Towards a common sense immigration policy

After years of controversy and partisan infighting, we appear today no closer to any meaningful new national immigration policy than we were over six years ago when Bush first claimed he would make it a priority upon taking office. Much of the blame for this situation clearly rests on the shoulders of the President and his party, who during six years of essentially unopposed control of government, failed to reach any acceptable compromise. But, there have also been divisions within the Democratic Party that have helped stall the effort.

While stating a uniform policy of supporting "comprehensive reform", exactly what constitutes such reform can differ greatly within the Democratic Party.

The three core components of comprehensive reform presented thus far; Enforcement, Guest Workers, and A Path to Citizenship, have greatly varying degrees of support, and none appears to be universally accepted in their currently proposed incarnations legislatively. Even within the three major Democratic camps on this issue, which could generally be categorized as the "Immigrant-Rights/ Liberal" wing, the "DLC/Corporate" wing, and the "Lou Dobbs Democrat/Populist" wing, there are divisions. We are in fact nearly as divided as our Republican opponents.

But this need not be the case.

With the intelligent incorporation of some of the policies and ideas already advocated by organized labor, we could craft an immigration policy that would satisfy the needs of US workers, while still allowing for a reasonable flow of new immigrants wishing to seek a better life.

But there is division even among the leaders of the nations largest unions on this issue. So which policies and proposals would work best to unify the Democratic Party might not at first appear clear.

About two years ago, the country's labor unions split into two: a coalition of unions with millions of union members bolted from the ranks of the old AFL-CIO, and formed the Change to Win coalition.

The AFL-CIO that remained was about a third smaller than its former self.

This has had important consequences for immigration, particularly the Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) battle currently underway on Capitol Hill, here's why. Historically, the largest organized opposition to immigration in the US was big labor. This was true in the late 1800s, and remained true through almost all of the 1900s. The switch of the unions from the "anti" side to the "pro" side in the late 1990s was thus a momentous change and was spear-headed within the old AFL-CIO by the leaders of the unions that have since bolted to form the Change to Win coalition.
Link

The split has left a division in labor on the issue of immigration reform. The SEIU and UNITE HERE (members of the Change to Win coalition) are part of the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, the coalition of immigrant-rights groups, labor, and human rights advocates pushing for immigration reform. Many Win to Change unions also support guest worker programs as a means to allow new immigration and hopefully fill their ranks with new members - the AFL-CIO on the other hand holds some different views. There is good reason why.

Generalizing a bit broadly, the Change to Win coalition unions largely organize occupations that cannot be globalized easily (e.g. waiters, hotel staff, laundry workers), while the new AFL- CIO unions largely organize occupations that are subject to strong global competition (e.g. steel workers, auto workers). Put another way, while we can import a car from Japan, dirty dishes cannot be sent to Mexico to be cleaned.
Link

This leaves the AFL-CIO playing a more traditional role in its attempts to protect American workers and jobs.

The fact that labor is divided between the "liberal" policies of the Win for Change camp and the more "conservative" policies of the AFL-CIO, is in fact a very good thing. Since no immigration policy can ever be crafted without the support the American people, and particularly American workers, the positions of the AFL-CIO might gain wider acceptance with American workers and help diffuse some of the more hysterical rhetoric that comes from the Republican right.

It is no small wonder that the self-described spokesmen for American's working men and women such as Lou Dobbs or, Bill O'Liely never interview representatives from labor on the issue of immigration reform.

For all their faux-populism and wanna-be workingman bravado, the loudest opponents of immigration reform hold views quite far from the mainstream of the American labor movement. As much as Lou Dobbs wrings his hands and sighs at the sorry state of our "broken borders" or the thought of comprehensive reform, his head would explode if he were to spend ten minutes listening to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney speak on the issue….Sweeney just makes too much sense for Dobbs. His ideas and policies are well thought out and practical … something that surely can't be said for Dobb's bloviating rants.

This week Sweeney spoke out in the LA Times on immigration reform in general and proposals to initiate a new guest worker program specifically.

In a joint editorial with Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, Sweeney voiced his opposition to guest worker programs such as those favored by President Bush and instead believes that any immigrant admitted to work in the US should be put on an immediate track towards permanent residency or citizenship.

He went on to say that foreign workers should enjoy the same rights and protections as US workers, including the right to unionize and to collective bargaining. "Labor laws must protect all workers, regardless of immigration status. If we leave undocumented workers without any real way to enforce labor laws, as our laws do now, we are feeding employers' hunger for more and more exploitable workers, relegating them to second-class status. That hurts all workers."

On a guest worker program::

(It) will assure a steady flow of cheap labor from essentially indentured workers too afraid of being deported to protest substandard wages, chiseled benefits and unsafe working conditions.

Such a system will create a disenfranchised underclass of workers. That is not only morally indefensible, it is economically nonsensical. We’ve had plenty of bad experiences with such shortsighted answers to a complicated problem..

."The solution to the immigration crisis will require a new approach," Sweeney said. " First, everyone who is admitted to work must immediately be on a track toward permanent residency or citizenship."
Sweeney went on to list other key reforms:

• Employers who can prove that they tried and failed to find U.S. workers should be able to hire foreign workers, but not under abusive conditions that have a negative effect on the wages and working conditions.


• Caps on the number of employment-based visas issued each year should be set by the U.S. Department of Labor based on economic indicators that establish the needs of particular industries, not by political compromise.


• Employers should not be allowed to recruit abroad, a practice that invites bribes, exorbitant fees and potential abuse. Instead, employers should be required to hire from applications filed by workers in their home countries through a computerized job bank.


• Foreign workers should enjoy the same rights and protections as U.S. workers, including freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life.

The guidelines Sweeney laid out this week pretty much match those first put forward last year in the unions Executive Council statement on immigration reform.

Responsible Reform of Immigration Laws Must Protect Working Conditions for all Workers in the U.S.

Uniform enforcement of workplace standards must be a priority.
(The) exploitation of workers will continue as long, as it makes economic sense to do so, to the detriment of U.S.-born and foreign-born workers alike. Unfortunately, the lax enforcement of labor and employment laws has given too many unscrupulous employers the economic incentive to recruit undocumented workers…

The only meaningful way to remove that perverse economic incentive and to equalize the competitive playing field is to ensure that all those who gain the benefit of a worker’s labor, … abide by all labor and employment laws. That means that the immigration reform law must provide real and enforceable remedies for labor and employment law violations that are available to all workers, regardless of their immigration status…

Reforms must provide a path to permanent residency for the currently undocumented workers who have paid taxes and made positive contributions to their communities.
Legalization is an important worker protection. History shows that legalizing this population benefits all workers. … Without a legalization program, the economic incentive to hire and exploit the undocumented will remain, to the detriment of U.S. workers who labor in the same industries as the undocumented, because all workers will see their working conditions plummet.

We must reverse the trend of allowing employers to turn permanent, full-time year-round jobs into temporary jobs through attempts to broaden the size and scope of guestworker programs.
…Guestworker programs are bad public policy and operate to the detriment of workers, in the both the public and private sector, and of working families in the U.S. The abuses suffered by workers in the first such program, the post World-War II Bracero program, are well documented. The negative effects of the modern versions of the “guestworker” construct—such as the H1-B and H2-B programs—are all too evident today. Workers around the country are witnessing the transformation of formerly well-paying, permanent jobs into temporary jobs with little or no benefits, which employers are staffing with vulnerable foreign workers who have no real enforceable rights through the guestworker programs. These modern programs have had a major and substantial detrimental effect on important sectors of our economy.


In our view, there is no good reason why any immigrant who comes to this country prepared to work, to pay taxes, and to abide by our laws and rules should be denied what has been offered to immigrants throughout our country’s history, a path to legal citizenship. To embrace instead the creation of a permanent two-tier workforce, with non-U.S. workers relegated to second-class “guestworker” status, would be repugnant to our traditions and our ideals and disastrous for the living standards of working families.

Long-Term Labor Shortages Should be Filled With Workers with Full Rights
We recognize that our economy may face real labor shortages in the coming years, as the baby boomer generation retires. Instead of relying on a construct that guarantees the deterioration of working conditions in the U.S., we should focus on a meaningful solution that guarantees full workplace rights for all workers, both foreign-born and native, and also permits employers to hire foreign workers to fill proven labor shortages. The solution is simple: Congress should revise the permanent employment-based visas system and devote more resources to removing processing delays.

Employment-based admissions for permanent visas (commonly known as “green cards”) are subject to labor certification provisions…(and Congress has arbitrarily set the number of these visas at 140,000 annually. That approach should be changed so that the number of visas available responds to actual, demonstrated labor shortages, which will satisfy employers’ needs for workers, and will prevent the creation of a secondary class of workers and residents, because the new foreign workers will have full employment rights and the promise of a permanent future in our democracy.

Reform of immigration laws must consider the root causes of migration, and must take into account the global economic policies, as well as U.S. foreign policy that are pushing workers to migrate
Without rising living standards abroad for workers and the poor, the pressure for illegal immigration will continue. U.S. foreign policy, as well as trade and globalization policies, must be grounded upon a coherent national economic strategy, as described in An Economic Agenda for Working Families, adopted at the AFL-CIO’s 2005 Convention.

So in essence the AFL-CIO is already advocating positions on which the vast majority of Democrats could agree. They protect workers, both immigrant and native born, and set guidelines for future immigration that will not be exploitive.

• No guest workers


• Uniform enforcement of all workplace labor regulations


• A path to legalization for those already here


• Revise the green card system and devote more resources to removing processing delays


• All new entries come in on green cards, with a path to citizenship


• New caps on green cards set by DOL, economic conditions, and industry needs, not congress or political compromise


• No recruiting of foreign workers or use of brokers, but rather a computerized job bank


• Address the global economic policies, as well as U.S. foreign policy that cause migration

Ironically, these proposals would end up being easier to enforce and less costly to enact than the ones already being debated in congress. They contain no convoluted and complicated procedures to deal with the current undocumented population or future entrants. No "touchbacks", temporary status, fines, or waiting periods. It’s a plain and simple plan. Figure out exactly how many jobs you really have and workers you need, then let them in legally with green cards as full members of society.

With some refinement and tweaking they could easily become the groundwork for a unified Democratic position on immigration reform and eventually meaningful comprehensive reform .

In fact some of the framework for the more difficult areas of the legislation already exists in the current legislation.

For example in TitleIV, sec 410 of the Gutierrez -Flake bill there is a call for a bipartisan "Standing Commission on Immigration and Labor Markets." A separate agency to be set up within the executive branch, made up experts in "economics, demography, labor, business, or immigration who cannot be employees of the Federal Government or of any State or local government" and are charged with making recommendations on the annual levels of immigration. Although obviously a throw-away section in the bill, that gives the commission little more than an advisory powers, with modification, and some teeth, this commission could become a powerful regulatory agency to work with the DOJ in setting immigration levels going forward. This would take the process out of the hands of politicians and their business allies. If the proper levels of future immigration could be determined through economic guidelines that protected American workers while still supplying opportunity to those abroad, it would go a long way towards eliminating many of our current immigration problems.

Acceptance of these compromise positions by the "Immigrant-Rights/ Liberal" wing, and the "Lou Dobbs Democrat/Populist" wing of the party would allow for legalization, future regulated immigration, workplace enforcement, and an end to exploitive guest worker programs and labor recruiting practices.

Although not a complete answer to all the issues to be dealt with concerning immigration reform…they're acceptance as policy would leave us a lot better off than we are right now as a Party…and in far better shape than our Republican opponents.


tags: immigration, AFL-CIO , guest worker, amnesty, labor unions

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Analysis of STRIVE Act (Part 1: Enforcement Sections)

This is the first in a series of articles intended to look at some of the key provisions of the “The Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy Act of 2007” (STRIVE Act of 2007) introduced by U.S. Representatives Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ).

There has already been a great deal of information made available about the bill, much of it supplied by the immigration law community. Two extensive section by section summaries are available here, and here and the AILA has posted a summary for download here. Additionally, the complete text of the bill is available for download from the GPO here.

This analysis is intended to supplement those summaries already available by highlighting those areas of the bill that are the most troubling and will need revision or modification in order to produce the kind of meaningful legislation we hope to see coming out of this congress.

I must provide a caveat that I'm not an attorney and in no way claim any more than a layman's comprehension of the intricacies of the proposed legislation. Yet, one need not be an attorney to see some of the most glaring inadequacies of the bill, and it is those inadequacies I hope to shed some light on through this analysis.

In this first installment, we'll be looking at the first three sections of the bill that deal with the enforcement aspects of the legislation. TITLE I – BORDER ENFORCEMENT, TITLE II – INTERIOR ENFORCEMENT, and TITLE III – EMPLOYMENT VERIFICATION. In subsequent installments we'll examine the sections dealing with guest workers and legalization of the current undocumented population.

Since STRIVE creates a "trigger" mechanism which prevents the implementation of other aspects of the legislation from going into effect until the enforcement goals are achieved, they in effect become the linchpin of the entire bill.



SECURITY THROUGH REGULARIZED IMMIGRATION AND A VIBRANT ECONOMY ACT OF 2007 (“STRIVE” ACT OF 2007)

Certification Requirements Prior to Implementation of New Immigrant Worker Programs:

The bill opens with the Certification Requirements that must be met before any guest worker program or plan to legalization the current undocumented population can take place. This is the "triggers" section of the bill. Nothing can happen until these requirements are met:

• Secure Border. DHS submits a report on the status of implementation of the border surveillance technology improvements called for in the Secure Border Initiative including target dates for completing them.


• Secure Documents. The systems and infrastructure needed to make improvements to immigration documents that will be issued under the new guest worker and conditional non-immigrant programs have been developed, tested and are ready for use. Infrastructure needed for FBI security checks must be in place.


• Electronic Employment Eligibility Verification System. The first phase of the new system (applicable to critical infrastructure employers) has been implemented

(This initial section indefinitely delays the implementation of any form of reform in immigrant status until the Secretary of DHS certifies that certain "border security" aspects of the bill are completed. In essence the current undocumented population would remain in jeopardy, subjected to raids, incarceration, and deportation until such time as the DHS can implement numerous costly and complicated programs laid out in sections I through III.)

TITLE I – BORDER ENFORCEMENT

SUBTITLE A, sec 101-107 calls for recruitment of former members of the Armed Forces to serve as border patrol agents and increasing the availability and use of Department of Defense equipment to assist in surveillance activities to prevent illegal immigration. Adds just under 12,000 new Border Patrol agents over 5 years, 1000 more ICE agents, and 50 more US Marshalls. Calls for the building of roads and additional ports of entry, and the purchase vehicles and unmanned surveillance aircraft.

SUBTITLE C, sec 124 Governors may authorize National Guard troops to engage in reconnaissance activities, provision of translation services, emergency medical assistance services, the rescue of aliens in peril, and the construction of roadways, patrol roads, fences and barriers at the border for up to 21 days per year.

(These sections further militarize the border)


SUBTITLE D – Secure Entry Initiatives

Sec. 131 calls for enhance connectivity between DHS’ Biometric Fingerprint Identification System and the FBI’s identification system and the collection of all fingerprints from each alien required to provide fingerprints during the alien’s initial enrollment in the integrated entry and exit data system.

Sec. 134 states that no later than December 31, 2008, all immigration-status documents, other than interim documents, issued by DHS must be machine-readable, tamper resistant and incorporate biometrics.

(These sections require the expansion of data collection and issuing of new boimetric documentation to all current and future immigrants before any other reform measures can be enacted)

Sec 136 This section creates new crimes and penalties for evading border inspection. Prison terms of three to ten years are issued depending on whether violence is used or not. Any person who willfully disregards or disobeys the command of an immigration agent shall be fined or imprisoned for not more than five years or both.

(This section lays out the first of many new penalties aimed at those trying to cross the border. As will be seen in future sections of the bill, most of the "tough enforcement" measures in this bill are aimed exclusively at the roughly 55% of illegal entrants who cross the border on foot or by vehicle, as opposed to those who overstay visas. Where last years Sensenbrenner House Bill made all undocumented immigrants felons based on their illegal presence in the United States, the Gutierrez-Flake bill makes all immigrants who entered without inspection criminals. This is a subtle yet substantial distinction that runs throughout the bill. It divides those who had the ability to enter legally, then went out of status by over-staying their visas, and those who come from a country or economic class where non-immigrant visas are routinely denied into essentially two different classes of undocumented immigrants.)

TITLE II—INTERIOR ENFORCEMENT

SUBTITLE A - Reducing the Number of Illegal Aliens in the United States

Sec. 206 authorizes the use of expedited removal procedures to determine the deportability of aliens who are non lawful permanent resident aliens and who have been convicted of any criminal offense that establishes the alien's deportability under the INA relating to aggravated felonies.

(This section, along with new broader definitions of "aggravated felonies" set forth in Sec. 233, that include any offenses described in the aggravated felony definition regardless of whether the offense are state or federal violation and include foreign offenses where the imprisonment was already completed, gives the DHS expanded power to deport undocumented immigrants without all the rights of due process.)

Sec. 214 Creates a new ground of inadmissibility and deportability for persons convicted three times of drunk driving, one of which is a felony under state or federal law and for which the alien was sentenced for one year or more.

(This section further expands the list of deportable crimes)

Sec. 217 authorizes DHS to construct and acquire at least 20 additional facilities for the detention of aliens that have a capacity to detain a combined total of not less than 20,000 individuals at any time for aliens pending removal or a decision on removal.

Sec. 219 expands the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transfer System (JPATS). The expansion will include increasing the use of buses and air hubs in three geographic regions.

(These section further expand the DHS' detention and removal system. (last year JPATS air service transported a record 116, 000 undocumented immigrants to holding facilities or their countries of origin)

Sec. 221 This section amends the criminal code and expands penalties for passport, visa and
document-related fraud .

Any person who:

• knowingly uses any immigration document issued or designed for the use of another
• alters, any immigration document
• completes, presents, signs, or submits any false document
• possesses, uses, transfers, receives, buys, sells, or distributes any immigration document knowing it to be forged, counterfeited, altered, falsely made, stolen, procured by fraud, or produced or issued without lawful authority
• adopts or uses a false or fictitious name to evade or to attempt to evade the immigration laws
• or transfers or furnishes, without lawful authority, an immigration document to another person for use by a person other than the person for whom the passport was issued or designed

shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more 15 years, or both.

Any person who:

• uses an identification document, knowing (or having reason to know) that the document was not issued lawfully for the use of the possessor to obtain employment
• Uses an identification document knowing (or having reason to know) that the document is false to obtain employment
• Makes a false attestation to obtain employment

shall be fined under this title, shall be imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

(The broad wording of this section would make the vast majority of undocumented immigrants, who use false or altered documentation to obtain employment, housing, and other essentials, subject to criminal penalties including up to 15 years in prison for possessing false documentation. It essentially criminalizes the vast majority of undocumented immigrants)


SUBTITLE C: Detention and Removal of Aliens

Sec. 231 This section deals with the circumstances whereby DHS can detain undocumented immigrants longer than 90 days. Essentially this is the "indefinite detention" section of the bill. It actually it expands beyond Sensenbrenner the circumstances by which an undocumented immigrant can be detained for an indeterminate period of time.
An alien can be held if:

• the alien is likely to be removed in the reasonably foreseeable future


• the alien has failed to make a timely application, in good faith, for travel documents or has otherwise conspired or acted to prevent the removal of the alien


• the alien would have been removed if the alien had not
  (a)failed or refused to make all reasonable efforts to comply with the removal order
  (b) failed or refused to fully cooperate with the DHS to establish his identity and carry out the removal order, or
  (c) conspired or acted to prevent such removal


• the alien has a highly contagious disease that poses a threat to public safety


• there is a reason to believe that the release of the alien would threaten the national security of the United States; or


• release of the alien would threaten the safety of the community, been convicted of an aggravated felony as defined by the act, or has a mental condition or disorder that would lead to acts of violence.

(Currently indefinite detention is usually applied to non-citizens ordered removed from the United States whose countries refuse to accept them or who have no country because they are stateless. This is particularly true in the case of asylees from states that either have no repatriation policies like China or have poor diplomatic relations with the US. This legislation would greatly expand the circumstances under which an undocumented immigrant could be held indefinitely to include those who failed to fully cooperate with the DHS on numerous counts)

Section 235. Illegal Entry
This section makes it a criminal offense to knowingly enter or cross the border into the U.S. at a time or place other than as designated by the DHS; to knowingly elude examination or inspection by an immigration officer (including failing to stop at the command of such officer) or a customs or agriculture inspection at a port of entry; or to knowingly enter by means of a false or misleading representation or concealment of a material fact. Criminal penalties under this section increase if the violation occurred after a criminal conviction(s).

This section also increases the civil penalties for aliens apprehended while entering, attempting to enter, or knowingly crossing or attempting to cross the border to the United States at a time or place other than as designated by immigration officers.

(This section contains a crucial point in the Gutierrez-Flake bill. The bill has shifted the criminalization of undocumented immigrants from the "illegal presence" model of HR4437 that made being in the country without proper documentation a criminal offense, to an "illegal entry" model whereby entering the country without proper documentation becomes a criminal offense. Although the outcome of both bills would make a vast numbers of undocumented immigrants criminals, the Gutierrez-Flake model essentially exempts those who have entered legally then overstayed their visas. This targeting of those who have crossed the border without proper documents can only be seen as an obvious attempt focus attention on those from Mexico and Central America.)

TITLE III – EMPLOYMENT VERIFICATION

Sec. 301. Employment Verification.
This section makes it unlawful to hire or continue to employ anyone that an employer knows is not authorized, provides good faith shield for employers, and authorizes the DHS to require employer certify compliance.
The employment verification system is significantly altered by now only allowing for a limited number of identification documents to work for employment verification purposes.

For U.S. nationals:

• passports


• a biometric, machine readable, tamper-resistant social security card


• REAL ID driver’s licenses or identity cards

For lawful permanent resident:

• Permanent residence cards


• tamper-proof employment authorization cards issued by the Department of Homeland Security and developed by the Social Security Commissioner

For non-LPR who is authorized for employment:

• An employment authorization card that has a photo or other identifying information including name, DOB, gender and address, and contains security features


• a biometric machine readable, tamper-resistant social security card.

For worker who is not able to obtain a document listed above, a document designated by the DHS that contains:

• A photo or other identifying info including name, DOB, gender address, and


• security features, or


• until the employer required to participate in the Electronic Employment Verification System (EEVS), a document or combination of documents, that as of enactment of this bill, the DHS has established by regulation.

This section also creates a new employment verification system. The Electronic Employment Verification System (EEVS) revolves around a new biometric, machine readable, social security card that all residents will be required to possess. Additionally a cross-agency, cross-platform system will be implemented to share immigration, tax and social security information.

Within a year, all “critical” employers - mainly government agencies – must be using the system. Within two years, all employers with more than 5,000 workers must be using the stem. Within three years, al employers at the 1000 to 5000 level must be using the system. And within four years, all employers must be using the system.

This section raises many concerns. The limiting of acceptable documentation, even for US nationals, will adversely impact thousands of low-income U.S. workers who do not possess the type of identification required to obtain a job. The REAL ID drivers license program that is crucial to the plan has been roundly rejected by many of the states and it's doubtful it will universally accepted in any reasonable timeframe.

Although the bill goes to some length to point out it's not calling for a National ID, the new "secure" Social Security card that the bill requires, along with the information sharing requirements between the DHS, SSA, and IRS that go along with it, can be seen as nothing short of a de facto National ID.

Conclusion part I

One of the major flaws in Gutierrez-Flake bill is its attempt to find a compromise position somewhere between last year's Senate bill and the Sensenbrenner House bill. In trying to be all things to all people it has managed to encompass some of the worst aspects of both bills. The policy that most of the enforcement aspects of the bill must be effective before the "trigger" mechanism will be enacted for real immigration reform will effectively put meaningful reform on hold for possibly years.

The primary beneficiaries of the “trigger” benchmarks that could indefinitely delay urgently needed legalization will not be the American people who overwhelming want true comprehensive reform, or the millions of current undocumented immigrants living in an "immigration limbo", but rather the business interests that stand to reap huge financial benefits from supplying the needed technology and infrastructure required by the bill.

The very companies that have been the real beneficiaries of our current Iraq policy: Boeing, Ericsson, Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, etc. are now redirecting their efforts on the US border as the prospects for huge windfalls in Iraq come to a close. At the invitation of the Department of Homeland Security, Lockheed currently has more than 100 executives working on the Secure Border Imitative. Boeing, Ericsson, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon are vying for the same slice of the DHS budget pie. According to CorpWatch, each of these rivals has between 70 and 100 executives assembling security teams and designing new border technologies.

Additionally, the keeping, or shifting, of many of the worst aspects of last years House bill in regards to criminalization of the undocumented make the Gutierrez-Flake bill a highly flawed piece of legislation.

But it is not beyond repair.

Comprehensive reform can be accomplished…and the Gutierrez-Flake bill appears to be the starting point we must begin our journey from….it will be a long …but it can be done. But it must be realized that as currently written the bill is a most unacceptable attempt at true immigration reform.


In the second part of this series we'll look at the guest worker and the path to legalization aspects of the bill


tags: immigration, STRIVE Act , Flake, Gutierrez, HR1645, H.R.1645

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