Below is a press release from the American Immigration Council from earlier this week. On Tuesday the Senate Judiciary Committee met to review concerns related to Title Four of S. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act. The following press release discusses issues that must be addresses by the Senators in regards to immigration and the workers in the United States.

For Immediate Release

Creating a Workable Future Flow Program in Senate Immigration Bill
Day Two of Senate Mark-Up Will Tackle Trickiest Part of Reform

May 13, 2013

Washington D.C. – Tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Committee continues “mark-up” of S. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act. The Committee will take up amendments related to Title Four, which addresses the majority of non-immigrant, temporary visas including those for high and less skilled immigrant workers, entrepreneurship and innovation programs, and a range of miscellaneous visitor visas. Title Four became one of the most intensely negotiated portions of the Gang of 8 bill, in part because issues regarding the future flow of immigrant workers strike at the heart of broad differences in opinion about how we supplement the American workforce through immigration.

Inherent in this debate are deeply nuanced questions about the best way to create a competitive business climate that does not undermine worker rights and protections, as well as the need to promote and encourage innovation and growth through immigration.  The Gang of 8 should be applauded for tackling this enormous challenge and crafting solutions that attempt to address these concerns.  This makes the bill significantly different from what was adopted in 1986—when a legalization program went forward without tackling the question of how to regulate the future demand for workers.

In this section of the bill, perhaps more than anywhere else, there will be disagreement about the best way to achieve a balance in S. 744 as it is readied for debate before the full Senate. In order to develop a smart and fair future flow program, Senators should keep in mind the following principles:

• The United States needs a workable, efficient, and flexible immigration system that responds to the rapidly changing demands of a 21st century economy, technologies, and migration patterns. People live and work and innovate in ways that are different than they were twenty years ago, and yet our immigration system continues to operate on a series of static quotas and rigid requirements that ignore advances in every sector of our economy and the way we live today.

• We can and should protect the wages and working conditions of all workers without creating a system that assumes that any businesses that employs foreign workers will exploit them.  Punitive measures and more intensive government oversight should be reserved for those who have broken the rules.

• Employers can and should be required to show that they have made a legitimate and good faith effort to hire U.S. workers, but they should not be required to submit to rigid, bureaucratic rules that bear no relationship to business reality.

• Immigration levels should rise and fall based on the ebb and flow of our economy and the changing dynamics of our labor force.  To achieve this, the system cannot be rigidly tied to broad, national employment levels or economic indicators that do not accurately reflect economic reality at the local level or within specific industries.

To read original press release, please visit: http://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/newsroom/release/creating-workable-future-flow-program-senate-immigration-bill

For Immediate Release

LAC Issues Practice Advisory on Reinstatement of Removal

April 30, 2013

Washington, D.C.—The Legal Action Center (LAC) is pleased to announce the issuance of a new practice advisory, Reinstatement of Removal. A person who has been removed and illegally reenters the United States may be subject to reinstatement of removal under INA § 241(a)(5). This Practice Advisory provides an overview of the reinstatement statute and implementing regulations. It also addresses federal court review of reinstatement orders and potential arguments to challenge the legality of reinstatement orders, including challenges to the underlying removal order.

This practice advisory includes a sample reinstatement order, a sample letter to DHS requesting a copy of the reinstatement order, a checklist for potential challenges to reinstatement orders, and an appendix of published reinstatement decisions. The LAC issued this advisory jointly with the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild.

All of the LAC’s Practice Advisories are available on the LAC website.

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For more information, contact clearinghouse@immcouncil.org or call 202-507-7516.

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act or DREAM Act, announced on June 15, 2012 by the Obama Administration, allows immigrants aged 15 to 31 who came to the country before they were 16 and have lived here continuously for at least the past five years to apply for temporary right to live and work openly in the United States without fear of deportation. On August 15, 2012, the DREAM Act kicked off with an estimated 1.9 million eligible applicants.

There are seven conditions that must be met to qualify for the DREAM Act, under the latest version of the bill, an illegal immigrant must:

- You are under the age 31 as of June 15, 2001

- You came to the U.S. before your 16th birthday

- You have continuously resided in the U.S. since June 15, 2007

- You were physically present on June 15, 2012

- You entered without inspection before June 15, 2012, or your lawful immigration status expired as of June 15, 2012

- You are currently in school, have graduated or obtained a certificate of completion from high school, have obtained a general education development (GED) certificate, or are an honorably discharged veteran of the Coast Guard or Armed Forces of the United States

- You have not been convicted of a felony, significant misdemeanor, three or more other misdemeanors, and do not otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety.

It’s vital to talk with a Phoenix immigration attorney to avoid mistakes and to avoid ending up in a worse situation than you were in before any action, because the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service are examining each situation on a case-by-case basis. You have to make sure you have your paperwork filled out right before you apply or before you take any immigration action on your own.

With the Senate meeting in April to discuss the proposals for immigration reform, both pro and anti immigration activists have been getting a lot of attention. Politicians are weighing out the marks and trying to get a handle on the proposed reform.  To make things even more heated a recent mass release of immigration detainees in Arizona has sparked more flames between both activists sides.  This release done last month has activists talking for a variety of reasons, both sides are furious.

The release of more than 300 people from immigration detention centers in Arizona — part of a mass release across the nation in anticipation of looming federal budget cuts — sparked outrage among activists on both sides of the political aisle.

Anti-illegal immigration groups and others accused the Obama administration of playing politics, while an immigrant rights group said the incident showed the administration had detained people they shouldn’t have in the first place.

John Hill, executive director of the Phoenix-based anti-illegal immigration group Stand With Arizona, said the Department of Homeland Security was using immigration security as a political weapon.

“The shocking, lawless actions of DHS in releasing thousands of illegal aliens from detention merely to score points on sequestration proves what we have said all along: The DHS is far too politicized to be trusted to implement either the Obama or the ‘Gang of 8′ immigration reform plans,” Hill said in a statement.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said the release of “several hundred” detainees since last Thursday from deportation centers across the nation was in anticipation of spending cuts linked to the so-called budget sequestration, which mandates across-the-board cuts starting Friday unless Congress reaches a compromise.

“As fiscal uncertainty remains over the continuing resolution and possible sequestration, ICE has reviewed its detained population to ensure detention levels stay within ICE’s current budget,” ICE spokeswoman Amber Cargile said in a statement.  “Over the last week, ICE has reviewed several hundred cases and placed these individuals on methods of supervision less costly than detention.”

Agency officials emphasized that those freed were on supervised release, with telephonic and electronic monitoring.

Cargile, based in Phoenix, said all of the released detainees remained in removal proceedings. She said priority for detention remained on serious criminal offenders and other individuals who are believed to pose a significant threat to public safety.

United We Dream, a youth-led network advocating for the legalization of 11 million people who are in the country illegally, said it took a “manufactured crisis to reunite families.”

“Every day I get calls from families being torn apart with a loved one about to be deported,” Carolina Canizales, coordinator of United We Dream’s End Our Pain Program, said in a statement. “Low-priority individuals — people who pose absolutely no risk or danger to society, but rather are upstanding members of their communities and families — should not have been locked up to begin with.”

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said she was “appalled” by the mass release, adding that it had been done “under the guise of federal budget cuts.”

To read the full article click here:  Immigration Detainees Released