Staff: Jacqueline D. Sherman, Counsel
Sean Robin, Finance Analyst
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THE COUNCIL
REPORT OF THE GOVERNMENTAL
AFFAIRS DIVISION
Marcel Van Ooyen, Legislative Director
COMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION
Kendall Stewart, Chair
December 15, 2005
RES. NO. 1008: By Council Members Stewart, James, Weprin and Liu
TITLE: Resolution supporting bipartisan federal legislation for comprehensive immigration reform and urging Congress and President Bush to adopt such legislation.
The Committee on
Immigration, chaired by Council Member Kendall Stewart, will meet on Thursday,
December 15, 2005, at 1 p.m. to consider Res. No. 1008, which supports bipartisan federal legislation for comprehensive
immigration reform and urging Congress and President Bush to adopt such
legislation.
Background
New York City is a city of immigrants: in 2000, approximately 36% of New Yorkers were foreign-born, 55% of New Yorkers were immigrants or children of immigrants, and 59% of children born in New York City had at least one foreign-born parent.[1] Furthermore, demographers estimate that 3.2 million immigrants live in New York City today.[2]
New York City is more diverse than ever before.[3] The foreign-born population grew from 2.1 million in 1990 to 2.87 million in 2000 -- an increase of 38%.[4] The 10 countries with the largest immigrant populations in New York City in 2000 were the Dominican Republic (369,186), China (261,551), Jamaica (178,922), Guyana (130,647), Mexico (122,550), Ecuador (114,944), Haiti (95,580), Trinidad and Tobago (88,794), Colombia (84,404), and Russia (81,408).[5]
Given their growing presence in New York City, immigrants also sustain the City’s workforce. According to The Newest New Yorkers 2000, immigrants comprise 43% of the workforce in New York City[6] including 57.6% of construction workers, 64.4% of manufacturing jobs, and 54% of the service industries.[7] A recent study by the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York found that within the service industry, immigrants comprise 64.4% of restaurant workers.[8] Using the United States Census Bureau’s 2003 Current Population Survey as well as the 2000 Census, the Fiscal Policy Institute found an increase in the percentage of immigrant workers in 2003: 1.4 million immigrant workers in New York City comprising approximately 47% of the City’s workforce and nearly 90% of certain industries.[9]
Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act
On May 12, 2005, a bipartisan group of legislators led by Senators McCain and Kennedy and Representatives Kolbe, Flake and Gutierrez introduced the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act (SAOIA), S. 1033 and H.R. 2330, which aims to achieve comprehensive reform of this country’s immigration laws. The bills were crafted to address the need for enhanced security at United States borders and to provide opportunities for immigrant workers who come to the United States to work.
The legislation would establish a temporary work visa program that would enable hundreds of thousands of immigrants with job opportunities to come to this country every year and would provide opportunities for those workers to earn permanent residency and eventually United States citizenship. Applicants for the three year H-5A visas made available under the legislation would be required to demonstrate that they have been offered a job in the United States, pay fees and undergo security and health screening. Visas would be renewable once, for a total of six years. At the end of this period, an H-5A visa holder would either have to leave the United States or move towards obtaining a green card.[10] The bills would set an initial annual cap of 400,000 visas, which would be adjusted based on demand in later years.
The program established by the bills would allow
workers to change jobs under qualified employers and would give visa holders
who leave or lose their jobs the opportunity find a new one within 60 days in
order to remain in the United States.
The bills also intend to ensure that employers who hire immigrant workers obey federal, state and local labor, employment and tax laws. Specific safeguards include:
· H-5A workers may not be treated as independent contractors.
· H-5A workers are entitled to the same labor law protections as their American counterparts.
· Employers shall be responsible for the federal, state and local taxes of the H-5A worker.
· H-5A workers are to be paid the prevailing wage for their work.
· H-5A workers may not be used for strike replacement workers.
· Employers are not permitted to threaten H-5A workers with withdrawing their visa petitions in retaliation for an immigrant worker’s exercising his or her rights under this law.
· Foreign labor contractors may not charge workers a fee for their services.
The bills would provide H-5A workers remedies for violations of their rights through an administrative process that enables workers to bring a complaint. These remedies would include back wages, fringe benefits and a sliding scale of civil monetary penalties. Foreign labor recruiter violations causing extreme financial or physical harm to an individual may also be subject to criminal penalties.
Enforcement provisions of the legislation would establish an electronic work authorization system, to be phased in gradually. The bills would protect the privacy of personal records, which individuals would have the opportunity to review and correct. Immigration related documents would be upgraded to require biometric verification.
The SAOIA also contains critical family reunification and backlog reduction provisions. First, immediate relatives of United States citizens would not count against the annual cap on family sponsored green cards. The bills would increase current per-country green card limits slightly to reduce backlogs and would reduce income requirements for sponsoring a family member for a green card. Further, employment based categories would be revised to allow for additional visas for employers who need permanent workers.
The Act would provide some relief for undocumented immigrant workers and their families living and working in the United States at the time of introduction. They would be able to register for a temporary visa and ultimately work towards permanent legal status and citizenship under the following conditions: (1) they must show a work history and have no criminal record; (2) meet a future work requirement; (3) clear security and background checks; (4) pay fines and application fees; (5) pay back taxes for earned wages; and (6) meet English and civics requirements.
Additionally, in order to address fraudulent immigration representation, the proposed legislation would require non-lawyers to meet new legal qualification requirements to provide immigration assistance and would allow immigrants who are defrauded by unauthorized legal representatives to assert claims against them.
With regard to health care, the federal government would provide reimbursement for hospitals that provide emergency medical care to undocumented immigrants and to workers with visas in the program. The bills also would provide financial support to state and local governments to pay for the incarceration of undocumented persons who are convicted of crimes and costs associated with undocumented immigrants in the criminal justice system.
The bills also aim to improve United States border security in several ways. First, the provisions require more planning and reporting to evaluate information sharing. Additionally, the bills seek to improve upon coordination with neighboring countries and between various levels of domestic government. The bills would establish a “Border Security Advisory Committee,” comprised of governmental representatives from border states, local law enforcement agencies, community officials, and tribal authorities of border states, to make recommendations regarding border enforcement to the Department of Homeland Security.[11]
Presidential
Proposals for Immigration Reform (2004)
While the Bush Administration announced its intention to introduce sweeping immigration reform legislation in early 2004, the program outlined by the Administration fell short of what this country needs in many critical ways and the Administration did not introduce any specific legislative proposals in connection with the President’s statements.
On January 7, 2004, President Bush announced plans for a new temporary worker program, as part of his immigration reform proposal. He stated “reform must begin by confronting a basic fact of life and economics: Some of the jobs being generated in America's growing economy are jobs American citizens are not filling... [the] new temporary worker program … would match willing foreign workers with willing American employers, when no Americans can be found to fill the jobs.”[12] Under the temporary work program outlined in the proposal, undocumented immigrants can obtain work visas for three years if they can show that they have jobs and their employers show that there are no Americans to fill those jobs.
He further indicated that the program would “offer legal status, as temporary workers, to the millions of undocumented men and women now employed in the United States, and to those in foreign countries who seek to participate in the program and have been offered employment” but that eventually the legal status would end and “temporary workers [would be expected] to return permanently to their home countries after their period of work in the United States has expired.”[13]
Following the announcement, critics of the plan offered a variety of concerns including that the proposal does not go far enough in reforming current laws and the proposed temporary worker plan did not provide strong enough incentives for the average undocumented worker to join. Immigration advocacy groups also criticized the proposal specifying that it “provides cheap, exploitable labor for the American economy but disregards the future of immigrant workers …[since] the program does not offer a path to eventual permanent residency or citizenship.” [14]
In his February 2005 State of the Union address, more than a year after his first announcement concerning immigration reform, President Bush continued to support temporary work visas for undocumented workers and expressed a desire to work with Congress on the issue.[15]
Recently, President Bush has revisited the issue of immigration reform. On November 29, after touring the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas, President Bush commented “We’ve got a comprehensive strategy that says we’re going to enforce this border . . . We’re going to prevent people from coming here in the first place.”[16] Mr. Bush further explained his position regarding amnesty as follows: “Amnesty would say to other illegal aliens, ‘Come, and you can come into America and get citizenship automatically . . . No, I’m for a bill that strengthens our border by providing people with a tamper-proof identity card to let them work in America for jobs Americans won’t do, on a temporary basis, and then go back to their country.”[17] While these recent statements may suggest a shift in thinking regarding immigration reform to more closely track legislative proposals, other than the SAOIA, which focus on border security and do not envision any pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, the Bush Administration has yet to introduce legislation formalizing its plans.
The Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act addresses many of the concerns associated with the president’s immigration reform proposal and incorporates immigration reforms that would benefit employers, immigrant workers, and their families while ensuring that security is not breached.
Resolution No. 1008 supports the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act (SAOIA) and identifies the need for such immigration reform by demonstrating the deficiencies of the current system, including mistreatment of immigrant workers.
Res. No. 1008
Resolution supporting proposed bipartisan federal legislation for comprehensive immigration reform and urging Congress and President Bush to adopt such legislation.
By Council Members Stewart, James, Weprin and Liu
Whereas, The United States urgently needs legislation to remedy shortcomings of the current immigration system, to recognize the crucial contributions immigrants make to our nation, to enable employers to hire immigrant workers legally, to protect immigrant workers from mistreatment by employers, and to facilitate reunification of families who have spent years apart; and
Whereas, Recent estimates that New York City is home to approximately 3.2 million immigrants and that at least 55% of New Yorkers are immigrants or children of immigrants underscore the importance to this city of rationalizing the nation’s immigration laws;
Whereas, On May 12, 2005, a bipartisan group of legislators in both houses of Congress introduced the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act, S. 1033 and H.R. 2330, a promising proposal that aims to achieve comprehensive reform of this country’s immigration laws; and
Whereas, S. 1033 and H.R. 2330 strive to establish immigration policy that enhances the security of the United States and reflects core values of this nation, including fairness and equality of opportunity; and
Whereas, The legislation would establish a temporary work visa program that would enable hundreds of thousands of immigrants with job opportunities to come to this country every year and would provide opportunities for these workers to earn permanent legalization and eventually United States citizenship; and
Whereas, The bills also would enable undocumented immigrants who have been living and working in the United States to pay fines and obtain temporary work visas and ultimately work towards permanent legal status and citizenship; and
Whereas, A critical goal of immigration reform should be to ensure that persons who are eligible to adjust status are able to do so without undue delay caused by backlogs at the United States Customs and Immigration Service; and
Whereas, Immigrant workers who participate in the visa program that would be established by the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act would have the same rights as United States workers under applicable federal, state and local labor and employment laws; and
Whereas, In addition to offering pathways to legalization and citizenship for immigrants, comprehensive immigration reform legislation must ensure that all immigrant workers enjoy adequate workplace protections; and
Whereas, The legislation also would promote the interests of businesses that depend upon immigrant workers, by enabling them to employ immigrants without violating the law; and
Whereas, The proposed legislation would provide long overdue relief to immigrant families who have languished for years awaiting reunification; and
Whereas, The bills also would enable immigrants to pursue higher education in this country, which is critical to expanding opportunities for immigrants and the contributions they can make to society; and
Whereas, The bills further aim to improve United States security by enhancing coordination and cooperation among federal, state and local governments and between the United States and the governments of neighboring countries; and
Whereas, Strong bipartisan support for the proposed legislation in both houses of Congress is testament to the balanced approach it takes to reforming the nation’s immigration laws; and
Whereas, While the Bush Administration announced its intention to introduce sweeping immigration reform legislation in 2004, the program outlined by the Administration fell short of what this country needs in many critical ways and the Administration has yet to introduce any legislative proposals in connection with its stated intention; now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York supports proposed bipartisan federal legislation for comprehensive immigration reform and urges Congress and President Bush to adopt such legislation.