problem with the USCIS attack on the specific type of employer that Senator Schumer is targeted, and the resulting sharp decrease in usage of the H-1B and L-1 visa by those employers, and what becomes clear is that the Schumer fee cannot possibly raise more than a few million dollars. How pathetic. So, once again, as citizens, we are left holding the debt for Congress’ effort to throw more money at the border, without a solution to our immigration crisis. Senator Schumer, you are wrong. This bill is not about border enforcement, nor is it about getting Republicans to play ball on immigration reform. This bill is about money; money to special interests who will benefit from it’s spending. But this new law is not about fixing a broken immigration system. You probably don’t want my advice, but here it is anyway. The next time you move forward on immigration legislation Senator Schumer, I suggest aiming a little higher in your aspirations and fix the system, don’t just repair a broken pipe.
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