That immigration bill
I went and took a look, and what I was surprised by was how bad the quality of the discussion I could find (mostly mining Wikipedia links) was. There didn't seem to be a good summary of what the bill would do, probably because it fires in all directions, with the predictable effect of dissatisfying everybody.
Here are some things that raised eyebrows, if I read it correctly.
-There's some provisional status setup for current illegals, but the path to citizenship seems onerous and impossible. The requirement for continuous physical presence for 10 years and English language proficiency (stats on attempting to acquire a language in adulthood are really not good) seem to me to be the most likely sticking points if they are enforced. If they are not enforced, then you can just imagine the level of wrath that will emerge from us not following our own laws. After that, well, they're put in line for the merit visas, for which there are 120k-250k or so per year (as long as the unemployment rate remains below some arbitrary level). For 10 million illegals, and everybody else in line. That might take, oh, 40-100 years or so just to process the current batch - I hope I'm misreading this, and that they won't be subject to the merit system - just have to wait til everybody currently in line is processed.
-There's a requirement for somebody to write a report or something about border security, but it doesn't look like much, and a lot of money thrown at the same old tired approaches: fences, checkpoints, etc. For people who care about securing the border, this looks really thin.
-There's a lot in there about making people pay fees left and right (in fact, sufficient to cover the cost of processing them) for the dubious pleasure of being processed by Homeland Security, which is something I've always had problems with. Unless there is a backdoor goal to imbue all immigrants with a lasting hatred for the federal bureaucracy and thus predispose them to align with the Republican Party, this is nonsensical. Here, I'm very far out of line with the current mainstream of government practice: I believe that people should not pay fees for basic government services, like, say, passports, visas, drivers' licenses, etc - that's what taxes are for.
-I'm not sure how this new merit based system isn't essentially redundant with the employment based visa system. Rather than rationalizing the existing system, they seem to have deliberately added to its complexity.
-The old system will be revised to remove numerical limits on immigrants from certain categories, which mostly involve STEM fields. For those of us who believe that native STEM workers are below a desirable level because the pay is crappy, the competition is global, and a positive feedback loop has set in separating technical work from the broader cultural mainstream (and thus management or other more powerful positions), this may exacerbate the problem. It should not pass without comment.
- There's a lot of added bureaucracy to the H-1B program - thinly specified enforcement provisions, a requirement that everybody submit jobs to the Department of Labor for processing, etc. Having the Department of Labor determine who you should hire, instead of a company's own hiring processes, seems to me a great way to sabotage any sector that uses immigrant labor.
- There's a requirement that everybody in the US be processed through a national biometrics database for employment eligibility verification. I'm actually very dubious about this, not because I'm opposed to the State having the ability to track its human resources (although I understand some people have issues with this), but because I'm already wondering about failure modes. If something screws up and your record is malformatted for whatever reason, can you not get hired? Who do you sue? How does it get fixed? If it's "file a form and wait for Homeland Security to sort it out," then, well ....
Really, I think I'm mostly against the bill. I'm unconvinced that the uncertain promise of certain good points (possibly letting the illegals integrate into regular society? maybe?) outweighs the massive uncertainties about the bureaucratic implementation, and then there are all those objectionable side provisions.
Goodness, Congress should have learned by now. Break out these provisions one by one, and don't bundle more than absolutely necessary for compromise, for heaven's sake.
Here are some things that raised eyebrows, if I read it correctly.
-There's some provisional status setup for current illegals, but the path to citizenship seems onerous and impossible. The requirement for continuous physical presence for 10 years and English language proficiency (stats on attempting to acquire a language in adulthood are really not good) seem to me to be the most likely sticking points if they are enforced. If they are not enforced, then you can just imagine the level of wrath that will emerge from us not following our own laws. After that, well, they're put in line for the merit visas, for which there are 120k-250k or so per year (as long as the unemployment rate remains below some arbitrary level). For 10 million illegals, and everybody else in line. That might take, oh, 40-100 years or so just to process the current batch - I hope I'm misreading this, and that they won't be subject to the merit system - just have to wait til everybody currently in line is processed.
-There's a requirement for somebody to write a report or something about border security, but it doesn't look like much, and a lot of money thrown at the same old tired approaches: fences, checkpoints, etc. For people who care about securing the border, this looks really thin.
-There's a lot in there about making people pay fees left and right (in fact, sufficient to cover the cost of processing them) for the dubious pleasure of being processed by Homeland Security, which is something I've always had problems with. Unless there is a backdoor goal to imbue all immigrants with a lasting hatred for the federal bureaucracy and thus predispose them to align with the Republican Party, this is nonsensical. Here, I'm very far out of line with the current mainstream of government practice: I believe that people should not pay fees for basic government services, like, say, passports, visas, drivers' licenses, etc - that's what taxes are for.
-I'm not sure how this new merit based system isn't essentially redundant with the employment based visa system. Rather than rationalizing the existing system, they seem to have deliberately added to its complexity.
-The old system will be revised to remove numerical limits on immigrants from certain categories, which mostly involve STEM fields. For those of us who believe that native STEM workers are below a desirable level because the pay is crappy, the competition is global, and a positive feedback loop has set in separating technical work from the broader cultural mainstream (and thus management or other more powerful positions), this may exacerbate the problem. It should not pass without comment.
- There's a lot of added bureaucracy to the H-1B program - thinly specified enforcement provisions, a requirement that everybody submit jobs to the Department of Labor for processing, etc. Having the Department of Labor determine who you should hire, instead of a company's own hiring processes, seems to me a great way to sabotage any sector that uses immigrant labor.
- There's a requirement that everybody in the US be processed through a national biometrics database for employment eligibility verification. I'm actually very dubious about this, not because I'm opposed to the State having the ability to track its human resources (although I understand some people have issues with this), but because I'm already wondering about failure modes. If something screws up and your record is malformatted for whatever reason, can you not get hired? Who do you sue? How does it get fixed? If it's "file a form and wait for Homeland Security to sort it out," then, well ....
Really, I think I'm mostly against the bill. I'm unconvinced that the uncertain promise of certain good points (possibly letting the illegals integrate into regular society? maybe?) outweighs the massive uncertainties about the bureaucratic implementation, and then there are all those objectionable side provisions.
Goodness, Congress should have learned by now. Break out these provisions one by one, and don't bundle more than absolutely necessary for compromise, for heaven's sake.