New immigration publications, 5/22/06

1.
Amnesty S.O.S.
The masses are revolting.
By Mark Krikorian
National Review Online, May 15, 2006

EXCERPT: The president will address the nation on immigration tonight and is expected to endorse, among other things, use of the National Guard to help patrol the border.

Why such a dramatic gesture? Is there some new emergency that needs to be addressed with new methods? Has something changed in the situation along the border?

No -- but something has changed in the public mood.

In the wake of illegal aliens massing in the streets, waving Mexican flags, singing ''Nuestro Himno,'' and insisting that Americans comply with their list of demands -- or else -- public attitudes toward immigration are hardening, and beginning to have political consequences. . . .


********
********

2.
Best? Brightest?
A Green Card Giveaway for Foreign Grads Would Be Unwarranted
By Norm Matloff
Center for Immigration Studies Backgrounder, May 2006

EXCERPT: … Yet in addition, the bill also includes an equally -- perhaps even more -- dangerous threat to the employability of American programmers and engineers, lurking in the arcane language of the bill. The bill would create a new F-4 visa category that would lead to an essentially automatic green card for any foreign student who earns a graduate degree in engineering or the physical sciences at a U.S. university.

Such proposals have been floated via the press during the last few months. Even if the present legislation does not go through, it is highly likely that there will be further attempts in this direction either later this year or next year. Given that it would be a sea change in policy, a careful look at the notion of ''free green cards for foreign students'' is imperative.
…
Instead of making it easier for foreign tech graduates to be hired in U.S. industry, Congress should make it more difficult. It should enact genuine H-1B reform, addressing both Type I and Type II salary savings. While it should retain the EB-1 category for those of outstanding abilities, Congress should reduce, rather than expand, the total yearly number of employment-based green cards. Congress should also warn the NSF that further undermining of American engineers and scientists may jeopardize the NSF's funding.


********
********

3.
Can Attrition Through Enforcement Work?

Panel Discussion Transcript
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Rayburn House Office Building Room 2237


Panelists
Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims

Jessica Vaughan, Senior Policy Analyst, Center for Immigration Studies

Mark Krikorian, Executive Director, Center for Immigration Studies


********
********

4.
Visa Overstays: Can We Bar the Terrorist Door?

Statement of Mark Krikorian, Executive Director, Center for Immigration Studies
Before a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on International Relations, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, May 11, 2006


EXCERPT: … And given the pervasive corruption in Mexico, our southern border is likely to become an increasingly attractive means of entering the United States as other avenues are made more difficult.

But as important as border control is for security, it is not sufficient. It must be supplemented with a tightly run immigration system inside the country as well. This includes addressing problems like the lack of worksite enforcement, the staggering prevalence of fraud in the processing of immigration benefits, and the absurd visa lottery.

But perhaps most important is the issue of visa overstays. (Strictly speaking, it is not the visa itself, issued by the State Department, which expires and turns the foreign visitor into an illegal alien, but rather the length of stay granted the alien by the immigration inspector at the airport or land crossing.) Estimates are that as many as 40 percent of illegal aliens are overstayers, who entered the country legally but did not leave when their time ran out, representing perhaps 4 million or more people. …


********
********

5.
A Third Way
By Mark Krikorian
The Palm Beach Post, May 7, 2006


EXCERPT: … This third way might be called ''attrition through enforcement'' - consistent, comprehensive enforcement of the immigration law (something we never have attempted) designed to reduce the number of new illegal arrivals and persuade a large share of illegals already here to give up and deport themselves. The goal would be a steady decline in the total illegal population, shrinking illegal immigration from a crisis to a manageable nuisance. This is the strategy underlying the enforcement bill passed in December by the House of Representatives.
…
Congress faces a clear choice: a realistic strategy of attrition through enforcement or the fairy tale of legalization. The shape of the final bill (if any) will determine whether we begin to reduce the problem of illegal immigration, or continue to exacerbate it.


********
********

6.
New Poll: Americans Prefer House Approach on Immigration
Poll is First to Offer the Public a Choice Between House and Senate Plan


EXCERPT: WASHINGTON (May 3, 2006) -- A new Zogby poll of likely voters, using neutral language (see wording on following pages), finds that Americans prefer the House of Representatives' enforcement-only bill by 2-1 over Senate proposals to legalize illegal immigrants and greatly increase legal immigration. The poll was conducted for the Center for Immigration Studies.
…
* When given three choices (House approach, Senate approach, or mass deportation), the public tends to reject both the Senate plan and a policy of mass deportations in favor of the House bill; 28 percent want the Senate plan, 12 percent want mass deportations; while 56 percent want the House approach. …


********
********

7.
Boycott & Backlash
May Day in New New Mexico.
By Mark Krikorian
National Review Online, May 1, 2006


EXCERPT: Today's May Day general strike by illegal aliens and their supporters should help clarify the Senate’s immigration deliberations. The question before senators, as they seek to pass an immigration bill before Memorial Day, no longer concerns the specifics of policy -- how much border fencing, the period of work for guestworkers, etc.

The question now is whether the government of the United States will give in to the mob.

France recently answered that question in the affirmative (for the umpteenth time), when Chirac backed down from his comically small employment reforms in the wake of mass protests. In Latin America, street protests have toppled two presidents in Bolivia since 2003 and one in Ecuador last year.
…
At this point, an immigration vote in the Senate will not, and should not, be about the particulars of policy. Rather, a vote for anything other than an enforcement-only bill would represent a surrender to the mob, a capitulation to the illegal-alien will to power. There will be plenty of time in coming years for Congress to debate the legitimate questions of legalization or guestworker programs -- but now it's time for senators to push back and pass an enforcement-only bill, to make clear that in the United States, laws are made in the Capitol, not in the streets.


********
********

8.
Center for Immigration Studies response to Public Notice 5319, regarding the State Department's intention to investigate the possible adoption of a pilot program to enable foreign university students to work and travel in the United States for up to 12 months.
By Jessica Vaughan
http://www.cis.org/articles/2006/jmvtestimony042806.html

EXCERPT: … The Department should proceed very cautiously, if at all, in establishing such a program. While exchange programs in general are a valuable and necessary form of public diplomacy, those exchange programs involving employment have a very mixed track record, and currently the regulation and oversight of these programs is inadequate to ensure that they will not result in the exploitation of participants, that they do not contribute to illegal immigration, that they do not present a national security vulnerability, and that they will not adversely affect employment opportunities for young people in this country. …