This is from my Congressman, whom I like very much: Dear Friends, This week, after months of wrangling in closed-door meetings, the U.S. Senate passed a giant, 1,200 page immigration bill. In a nutshell (if you can put 1,200 pages in a nutshell) the bill has two basic components – the border security piece and the amnesty piece. There are also countless other pieces involving specific visa categories and other things. For the sake of simplicity, let’s focus on the two main components this week. First off, the Senate bill provides $50 billion for border security measures. It doubles the number of border patrol agents, provides for 700 miles of fencing, and would boost the use of radar and other technologies to detect illegal movement along the border. I’m unclear on why the Senate is just coming to the conclusion that border security is important. That should have been done a long, long time ago. It should’ve been done before 9/11 and it most certainly should have been a priority after. But as we all know, it hasn’t been done. The Senate bill also provides for the mandatory use by employers of the E-verify system. In the event that you are unfamiliar, we have had an electronic system for many years now that employers can use to verify whether a person is legally eligble to work in the United States. The technology is there… we just haven’t been using it. Here again, I’m not sure why Washington, for all of its bluster on this issue, hasn’t seen fit to require eligibility checks, but at least they’re willing to put it into place now. On the amnesty piece, the Senate bill does put up some serious barriers. The process would take illegal immigrants about thirteen years to achieve full legal status. They would be required to pay thousands of dollars in fines and back taxes and they would have to “go to the back of the line”. But as critics of this are quick to point out, that isn’t exactly the case. You’re not in the back of the line if you’ve already, in essence, skipped the entire line. You’re already here and with or without passage of this legislation, you already have de facto amnesty. In the end, the Senate bill is a bipartisan bill. And that’s fine. But in my estimation, regardless of where you come down on the amnesty question generally, the Senate bill makes two enormous mistakes. First, it repeats the mistake that the 1986 “landmark immigration reform” law made. It grants amnesty to those already in the country and promises some level of improved border security later. In the view of a lot of people, that is putting the cart before the horse. Or maybe more precisely, it’s putting the cart out there, and then hoping the horse actually shows up later. The second major flaw with the Senate bill is the actual bill itself – the 1,200 stack of paper. I have been very vocal about this, but in my opinion, giant bills like this are rarely good for the American people. There is no reason why each major policy component of the legislation can’t be dealt with individually in a stand-alone measure. Doing it that way enables each and every member of the House and Senate to read, consider, seek input from constituents, and offer their changes and judgment. When you cram a take-it-all-or-leave-it bill through, you lose that. And that’s exactly what happened here. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was adamant that he wanted the bill done before the 4th of July recess. That meant they couldn’t consider all of the amendments that members of the Senate wanted to offer. On an issue this big, that is absolutely ludicrous. But that’s what happens with giant bills like this. And it inevitably leads to mistakes, even in cases where the goals of the bill are agreed upon. And that isn’t even the case here. The House is going to take each piece one at a time. And while it hasn’t gotten as much attention in the press, obviously, that process has already begun. On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee took time to consider one very small piece of the overall immigration debate – visa policies for high-skilled workers. They had experts come in and testify. They had the opportunity to debate that one relatively small provision and they had the opportunity to amend it and have an up-or-down vote on just that one aspect. They’ve also already done the same thing on an individual bill to make entering the country illegally a criminal violation of federal law and not just a civil violation of federal law. They’ve done the same thing looking at agricultural guest worker programs. And they will continue looking at each piece very carefully. That in my opinion, is a far more sensible and responsible way to look at one of the single biggest challenges facing our country. For all of these reasons, I am fundamentally opposed to the bill that the Senate has produced. I’m opposed to it on the merits and I’m opposed to the fundamental idea of trying to cram it all into one single bill. That’s where I stand. I do want to hear from you all on this though. It’s every bit your country and your neighbor’s country as it is mine. We’re in this together and my job, although some people up here tend to forget it, is to represent you. That’s something I take very seriously. So if you have a chance, forward this email on to your friends and neighbors. Encourage them to sign up to get these. Encourage them to respond to them. The more people I hear from on these issues, the better able I will be to tell Washington what the people of Florida’s 11th District think and feel. I really appreciate it. Have a safe holiday and a very happy Fourth of July. And may God Bless this beautiful country of ours. Sincerely, Rich Nugent Member of Congress
Posted on: Sat, 29 Jun 2013 21:35:11 +0000
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