1| Amnesty

Obamas immigration bill offers amnesty to

criminal immigrants, money for lawyers
Read
more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/20/oba
mas-immigration-law-offers-cornucopia-toimmigrationlawyers/#ixzz2OnU5X8ZbPresident Barack
Obamas draft immigration plan would
provide work permits and a path to
citizenship to illegal immigrants who have
fled police and or who await deportation in
jail. It would also provide a pathway for
immigrants whose convictions are
subsequently vacated, and for those who
have been jailed for fewer than five years,
according to the drafts supporters.
The draft, which was leaked on Sunday,
would also provide illegal immigrants with
many new legal rights, and create a
cornucopia of billing opportunities for
immigration lawyers.
For example, one section allows illegal
immigrants who have committed crimes to
stay in the country until their courtroom
appeals are settled, perhaps years after their
deportation was ordered.
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Sec. 123 of the White House bill would allow
immigrants to exhaust their [criminal]
appeals before being removed on the basis
of a criminal conviction, said a Feb. 19
tweet from Ben Winograd, an immigration
lawyer in D.C. Winograd formerly worked at
the American Immigration Council.
Other sections of the draft bill would allow
judges to provide illegals with taxpayerfunded lawyers and fine government
immigration lawyers.
Judge could also let illegal immigrants stay if
their deportations would incur an extreme
hardship to the deportee, rather than todays
standard of exceptional and extremely
unusual hardship, according to Winograd.
The much-touted immigration rewrite is
being pushed by the American Immigration

Lawyers Association, which helped created

the immigration council.
The associations 12,000 members would
profit from the draft law because they would
be paid to guide clients through the new
complexity, and to help their clients win work
visas and also their own slices of American
citizenship.
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The provision show that the administration
is not serious about enforcing immigration
laws, said Steve Camarota, the research
director of the Center for Immigration
Studies.
The complex provisions gut the law when it
comes redefine when illegal immigrants
facing deportation can stay, he said.
Public safety . and enforcing our
immigration laws do not seem to matter,
added Camarota, whose group backs reforms
that would halve annual immigration to
roughly 500,000 people.
Obamas draft law would wipe also out all
state and local rules that penalize illegal
immigrants, sharply reducing the ability of
voters in every state, county and city to
protect their communities if federal
authorities decline to enforce immigration
law.
The drafts details are important, partly
because Obama says he will push Congress
to pass his draft if legislators do not write
their own law.
More importantly, many of the drafts
features are being pushed by immigration
lawyers who are lobbying the eight senators
in the so-called gang of eight. The leading
senators include Democratic Sen. Chuck
Schumer and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.
The White Houses lawyer-friendly draft
shows that it has outsourced the formation
of immigration policy to the American
Immigration Lawyers Association, said
Camarota.
Selling Amnesty
By BILL KELLER
Published: February 3, 2013 232 Comments

2| Amnesty

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a primary next year, is more problematic.

The fear is that the House will balk or will
break immigration into little pieces, pass the
parts that crack down on undocumented
workers and kill any effort to legalize the 11
million already here.
That pessimism is natural; the House is the
place where ideas go to die. But it neednt
happen this time. If President Obama and
Congressional leaders play their cards right,
as they are doing so far, immigration reform
real immigration reform can clear
Congress this year.
Selling the measure to the Republican House
will require close attention to substance,
marketing and legislative tactics.

Lets assume that President Obama and the

Democrats sincerely want an immigration
bill, that this is not a trick to trap Republicans
into an anti-immigrant vote that will alienate
Hispanic voters and secure Democratic
advantage for a generation.
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Related

Senators Look at Past Failures for

Lessons on Immigration Overhaul (February
1, 2013)
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The Senate seems to be hospitable territory.
Four Republicans including the ascendant
Marco Rubio have joined four Democrats
in embracing the politically difficult principles
at the heart of the matter. Some advocates
of immigration reform talk confidently of
mustering 70 Senate votes, which would
represent an astonishing reversal of fortunes
for an issue that has long been mired in
demagogy.
The House, where many Republicans fear
getting creamed by Tea Party challengers in

For starters, advocates wont be using the

word amnesty. Personally I think its a fine
word, which has traditionally meant an act of
forgiveness for the sake of social harmony.
But in the meanspirited Republican/Fox News
lexicon, amnesty has come to mean
coddling criminals. So we will all talk of a
path to citizenship.
The last major immigration law, signed by
President Ronald Reagan in 1986, legalized
three million undocumented immigrants.
(Reagan, by the way, was comfortable calling
this amnesty.) But the law failed to prevent
a new illegal influx, largely because business
lobbied to prevent tough sanctions on
employers who hired unauthorized workers.
The lure of no-questions-asked jobs drew
millions of new illegal immigrants, and that
invasion fed a ferocious popular backlash.
This time around, Democrats should be at
least as ardent about enforcement as they
are about legalization of the undocumented.
That is essential to winning Republican
votes, but it is also the way to avoid a future
cycle of anti-immigrant populism.
In truth, most of what you hear from
Republicans about securing our borders is
a red herring. That is not the real problem.
Under Obama, border policing has doubled,
and deportations have ballooned to 400,000
a year with a new and prudent emphasis
on deporting convicted criminals.

3| Amnesty
The Migration Policy Institute reported in
January that the government now spends
more on immigration enforcement nearly
$18 billion a year than on the F.B.I., the
Secret Service, the Drug Enforcement
Administration and all the other federal law
enforcement agencies combined. Partly
because of stronger enforcement but also
because of lower birthrates and healthier
economies south of our border the net
flow of migrants from Mexico is actually zero,
or even negative, according to a recent
analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center. It
should be easy for Obama to endorse strong
language on border protection, because hes
already doing it.
The real weakness is internal enforcement.
There is an electronic system to verify that
businesses hire only workers who are legally
entitled to be here, but 90 percent of
employers dont use it. Both Obama and the
Senate Gang of Eight call for more rigorous
checks on employment, including a forgeryproof, theft-proof identification system,
which is overdue.
Businesses are not crazy about tougher
policing of their payrolls, but they have
mostly resigned themselves to the idea. And
the immigration bill is certain to include
some enticing compensation: for the tech
sector, more visas to attract educated
specialists; for the agriculture sector, an
expanded program of temporary labor, which
the Chamber of Commerce is negotiating
with the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
As for legalization, much of the debate has
raged around the question of how easy it is
for the undocumented to get the sweet prize
of citizenship. Simply bestowing green cards
on the millions seems unfair to those who
have played by the rules, and sends a bad
signal to others tempted to cheat. The bill
now being hatched is likely to create a short
path to citizenship for children, who are here
through no fault of their own, and a more
arduous path for adults. Grown-ups who
came here by sneaking across the border or
overstaying a temporary visa will have to
register, submit to a background check, pay
taxes and penalties, and then wait their turn
behind those who applied legally.

Some big-hearted folks (and some

Democrats hoping to get grateful Hispanics
into their voter base) will argue that we
should not drag out the naturalization
process for 10 years. But the important thing
is that the 11 million be allowed to come out
of hiding. Under the status Obama calls
provisional and the Senate gang calls
probationary, they will be allowed to work,
travel and send their kids to school without
fear of deportation while they wait to apply
for green cards. No federal benefits, no vote,
but no sword of Damocles either. Think of it
as the path to the path. This compromise is
the biggest breakthrough in many years of
immigration debate, and it is the key to a
consensus.
As Ashley Parker pointed out in The Times,
the sponsors of reform have learned
important messaging lessons from their
failed attempts in 2006 and 2007. They are
building a consensus on principles before
getting bogged down in legislative details.
They are using more conciliatory language.
They have brought business and labor
together to work out compromises on issues
like temporary workers. They have kept a
hard focus on enforcement.
The good news is that the anti-immigration
side has no lobbying equivalent of the
National Rifle Association, no group with its
hands so firmly on the throats of Congress
that it can override public opinion. But the
bill will face a reservoir of popular fear,
resentment and misunderstanding. President
Obama and the indefatigable Senator
Charles Schumer will work the Democratic
constituencies and rally public support, but
the hard sell is up to a few key Republicans
who understand that this is their partys best
hope of redemption with the surging Latino
electorate.
So far the most effective antidote to rightwing opposition has been Senator Rubio. In
the days after the Gang of Eight unveiled its
proposal the Floridian made the rounds of
the shouting heads on the conservative
media circuit, arguing the case. By the time
Rubio was done, Rush Limbaugh was
unconvinced but muted, and Sean Hannity,
who announced after the November election

4| Amnesty
that he had evolved on the issue, was
calling it the most thoughtful proposal that
Ive heard. Karl Rove, another Fox talker,
who tried unsuccessfully to sell immigration
reform when he was President George W.
Bushs right arm, called the Senate principles
a huge step forward. Fox pundits, perhaps
mindful that their owner, Rupert Murdoch,
recently came out for a path to citizenship,
have avoided using the A-word to describe
the latest proposals.
Rubio could bolster the case for legalizing
undocumented immigrants by making more
of the economics. My conservative
colleague David Brooks has spelled out the
rosiest economic case for increased
immigration, including legalization of the
undocumented. I would add a point made by
Gordon Hanson, who studies immigration
economics at the University of California, San
Diego. Hanson points out that giving the 11
million undocumented immigrants
provisional legal status would greatly
improve the odds that their children would
become educated, productive, taxpaying
members of society rather than drains on the
economy.

Supporters of reform are moving with

unusual speed, hoping to build up
momentum that will carry over to the House.
They aim to get a bill through the Senate this
summer, leaving much of 2013 for the House
to act before representatives are completely
immersed in midterm electoral politics.
The most important tactical decision, though,
is in the hands of Speaker John Boehner. One
reason the House is such a tar pit is that
Boehner refuses to bring controversial bills to
a vote unless he first has the approval of his
Republican caucus a majority of the
majority. In the recent fiscal showdown,
Boehner lowered that barricade and let the
bill pass with just a minority of his own party
joining in. He has every reason to do it again
on immigration. Boehner has read the
election results a two-to-one Latino vote
for Obama and he knows that if the House
Republicans smother this effort, they will pay
a high price.
Im pretty sure that is not Obamas intent.
But it is his best leverage.