On October 28th 2013 I participated in a fly-in to encourage Washington lawmakers to move on immigration reform proposals currently pending in the House. This page will serve as a literal ‘brain-dump- of all my notes from that trip. Later I’ll re-write this page into something more cohesive and akin to an op-ed on the subject.
Background: Both houses of Congress have prepared bills to address immigration this year. The Senate bill is comprehensive and is supported by the Democrats and the President. The House has passed five bills our of the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees which they think is a better approach. Congressman Jason Chaffetz was a key player in the crafting of the five bills in the House. The Senate has indicated it does not support the House approach. There is a stalemate on immigration while either chamber refuses to consider the others’ proposals. The President is using this opportunity to point fingers at House Republicans and call them obstructionist and incapable of compromise.
DAY 1:
- I was asked to join the fly-in by FWD.us, Mark Zuckerberg’s (founder of Facebook) organization calling for immigration reform. At first I actually resisted the invitation because I didn’t feel informed enough on the subject of immigration reform to really add any value to the debate, but I relented when I was told that my recommended alternative was already going.
- I arrived in Washington at 5pm on Monday the 28th after sitting next to Salt Lake County Vice Chair Suzanne Mulet for the flight down from Philadelphia. Upon arrival I was informed that Rod Arquette was interested in interviewing me at 6:20pm in connection with the event. I immediately called Congressman Jason Chaffetz’s office for a policy briefing so that I could make sure I was aligned with the Congressman’s views on immigration reform.
- Jason’s Utah office sent over a briefing document on what Jason is doing with Immigration reform in the House. I’d seen Jason using the briefing book at a meeting of the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce where Jason was speaking and requested it specifically so that I could speak to his points.
- Jason’s immigration policy lead in Washington gave me a full download in the cab-ride to my hotel on the five pending bills and Jason’s view of how we should proceed with reform. he also explained Jason’s objections to the Senate approach. Below are my verbatim notes – I will add a briefing on the actual bills at the end of this post:
- we won’t fix illegal immigration until we fix legal immigration
- Judiciary committee passed four bills
- Agg Act is a guest worker program
- Legal Workforce Act is basically mandatory e-verify
- Safe Interior Enforcement Act
- allows locals jurisdictions to enforce national immigration law if they choose (no more Presidential over-rides of Arizona laws allowing enforcement
- note: 40% of illegal immigrants did NOT come across the border illegally – they came legally and over-stayed their visas.
- Example: one employer I spoke to on the plane says he hired 25 log workers from India. They had a connecting flight in Atlanta. Only 15 landed in final city because 10 jumped ship in Atlanta and took buses to New York to drive cabs. 5 more jumped the bus from the airport to their hotel for the same reason. The rest vanished after arriving at the hotel. All entered the country legally in theory, but are now illegal.
- Skilsl Act
- More H1B Visas
- Allows greater or no caps on visas for skilled workers which overcomes the drawbacks of H1B (no flexibility, raises, promotions, or ability to change jobs once here)
- Homeland Security passed one bill
- real KPIs for border security
- 90% security of the border enforced
- Principles not included in the above bills – provide some legal status for folks here now, but no “special path” to citizenship. We won’t bar them from becoming citizens if they have legal status, but no special provisions either. Jason believes int eh idea of a “touch-back” to their home countries.
- At 6:20pm I gave this interview [link] with Rod Arquette from the hallway of my hotel. Rod asked what my views were on immigration reform and I explained my perspective as an HP employee and explained why I supported Jason’s approach to reform and the five bills currently pending in the House.
- After the Rod Arquette interview I had dinner with the Utah delegation which included represnetatives from the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce, the Utah Manufacturers association, Stan Lockhart from Micron, and other representatives from technology associations, farmers groups, immigration lawyers and a few faith based organizations. The US Chamber of Commerce addressed the group and gave their views:
- The Democrats in the House have presented a bill identical to the Senate bill to give the President an excuse to demonize republicans.
- We’re currently training people to leave! We’re willing to bend over backwards to recruit the best in athletics, but not the best in technology
- The current H1B Visa cap was hit in FIVE (5) DAYS this year!
- We need legal immigration reform (more green cards, guest worker programs, e-verify, etc.)
- The Senate Bills is basically dead on arrival (too many issues to address)
- We are NOT talking about amnesty, pathways to citizenship, or anything of that ilk. Those are things that will distract from the reforms on the table right now.
- House Republican joke – “The Democrats may be our opponent, but the Senate is the enemy“
- After dinner I headed to Lanham Maryland to visit family, including my uncle who is in failing health. Got in late for a 5:30am rise for more panels and meetings.
DAY 2:
- The day begins with two panel discussion sat the US Chamber of Commerce
- Panel 1
- Moderator Governor Norquist, president of Americans for Tax reform. Panel includes President of the American COnservative Union, President of the Western Growers Association, President of American Bankers Association, Fresno County Sheriff, VP Southern Baptist Association.
- Good panel. Lots of talk, but only one key take-aways:
- police chiefs in California observe that migrant workers are now staying past growing season because they fear they won’t be able to get back into the US next season, exacerbating already high unemployment in central California. The flow across the border has effectively stopped.
- Agriculture IS the open space, so environmentalists who oppose agriculture are contradicting themselves
- Immigration reform has always been traditionally free market conservatives (Reagan, Kemp) vs. socialist labor unions.
- Panel 2
- Moderator Rebecca Tallent, Director of Immigration Policy for Bipartisan Policy Center. Panel includes Keith Fontenot, Visiting Scholar Brookings Institute and Former Associate Director Congressional Budget Office (I know this guy, seen him speak before, very tight), President of the American Action Forum and Senior Managing Director of Macroeconomic Advisors.
- This was an exceptionally informative panel. Provided an in-depth analysis of the economic impact of immigration reform.
- A copy of the report discussed can be found here [link]
- Labor union opposition to immigration reform based on out-of-date economics
- wage depression temporary and offset by long-term improvements in productivity as companies make capital improvements
- Heritage Foundation economic analysis of the impact of reform contains serious flaws
- doesn’t ask “what happens if we do reform”
- does not account for economic growth
- issues with Social Security projections and healthcare projections (either omitted or inaccurate)
- “If you assume the world is flat, it’s hard to build a big map” – Fontenot
- Address labor shortages in specific markets to deal with overall growth
- “When we had a 55mph speed limit, Republcians didn’t say ‘first let’s arrest all the speeders’.” – Fontenot
- Exceptional speech “The Highest Good” discusses the religious implications of immigration reform [MP3].
- After the second panel I received worth that Channel 4 news Utah was requesting an interview. Suzanne Mulet and I stayed behind for the interview, which was taped because they couldn’t get the satellite feed to work and aired later.
- Panel 1
- First meeting with Congressman Chris Stewart:
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- Chris was very supportive of the reform proposals on the table in the House now. Said one issue was that the extreme right continues to demonize reform, which is not helpful because the President and the Democrats in the Senate are using that to distract attention from the substance of the work the republicans in the House are doing.
- Second meeting with Rob Bishop:
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- Photo of the meeting makes the New York Times. [link]
- Bishop says reform won’t happen this year because the timing is too tight (18 legislative days left).
- Said the Senate bill has serious flaws, including “exception” landuage that allows agencies to ignore everything the bill at their discretion
- Supports reform but thinks we need to lead with border security to build trust
- His border security language is strewn among the five bills currently pending in the House.
- Biggest concern is the fact that federal land managers won’t allow border patrol agents to access the border and 80% of the border is on federal land.
- agents must wait for horses to arrive to continue their patrols
- in some cases BLM managers delay 90 days before granting access to the border.
- Echoes Stewart’s assertion that the extreme right is demonizing reform and making the process more complicated because they’re clouding the debate and giving the left ammunition. There is broad agreement among conservatives about what needs to be done. We need to move on the bills that have broad support, and leave the more contentious issues for later.
- Lunch with the Utah delegation discussed Caucus system and Count My Vote initiative.
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- Utah Valley Chamber says we need to make sure we engage with Val Hale on the subject of the Caucus so that members understand the importance of keeping the current system intact.
- Third meeting with Jason Chaffetz
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- Troy (the immigration policy lead who briefed me as we drove from the airport) was in attendance and I thanked him for his help.
- Jason handed out briefing booklets on the five bills currently pending in the House. [link]
- Explained the five bills pending in the House right now and pointed out that he is one of the few members who serves on both Judiciary and Homeland Security and thus had the ability to help work on all five.
- Explained that the Senate bill is not a viable option because, along with it’s flaws, it requires a single large coalition and that’s just not going to happen.
- Says “We need to have an adult conversation about reform because these issues are too easy to demonize with a bumper sticker.”
- I specifically asked what the Utah County GOP could do to support his efforts and he said we could help him explain the case for the reform proposals on the table in the House and explain what he’s doing. I agreed.
There are five bills pending in the House right now:
- HR 1417, The Border Security Results Act of 2013
- Requires the Department of Homeland Security to develop a national plan to secure the entire southwestern border.
- Directs DHS to use advanced technology to achieve situational awareness of the border.
- Mandates the development of KPIs to allow Congress to verify that goals are being achieved.
- Requires independent verification of operational control
- HR 2131, The SKILLS Visa Act
- Increases green cards for STEM grads
- Increases and strengthens H-1B program
- Provides job-creating entrepreneur visas
- Strengthens investor visa program
- Makes immigration system smarter
- Eliminates arbitrary caps
- More doctors for under-served areas
- Increases green cards for other skilled workers
- greater flexibility for employers and workers
- HR 2278, The Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement “SAFE” Act
- Grants states and localities the authority to enforce immigration laws
- strengthens national security
- protects American communities from dangerous criminal aliens
- Improves visa security
- Helps ICE officers better do their jobs
- Strengthens border security
- Reviews adminitration’s abuse of prosecutorial discretion
- HR 1772, The Legal Workforce Act
- Repeals I-9 stystem
- Voluntary E-Verify for employers
- Protects against identity theft by allowing parents to lock SSNs and strengthens penalties for identity theft
- Provides for identity authentication pilot programs by DHS
- HR 1773. The AG Act
- Expands the scope of the program to address more agriculture (allowing dairy and product processors to participate)
- Eliminates excessive red tape with a temporary guest worker program
- Protects farmers from abusive litigation bu requiring workers to be subject to binding arbitration
- Enacts market-based approach to meet demand and supply by eliminating artificial government imposed wage rates
- Helps American farmers keep up with global competitors with guest worker program
- Protects taxpayers by ensuring guest workers not eligible for ObamaCare, EITC, or other welfare programs