Immigration Law

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES PLANNING TO LEAVE TO CAMPAIGN WITHOUT EXTENDING KEY PROGRAMS

By Greg Siskind

The US House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution last night that extends the E-Verify program until next March, but allows the following programs to die:

- The Conrad 30 J-1 waiver program which sends physicians to medically underserved inner city and rural communities around the country

- The H-2B returning worker provision which stops double and triple counting of seasonal workers coming to fill positions where employers have proven no US workers are available

- The religious worker immigrant visa program that has been around for nearly two decades and which is critical for churches and synagogues around the US

- Green cards for nurses

And, of course, the recapture bill I've been discussing is nowhere to be found in the CR.

Please call your Senators and let them know that it is fundamentally unfair to tend to E-Verify in the continuing resolution and ignore these other vital programs and bills. Then urge them to include them in the version that they pass.

[Update: A helpful reader has corrected me and pointed out that the EB-5 regional center extension is in the CR. That's great news. Unfortunately, in getting through 357 pages of obscure references to US code sections, I missed that. But my point is still the same. After an entire two years of this Congress, this bill is basically all that our legislators will have to point to as their legislative accomplishment. That's just embarrasing.]

Full post as published by Greg Siskind's Blog on September 25, 2008 (boomark / email).