Immigration

‘Gang of Eight’ immigration reform bill advances in the Senate

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Sausage makerIt has often been said that people do not want to see the "sausage making" process of legislation, and nowhere is that a truer statement than with the "Gang of Eight" immigration reform bill.

After multiple attempts by Tea Party senators to add "poison pill" amendments to kill the bill — all defeated — there was a death-defying friendly amendment offered yesterday by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to treat gay partners equally under federal law for immigration purposes. Tea-Publicans howled that this was a deal breaker, and Sen. Leahy eventually withdrew his amendment.

Of course, Advocates
were outraged at lack of LGBT protection in immigration bill. This is a timing problem. This bill needs to move forward in the Senate now. The U.S. Supreme Court is not expected to rule on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) until June. Should the Court strike down DOMA, as most court observers anticipate, it would remove the obstacle to treating gay partners equally under federal law. The immigration bill will still be going through the "sausage making" process, and may be amended to respond to any Supreme Court ruling. Patience and perseverance are virtues in the "sausage making" process.

So it is good news that the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday approved its final mark-up of the comprehensive immigration reform bill on a vote of 13 to 5. Senate
panel approves sweeping immigration reform bill:

After five days of debate over dozens of amendments, the Judiciary
Committee voted 13 to 5 in support of the bill, with three Republicans
joining the committee’s 10 Democrats. The legislation emerged with its
core provisions largely intact, including new visa programs for
high-tech and low-skilled workers and new investments in strengthening
border control.

“The dysfunction in our current immigration system affects all of us
and it is long past time for reform. I hope that our history, our
values, and our decency can inspire us finally to take action,”
committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said. “We need an
immigration system that lives up to American values and helps write the
next great chapter in American history by reinvigorating our economy and
enriching our communities.”

So how’s that GOP rebranding working out?

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

New And ImprovedOn Sunday, the Arizona Republic for some reason felt compelled to publish a guest opinion (and video) by the disgraced and recalled former Senate President, Russell Pearce, writing on behalf of his anti-immigrant nativist hate group, BanAmnestyNow.com.

Pearce discloses a continuing working relationship with the anti-immigrant nativist hate group,  Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR), whose lawyer Kris Kobach wrote SB 1070 for Pearce.

Pearce also cites the widely discredited Heritage Foundation report (.pdf) released last week, which was drafted, in part, by Jason Richwine, who subscribes to the controversial "science" of hereditarianism and eugenics. Richwine was forced to resign from the Heritage Foundation on Friday, presumably after Russell Pearce submitted his guest opinion to the Republic.

Ol' Russel writes, Immigration tug-of-war: Reform effort is a sham:

The 3-year-old Senate Bill 1070, America’s toughest anti-illegal
immigration law, has had a dramatic impact on Arizona. We are a better
place.

* * *

According to information from the Federation of American Immigration
Reform, Arizonans pay $2.6 billion per year to educate, medicate and
incarcerate illegal aliens. According to the Heritage Foundation, the
billions we pay today are but one-third of our eventual tab a decade
from now if the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill becomes law.

* * *

However, despite the many advances we have made, the burdens of illegal
immigration still are too high. This is why I call upon my fellow
citizens to join me in opposing the latest amnesty/citizenship bill. The
group of eight U.S. senators’ legislation (including Arizona Sens. John
McCain and Jeff Flake) risks America’s financial and national security.
This bill is the epitome of everything that is wrong, backward and
corrupt in Washington.

Heritage Foundation jettisons white supremacist autthor of its immigration study

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Oh, like no one saw this coming. Heritage Foundation fellow Jason Richwine, who subcribes to the controversial "science" of hereditarianism and eugenics, long championed by white supremacists and segregationists, is out of a job today. Maybe the Aryan Nation or the KKK have a job opening.

Think Progress reports, Author Of Heritage Immigration Study Resigns Amid Racism Scandal:

Jason Richwine, a coauthor of the Heritage Foundation’s report on the
cost of the current immigration bill, has resigned after it emerged that
his graduate dissertation on immigration was premised on the idea that Latinos were less intelligent than whites.

The controversy, which began after The Washington Post’s Dylan Matthews unearthed the dissertation on Latino intelligence, forced the conservative think tank into emergency damage control for the remainder of the week, when it emerged that Richwine had ties to extreme anti-immigration groups. On Friday afternoon, Heritage announced that Richwine has resigned. Heritage’s statement:

Jason Richwine let us know he’s decided to resign from his position. He’s no longer employed by Heritage. It is our long-standing policy not to discuss internal personnel matters.

Immigration reform bill begins markup in Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin marking up the
Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act, the bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill from the "Gang of Eight."

301 amendments have been filed, setting the stage for extended debate. Senate immigration bill brings flood of amendments:

About two-thirds of the 301 proposals came from Senate Republicans,
including measures to grant Congress more authority over security along
the border with Mexico, to require illegal immigrants to provide DNA
samples before gaining legal status and to reduce the number of
undocumented workers who would be eligible to pursue citizenship.

The amendments reflected the desires of many GOP lawmakers, who say that
they will support only a comprehensive overhaul that puts a higher
priority on law enforcement along the border and in the workplace. The
Senate Judiciary Committee will begin considering the amendments
Thursday, and the fate of the 844-page bill will be tested by a process
that is likely to stretch through several days of hearings in coming
weeks.

* * *

Although Democrats have generally been more supportive of the bill,
they offered dozens of amendments, including two from Judiciary
Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.) that would allow same-sex
foreign spouses and partners of U.S. citizens to apply for visas.
Republicans have said that they will not support any comprehensive bill
that includes gay rights protections.

Author of Heritage Foundation report subscribes to the controversial ‘science’ of hereditarianism and eugenics

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

It appears that the Pioneer Fund and its support for the "study and research into the problems of heredity and eugenics in
the human race" and "into the problems of race betterment with special
reference to the people of the United States," still has influence in the 21st Century. For a lengthy backgrounder on this subject, see History of the race and intelligence controversy – Wikipedia.

The Heritage Foundation released its long awaited report this week for the stated purpose of defeating the "Gang of Eight" immigration reform bill (and thus it is a political document). The report was written in part by Jason Richwine. Dylan Matthews at Ezra Klein's Wonkblog introduces us to Mr. Richwine, Heritage study co-author opposed letting in immigrants with low IQs:

Jason Richwine is relatively new to the think tank world. He received
his PhD in public policy from Harvard in 2009, and joined Heritage
after a brief stay at the American Enterprise Institute. Richwine’s
doctoral dissertation is titled “IQ and Immigration Policy”; the contents are well summarized in the dissertation abstract:

The statistical construct known as IQ can reliably
estimate general mental ability, or intelligence. The average IQ of
immigrants in the United States is substantially lower than that of the
white native population, and the difference is likely to persist over
several generations. The consequences are a lack of socioeconomic
assimilation among low-IQ immigrant groups, more underclass behavior,
less social trust, and an increase in the proportion of unskilled
workers in the American labor market. Selecting high-IQ immigrants would
ameliorate these problems in the U.S., while at the same time
benefiting smart potential immigrants who lack educational access in
their home countries.