Senate Expected to Vote Today on Amnesty for Illegal Ag Workers

Senate Expected to Vote Today on Amnesty for Illegal Ag Workers

(May 21) Today, the full Senate will continue debate on the Iraq war supplemental spending bill (H.R. 2642). A vote on the immigration-related portion of the bill, which include an amnesty for illegal alien agricultural workers and other measures that increase immigration levels, could occur as early as this morning. Please call your Senators now to urge them to oppose any immigration increases in the bill including so-called emergency agricultural workers, H-2B unskilled workers, and employment-based permanent workers.

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The Senate Appropriations Committee last week attached an AgJOBS amnesty to the Iraq supplemental spending bill that would require the Department of Homeland Security to grant “emergency agricultural worker status” (i.e., amnesty) for up to five years to as many as 1.35 million illegal aliens, plus their spouses and children (bringing the total amnesty to about three million), if the illegal alien:

• Could show by “a preponderance of the evidence” that he worked 863 hours or 150 work days (defined as 5.75 hours of work per “work day”), or earned at least $7,000 in agricultural employment between January1, 2004, and December 31, 2007;

• Filed an amnesty application with a “qualified designated entity,” or with DHS directly if he is represented by an attorney or a nonprofit organization, during an 18-month application period that would begin six months after enactment of the amnesty;
• Was not a known terrorist or convicted criminal; and
• Paid a “fine” of $250.

Click here to see a more detailed analysis by NumbersUSA.

The committee also endorsed a measure sponsored by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) that would exempt from the annual cap of 66,000 any H-2B nonagricultural seasonal workers who were admitted during the previous three years. This could increase the annual number of H-2B workers to over 400,000 by FY 2011. Another measure endorsed, which was sponsored by Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), would "recapture unused" employment-based visas from the past couple of decades. Since any employment-based visas that are not used in one year are added to the number of available family-based visas for the following year, there are no "unused" employment-based visas, and so there are none to "recapture." However, this deceptive manipulation of visa numbers would add an estimated 218,000 employment-based visas to the annual cap of 140,000.

Speaker Pelosi Strong-Arms Democrats to Disarm SAVE Act Threat
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is using strong-arm tactics against anti-illegal-immigration Democrats in an effort to kill the SAVE Act (H.R. 4088) for the year. North Carolina Democrat Heath Shuler's SAVE Act is an incredible threat to the unscrupulous businesses of America who insist on illegal labor to hold down their labor costs. Most business owners are not like that, but the outlaw businesses have the ear of Speaker Pelosi.

Pelosi and her team are intimidating Democrats to make sure they do not sign the Discharge Petition that would bring the SAVE Act to the floor for a vote. They know it would easily pass if there is a vote.

Even though 49 House Democrats have co-sponsored the SAVE Act, only 10 have signed the Discharge Petition. The other 39 Democrats have heard the message loud and clear that if they sign the petition and it gets the necessary 218 signatures to force a vote, those Democrats should not count on any favors or help for their congressional Districts from the House leaders.

Click here to view the list of Representatives blocking the SAVE Act by NOT signing the Discharge Petition, and call if your Representative has sided with Speaker Pelosi and outlaw businesses.

Click here

http://www.numbersusa.com/index