Now that it has advanced that far in the process I've noticed the agenda-pu$hing corporate media focu$ has been on amnesty and border security.
"Back taxes a thorny issue in immigration bill; Amendmentmay imperil passage of Senate plan" by Julia Edwards | Globe Correspondent, June 11, 2013
WASHINGTON — A proposal to collect unpaid taxes from illegal immigrants, introduced in hopes of gaining Republican support for legislation to provide a pathway to citizenship for 11 million people, could complicate efforts to pass the bill, according to some analysts.
Well, at least the immigrants now see this greedy, money-grubbing government for what it is. A lot different than the government and media propaganda you received about the place, huh?
The Senate begins debate this week.
The amendment, authored by Senator Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, would require illegal immigrants to pay any back taxes before applying for citizenship. Hatch is in a powerful position to sway other conservatives and he has said he would walk away from the bill if his “reasonable” amendment is not included.
In the world out here that is called extortion and blackmail.
Significantly, Senator Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican who is a key figure in the immigration debate, has said he supports Hatch on the issue. “We strongly support Senator Hatch’s amendments to address the finance issues in the legislation,” Rubio spokesman Alex Conant said.
But critics said the amendment could hamper efforts to pass the bill. They said it is unrealistic to think that an illegal immigrant who worked in the underground economy would be able to calculate unpaid taxes and pay potentially huge amounts to the government.
Senator Charles Schumer, the New York Democrat, said the measure was impractical. He said an illegal immigrant might say, “I don’t know what my back taxes are. I’ve worked for 12 years for these eight companies. Four of the companies paid me in cash.”
Sixty-one percent of the nation’s illegal immigrant population that arrived after 2001 works in the “underground economy,” according to a 2009 Social Security Administration study, meaning they have no Social Security numbers.
These immigrants often receive wages in cash from a different employer at the end of each day and rarely pay income or Social Security taxes. The task of calculating and providing proof of what they owe may be too onerous and deter them from emerging from the underground, according to immigration advocates.
“Think about the day laborer who works day to day, going job to job, going back and trying to reconstruct their employment history in a way that would create a credible tax filing,” said Marshall Fitz, immigration policy director at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. “It’s not realistic.”
If the amendment kills it, fine.
According to the Immigrant Learning Center in Boston, the top five most popular jobs for immigrants living in Massachusetts range from low-wage day-labor jobs such as building maintenance and manufacturing to high-skilled salaried jobs in the tech sector and health care.
You know, the jobs Americans won't or can't do, even though we have done them.
As a result, there are likely to be “huge inconsistencies” in the employment histories of undocumented immigrants without Social Security numbers, according to Paul Watanabe, director of the Institute for Asian American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Immigration advocates in Massachusetts are split on the issue....
They say many Massachusetts immigrants already pay their taxes through a tax ID number and paid $1.36 billion in state income taxes in 2009. Unions opposes the measure.
The citizenship seekers would not only need to pay back their income taxes but would also be accountable for seeing that their Social Security taxes, also known as payroll taxes, have been paid, a cost usually shared between employer and employee.
That is a problem because immigrants may have a hard time tracking down past employers and seeing that they pay their share, because employers may not be willing to disclose to the government that they hired an undocumented worker, according to Sharon Parrott, vice president for budget policy and economic opportunity at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research and policy institute in Washington.
Some Republican supporters of the legislation signaled they have concerns about the back-taxes amendment but have left the door open for negotiation....
Translation: They will get some chunk of change out you.
--more--"
"Immigration bill clears procedural Senate hurdles; GOP looking to strengthen border security" by David Espo | Associated Press, June 12, 2013
WASHINGTON — In Spanish and English, the Senate pushed contentious immigration legislation over early procedural hurdles with deceptive ease on Tuesday as President Obama insisted the ‘‘moment is now’’ to give 11 million immigrants in the United States illegally a chance at citizenship.
Despite the lopsided votes, Republicans served notice they will seek to toughen the bill’s border security provisions and impose tougher terms on those seeking to gain legal status. ‘‘This bill has serious flaws,’’ said their party leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, one of several who noted pointedly that the 60-vote majority they will demand for passage is hardly assured.
Even before the first proposed changes were considered, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a potential 2016 Republican presidential contender, outlined the complicated state of play for a measure that he helped draft as a member of the bipartisan ‘‘Gang of Eight’’ and now seeks to alter.
I don't like gangs.
With changes to tighten control of the US-Mexican border, he said, about half of the Senate’s 46 Republicans are prepared to vote to create the pathway to citizenship that is backed by most or all of the 54 lawmakers aligned with the Democratic majority.
At the White House, Obama said repeatedly that the current immigration system is broken, for the foreign-born who live in the United State legally and illegally alike.
How is it broke for the legals?
Referring to the 11 million currently in the country unlawfully, he said, ‘‘Yes, they broke the rules; they didn’t wait their turn. They shouldn’t be let off easy. They shouldn’t be allowed to game the system. But at the same time, the vast majority of these individuals aren’t looking for any trouble. They’re just looking to provide for their families, contribute to their communities.”
Even if they are working in drug gangs and are responsible for violence?
And since when did illegal become no big deal, especially with the government hollered legality over the NSA spy scandal?
At its core, the bill sets out a 13-year journey to citizenship for the millions of immigrants who arrived in the United States illegally through the end of 2011 or who overstayed their visas.
It's a "journey."
That journey would include paying fines and back taxes and other measures. The bill also requires a tighter border to prevent future illegal immigration. Other key provisions would create a new program for low-skilled workers to enter the country and expand the number of visas for the highly-skilled, who are particularly in demand in technology firms. The bill also jettisons a decades-old system that favors family ties over education, job skills, and other factors in prioritizing prospective legal immigrants.
It's as I stated at the beginning of the post, and anyone citing family for their support of the bill is either misinformed or a liar.
Obama didn’t say so, but the legislation is probably his best hope of achieving a second-term landmark domestic accomplishment.
Then his presidency will be judged a failure.
Numerous Republicans hope to use the issue to repair their party’s image among Hispanic voters, a growing portion of the electorate in key states, and a group that polls show gave Obama 71 percent of its votes last year.
Oh, it's all politics!
But the GOP is divided, with Tea Party-backed lawmakers and other conservatives resisting anything that smacks of amnesty or otherwise seems to permit legalization without assuring the long border with Mexico in particular is virtually closed to future unlawful immigration.
Yeah, how unbelievable is it that the loathed Tea Party stands in the way of a further deterioration of America?
‘‘Of all of the issues swirling around this bill the path to citizenship for those who are here illegally is the single most divisive issue,’’ said Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican elected to his first term last fall. ‘‘And that is the issue on which the Obama White House and Senate Democrats insist, and by insisting on that division I believe they by design destine this bill to be voted down.’’
Oh, that's why the ma$$ media is focused on that up front.
In the Capitol, Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, chose to deliver a speech on the immigration measure in Spanish.
He said it was appropriate to do so since the language ‘‘has been spoken in this country since Spanish missionaries founded St. Augustine, Florida in 1565. Spanish is also spoken by almost 40 million Americans who have a lot at stake in the outcome of this debate,’’ he said in an English translation provided by his office.
How do you say pandering in Spanish?
Taken together, the two procedural votes had the effect of placing the bill formally before the Senate and open for amendments.
Both drew more than 80 votes, reflecting a bipartisan desire to have the debate that now is expected to consume three weeks.
Substantively, an early skirmish took shape over a proposal by Cruz’ fellow Texan, Senator John Cornyn. It would permit the legalization process to begin but require several changes before anyone currently in the country illegally could receive a green card conferring permanent legal residence.
Those changes include apprehension of at least 90 percent of those seeking to cross into the United States at every segment of the Southern border, implementation of a biometric exit system at all air and sea ports of entry, and a nationwide E-Verify system to check the legal status of prospective employees.
What, all the communications not enough?
Democratic supporters of the legislation have deemed Cornyn’s plan a ‘‘poison pill,’’ designed to wreck the bill’s chances for passage instead of enhance them.
But the Texan told reporters he had some leverage to force changes, if nothing else.
--more--"
"Lawmakers tussle on immigration" by David Espo | Associated Press, June 13, 2013
WASHINGTON — Bickering across a deep divide, supporters of immigration legislation pushed back hard on Wednesday against Republican demands for tougher border security measures before millions living illegally in the country could take the first steps toward US citizenship.
Even modest changes were snared in the political crossfire that erupted on the first full day of debate on the measure, as the two sides failed to agree on terms for voting on seemingly noncontroversial proposals....
I hope the House kills it.
In addition to taking steps to secure the border and begin a legalization process for millions, the White House-backed legislation would increase the number of visas for highly skilled workers, create a new program for the lesser-skilled to work in the United States, and overturn a family-based system for legal immigration that has been in place for decades.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, has said he wants a final vote on the measure before July 4.
Across the Capitol, House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said he hopes immigration legislation can move through committee by then, and be on the floor later in July.
While the obstacles to a final agreement are daunting, the Senate bill has support from both business and organized labor, two groups often at odds.
Labor gets a monitoring bureaucracy out of the deal.
Additionally, senior Republicans have made it clear they envision the legislation as a way for the party to show a friendlier face to Hispanic voters, who overwhelmingly supported President Obama last fall.
Even some GOP lawmakers who seem unlikely to vote for the Senate bill are recalibrating their rhetoric. One, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, said that conservatives could accept a pathway to citizenship as long as the border security measures are tough enough....
I'm not a Rand Pauler. He's nothing like the father.
--more--"
"Senate seeks bipartisan compromise on border security; Has July Fourth goal of passing immigration law" by Erica Werner | Associated Press, June 14, 2013
WASHINGTON — The bill, which would contain the most significant changes to immigration law in decades, would require all employers to check workers’ legal status, allow tens of thousands of new high- and low-skilled workers into the country, and create a 13-year path to citizenship for some 11 million people now here illegally.
The bill also devotes billions to new equipment and personnel along the US-Mexico border....
Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, and the three other Democratic authors of the bill, along with Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, met with President Obama at the White House on Thursday to discuss strategy....
--more--"
"Immigration overhaul is key, Graham warns; Blocking it will doom GOP, says S.C. Republican" by Philip Elliott | Associated Press, June 17, 2013
WASHINGTON — One the proposal’s authors who is considering such a White House campaign refused to pledge support for the measure without changes conservatives have demanded....
The proposal that would give an estimated 11 million immigrants in the United States illegally a long and difficult path to citizenship.
The legislation also creates a low-skilled guest-worker program, expands the number of visas available for high-tech workers, and deemphasizes family ties in the system for legal immigration that has been in place for decades. It also sets border security goals that the government must meet before immigrants living in the United States illegally are granted any change in status....
A thwarted immigration overhaul could send those voting blocs more solidly to Democrats’ side in future elections.
Which will doom the Republican party, put it in a demographic death spiral, and guarantee Democrats retain the presidency.
And, oh, yeah, the sky will be falling, too.
That has led some Republican lawmakers to support immigration reform, but the party’s conservative base still opposes any legislation that would create a pathway to citizenship for immigrants living here illegally.
Which is amnesty, but I don't oppose it on those grounds. I oppose it on cheap foreign labor being insourced to be used as slaves.
--more--"
Related:
Where New England's Senators Stand on Immigration
Sunday Globe Special: British Immigration
That's where we stand now.
"Advocates for immigrants rally at jails; Families make appeal ahead of Father’s Day" by Javier Panzar | Globe Correspondent, June 16, 2013
The group rallied as part of a nationwide effort to urge the Obama administration to halt deportations and stop separating families as Congress considers immigration legislation that could allow some to stay.
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Obama's Nonprofit PAC
Rallies are being held around the country this weekend to commemorate Father’s Day and the families who are separated by deportation, organizers said....
--more--"
In the country illegally and was driving without a license?
So which corporate donors are behind it?
"Companies call for tech classes in Mass. schools; Want computer science taught" by Michael B. Farrell | Globe Staff, June 11, 2013
Executives from Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., and other leading firms want to require all Massachusetts public schools to teach computer science, so local tech companies don’t have to rely on foreign workers to fill future programming and engineering jobs.
Not saying it's a bad idea, but a little late as they push for more work visas.
The plan would compel the teaching of computer science classes as early as the eighth grade, add computing questions to the state’s standardized tests, and create a statewide curriculum for technology instruction throughout high school. Massachusetts would be the second state to mandate the classes, after South Carolina.
“This is really about workforce development,” said Steve Vinter, head of Google’s office in Cambridge, one of the proposal’s architects.
Silly me, I thought it was about education.
Vinter and other proponents will pitch the plan to state lawmakers and education officials on Beacon Hill Wednesday. Opposition is already forming.
The proposal would require millions of dollars in new spending to implement, as well as the retraining of hundreds of teachers and likely the hiring of new ones.
I'll give you one gue$$ where they are finding them.
It would also add another layer of teaching requirements and testing to schools.
“It’s a matter of balancing a worthwhile goal against a universe of finite resources, and where there are many important goals,” said Mitchell Chester, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
While Chester agrees with tech executives that Massachusetts graduates should be better equipped to pursue computer science careers, he said a better approach would be to incorporate computer teaching in existing course work, or to work with individual school districts to develop their own specific curriculums.
Moreover, the state is currently revising its standards to increase the amount of engineering and technology that public schools must teach, and Chester said additional computer science education is under consideration. Meanwhile a Massachusetts state senator, Karen Spilka, earlier this year filed legislation that would mandate more computer science classes in public schools.
Currently, high school students in Massachusetts are taught a core group of math and science subjects, including algebra and geometry, and engineering topics such as electronics and electronic communications.
In order to graduate, students must pass the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, or MCAS, tests to determine core proficiency in English, mathematics, and one science and technology field, such as biology, chemistry, physics, or technology and engineering.
Massachusetts eighth-graders routinely lead the nation when it comes to test scores in math and science.
Some school districts in Massachusetts already offer computer science courses, but few students are taking them....
Many school districts may not be prepared to teach the advanced work that is part of computer science; some still don’t have adequate computers or high-speed Internet connections.
The firms said they would be willing to help pay for increased computer education, raising money to help buy equipment and retrain teachers. More broadly, the new federal budget proposed by President Obama would provide $3.1 billion to help schools increase science and technology instruction, including adding 100,000 teachers to the field.
Among the fastest growing sectors in Massachusetts, technology has become integral to the modern economy....
Across the United States, companies every year need to fill an estimated 150,000 computer science and mathematics related jobs, according to federal labor data. But the nation’s colleges and universities graduate around 100,000 students annually with degrees in those areas.
So what worthless degrees are you kids going into debt for?
That shortage has prompted tech companies to increasingly turn to foreign labor to fill technology jobs. This year the federal government issued 85,000 visas to US companies to hire foreign skilled workers, many in tech-related jobs.
There is a jobs crises in tis country and they claim they can't find qualified workers.
“When we look at what jobs are available, and what paths students are pursuing, what we see is a profound disconnect,” said Chris Stephenson, executive director of the Computer Science Teachers Association.
Related(?): The Science of Gay
Who is advising them?
She said the tech executives are right to pressure Massachusetts to add more computer-specific education, as opposed to making it a small part of a broader science and engineering curriculum.
“The industry folks are starting to speak up because they can’t hire the people that they need,” she said. “When industry steps up and says, ‘I have 5,000 jobs and I can’t fill them,’ suddenly it just ramps up the whole issue.”
While acknowledging that students need to know more about technology, education officials are uneasy about singling out a narrow subject such as computer science for special consideration when students should instead be learning the fundamentals of math and sciences that apply to a broader array of disciplines....
--more--"
"Mandate computing classes, tech giants say" by Michael B. Farrell | Globe Staff, June 13, 2013
Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp., and Oracle Corp. all sent representatives to Beacon Hill Wednesday to press Massachusetts lawmakers for more computer science classes in the state’s public schools.
The companies have thrown their support behind the newly formed Massachusetts Computing Attainment Network, or MassCAN, to advocate for Massachusetts to require computer science classes as early as eighth grade and introduce new computing standards and course work for high school students.
The initiative calls for revising existing statewide curriculum, training teachers, and adding computer science to standardized tests in order to boost the numbers of students headed into technology fields and fill jobs at the companies that drive Massachusetts’ innovation economy.
The effort is also backed by about a half-dozen statewide technology industry groups, such as the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council and the Massachusetts Business Roundtable.
The State House meeting drew a standing-room-only crowd of tech industry insiders, legislators, and policy makers. Company executives said they cannot find enough qualified people to fill jobs and are increasingly looking overseas for more software engineers and developers.
Did you kids learn anything about lying in $chool?
Microsoft, which employees about 1,000 people in Cambridge, could not fill 6,000 jobs across the Untied States last year, said Annmarie Levins, the company’s associate general counsel.
“It’s a crisis in many ways,” Levins said at Wednesday’s meeting. “We’ve got to do something systemic if we are going to address that problem.”
But the group stressed that the proposal is not just about serving technology industry needs; it is also about ensuring that skills taught in the schools today match the jobs of the future....
We have been told that for decades and it is not true! Industry has gone overseas or off-shore, and now that want to insource cheap foreign labor.
--more--"
Of course, there is always teaching:
"Teacher trafficking; The strange saga of Filipino workers, American schools, and H-1B visas" by Farah Stockman | Globe Columnist, June 12, 2013
Strangely, it all started with No Child Left Behind and H-1B guest worker visas....
Related: Sunday Globe Special: H1-B Hijacking
It REALLY IS ABOUT REPLACING Americans! And I've heard so many college kids tell me they want to be a teacher. Good luck, kiddo, and make sure to make that debt payment this month.
The idea of charging immigrants to work is as old as America itself. Older, in fact. According to Cindy Hahamovitch, a history professor at the College of William & Mary, half of all white laborers in the American colonies were indentured servants who worked for years to pay off the cost of the journey. Today, most guest workers arrive deeply in debt because of recruiter fees. “Close to Slavery,” a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, documents Jamaicans who paid $1,500 to clean hotels, Mexicans who paid $3,000 to pick tomatoes, Indian welders who paid $14,000 to fix ships after Hurricane Katrina. (The Indians thought they were getting green card cards. Instead, they got 10-month H-2B visas.)
Those are jobs Americans won't do? Or just won't do it for that price?
But this could all change with the sweeping new immigration bill being debated on Capitol Hill this week. It regulates recruiters for the first time, and makes them pay a bond to cover workers’ wages if anything goes wrong. It also prohibits charging workers most fees. Employers are the ones who should pay.
How it will affect the Filipino teacher pipeline remains unclear. It’s been a lucrative business since 2001, when a California-based agency supplied some of the first Filipino teachers to Boston Public Schools. They were considered so important that the late Senator Ted Kennedy intervened to get their visas before the school year began.
He voted against the Iraq war, but on so many other issues late in his life he was lacking.
Since then, more than 60,000 H-1B visas have been approved for school teachers, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services data.
Not enough American kids?
There are 600 Filipino teachers who paid up to $8,000 each in fees to work in Baltimore schools. In El Paso, two school administrators were sentenced to probation for their role in a human trafficking case in which 273 Filipinos paid $10,000 apiece for teaching jobs, but arrived to find fewer than 100 positions available.
Well, the bill will make the trafficking legal, so no big deal there. What is noticeable is the low-wages that I'm sure those rotten unionized teachers wouldn't stand for. You know, the ones who are cut in the name of austerity.
In East Baton Rouge, at least, the story has a happy ending....
Yeah, it's always a happy ending in the corporate pre$$.
--more--"
At least you illegals (and the rest of us) will be getting a raise:
"Mass. will consider minimum wage hike; Backers and foes are mobilizing" by Meghan E. Irons | Globe Staff, June 11, 2013
Massachusetts legislators are considering a substantial increase in the state minimum wage for the first time in four years, setting up a showdown between advocates backing low-wage earners and business activists, both still struggling from the slow economy....
The bill would gradually raise the minimum wage from $8 to $11 an hour by 2015 and then adjust it for inflation. The minimum wage for tipped employees such as waiters would jump from $2.63 to $6.30, according to the Massachusetts Restaurant Association.
While the state has one of the highest minimum wages in the country, the issue has gained steam recently, with advocates and opponents saying that passage of the bill is likely, in one form or another....
The bill comes amid a contentious national debate over the soft economy, stagnating earnings, and reports that highlight strains on low-wage families....
Hard lines are being drawn as union, community, and immigration activists rally their troops and as businesses buckle down to defend their positions. While some small businesses support a higher minimum wage, major opposition will come from the retail and restaurant industries, which say the increases are too costly....
Related: Lazy American Kids
Oh, that's their problem. That's why we need the indebted foreign servants.
The bill’s backers said an increase would affect workers earning up to $12 an hour, most of them adults with children to feed. A full-time worker at minimum wage earns $16,000 a year, and most must take a second job or depend on government subsidies to get by, they add.
“Should someone who works 40 hours a week be in that situation?’’ said Representative Antonio F.D. Cabral, the bill’s House sponsor. “They should be able to feed their families without relying on public assistance.”
The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a nonpartisan research group, says poverty level for an individual in the state is $11,484; it is about $22,800 for a family of four.
Lew Finfer, an organizer of a group pushing the measure, said many teenagers who work, particularly those in poor communities, are contributing to their families’ budgets.
Patricia Federico, who works for $8.50 an hour at a part-time job in Weymouth, said she barely takes home enough to cover necessities.
“The cost of living is going up, and the minimum wage has not,’’ said Federico, 40, who plans to testify Tuesday. “It’s hard enough to get by paying your bills. But what’s worse is that it is hard to survive.”
--more--"
Also see:
"The minimum wage debate is building up steam in the Bay State.... “What’s happening on Wall Street is not what is happening on Main Street.’’"
UPDATE: Raise minimum wage, but exempt summer jobs for teens
Related: US banks earned more from January through March than during any quarter on record
The truth is somewhere in the middle, or so the agenda-pushing think tanks say.
