Gang Immigration Bill (S.744) is Comprehensively Flawed

Enforcement/Security

• No Fence: This plan only calls for Janet Napolitano to “establish a strategy”… “to identify where fencing”… “should be deployed”... Any plan that doesn’t complete the 700-miles of double fencing is worthless.
• Internal Enforcement: Any plan that does not limit Obama’s prosecutorial discretion, restore the 287(g) program, ban sanctuary cities and explicitly allow states to enforce federal law and preclude the Justice Department from suing them, is worth less than the paper it is printed on...  In fact, on page 496, it explicitly preempts states from enforcing immigration laws.
• No real triggers: Senator Rubio... and Janet Napolitano will be in charge for the most critical years of implementation.  All they have to do is submit a plan to secure the border (coming from someone who already believes the border is secured) within 6 months of passage, and everyone immediately becomes eligible for legal status...

E-verify and the visa tracking system don’t have to be implemented for 5 and10 years respectively.  Even then, they never call for a biometric exit-entry system as currently required by law...

• The bill replaces E-verify, the most effective system, with some other unspecified verification system which won’t be in place for another few years (p. 503)...  It also exempts day laborers from using it (p. 402)...
• The bill puts drastic limitations on “profiling” and discriminating against illegals both on the employer side (even though we require them to use E-verify) and the law enforcement side. This is yet another provision that invites boundless and perennial lawsuits.

Amnesty for Illegals

• Almost Immediate Amnesty: Every illegal is eligible to come forward for “Registered Provisional Immigrant” (RPI) legal status within 6 months after passing the bill once Napolitano submits a strategy plan for border security.  That is the most important detail.  Once the legalization begins, it will never be revoked, irrespective of the success of any promised enforcement in the future.  Also, because anyone could potentially be eligible for legal status, and must be afforded a “reasonable opportunity” to come forward, it will ostensibly be impossible to deport anyone during the entire 2.5 year application process, including the new people who will inevitably come here illegally to take advantage of the liberalization.
• Background check: No government documents are required to identify these people during background checks...
• Public Charge: ...This legal status will also allow them to immediately collect welfare benefits in many states, which award benefits to anyone lawfully present.
• Criminals:  Section 245B(3)(A) (pages 61-66) allows many criminals to get legal status.  Even those violent felons excluded may be granted legal status by the Secretary for humanitarian purposes, to ensure family unity, or if such a waiver is otherwise in the public interest.  Even the worst of terrorists who are excluded from this waiver, are not required to be deported.  “Nothing in this paragraph may be construed to require the Secretary to commence removal proceedings against an alien.”
• Refundable Tax Credits...
• Social Security:  The bill would waive prosecutions of those who have used fraudulent Social Security numbers to get jobs when they were illegal, allowing them to receive Social Security benefits when they retire.
• Dream Act: The dreamers (aged 16-and above with no maximum) and the Ag workers will get immediate blanket amnesty, green cards in just 5 years...
• American-born children: Everyone born on American soil is recognized as an American citizen under current law.  As such, every child born to someone in RPI status, the millions of new low-skilled legal immigrants, and the guest workers will all be American citizens and will be eligible for welfare benefits.
• Invites in Deportees: Not only will deportations be suspended for everyone here, the bill invites thousands of people who have already been deported (a spouse, parent, or child of a U.S. citizen or green card holder, or entered the country illegally before the age of 16) to come back and apply for the provisional legal status...
• Immigrants officially have to wait 5 years upon receiving a green card to collect most welfare benefits...
• Obamacare market distortion: Ironically, in an attempt to show that the RPIs will not receive obamacare benefits, they are creating another problem – tilting the labor force towards the amnestied aliens.  Employers must provide health coverage for all full-time employees or contribute $3,000 towards government coverage for that individual.  Given that the RPIs will be excluded from the program, employers will be exempt.  They will have a $3,000 incentive to hire those individuals over everyone else.
• Government-Sanctioned Private Advocacy and Legal Groups: Section 2106 establishes a foundation (“Grant Program to Assist Eligible Applicants”) that can easily become a government-sanctioned La Raza/ACORN group to agitate for the RPIs during the entire process...
• Lawsuits:  Sec. 2104 (pages 120-129) of the bill allows illegals to challenge and appeal any denial of RPI status for any reason...

Legal Immigration/Guest Workers/Future Flow

• Wage Controls... this bill proposes new wage controls for H1-B visa workers. 
• Diversity Agenda... Under the new points system, which can work effectively when implemented properly, applicants from those countries on the diversity visa would be granted extra points, almost as much as those who hold master’s degrees.
• Prioritized H1-B Expansion: Almost all of the H1-b expansion (from 65,000 to up to 180k) comes from the base cap.
• Defacto Permanent Guest Workers: Those Ag workers who come in on the new W visas will be able to stay for 3 years and have their visa renewed for an additional 3 years.  Even if we had a visa tracking system in place, does anyone actually believe we will send them home?...
• Obamacare: Although the amnestied illegals in RPI status will not be eligible for obamacare, all of the new LPRs created by this bill on the legal side will be eligible immediately...
• Chain Migration: The same provision that grants an unlimited number of visas to family members of citizens is extended to family members of LPRs (page 280)... family-based immigration would explode over the next decade...
• Refugees and Asylum... the bill... will allow people who represent national security risks to linger without having to come forward.