Sides forming in next immigration-reform push

he prospect of millions of illegal immigrants earning a path to citizenship is now back on the table in Congress, though the first bill out of the chute has already split some California progressives and has zero support from Republicans.
Bay Area immigrant families and their allies rallied Friday at a San Francisco high school to promote legalization and other measures that would overhaul U.S. immigration policy, which has not substantially changed for more than a decade.
They were united in favor of a humanitarian approach to reforming immigration policy, though disagreed on the finer details of a 650-page reform bill introduced last week by 92 liberal Democratic lawmakers, including four from the Bay Area.
At its crux, the bill introduced by Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., would allow people living in the U.S. without legal documents to pay a $500 fee and show they made contributions to the U.S. through work, school, volunteering or military service. After six years on a conditional visa, those who qualify can get a green card visa and eventually obtain citizenship.
The bill is designed in part to put pressure on President Barack Obama, who has pledged to take on immigration reform next year and has advocated an overhaul that would include a path to citizenship. Opponents have characterized the bill as permissive and doomed to fail.

Read the full story on Contra Costa Times

Immigration overhaul would allow legalization of undocumented immigrants

A large group of Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation Tuesday that would allow millions of undocumented immigrants to stay in the country legally if they pay a fine, learn English and meet other requirements.
Republicans questioned the timing of adding millions of legal workers to the nation’s workforce – especially when there’s record unemployment.

“With over 15 million Americans unemployed and seven million illegals employed, amnesty legislation is an affront to American citizens and legal residents,” said Rep. Gary Miller, R-Brea.

The legislation would legalize undocumented immigrants by requiring them to register with the federal government, pay a $500 fine, learn English, pass background checks and meet other requirements. They then are eligible for a six-year visa and then a green card visa.

Source: Whittier Daily News

Immigration meetings show citizenship test takes careful study

The path to naturalization can be a maze of confusing paperwork, capped by a test in English and U.S. civics.

For some, it’s a daunting road.

John Macharia is thinking about applying for citizenship after Christmas. The Kenyan from Duluth has lived here 10 years and his children are U.S. citizens, but he and his wife are not.

Rumors about the citizenship process abound, Macharia said. That’s why face-to-face contact with a citizenship official is helpful, he said.

“It’s always good when you hear about it from the horse’s mouth,” he said.

Joe Kernan, a community relations officer with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services in Tucker, spoke to Macharia and 20 other immigrants in Marietta on Wednesday night.

The American Legion hosted the event and will also host citizenship classes starting in January. It’s in keeping with the Legion’s goal to foster “Americanism,” said Bill Beaudin, commander of Post 29 where the meeting was held.

Kernan said the classes could come in handy. He recounted tales of citizenship tests gone wrong.

If an immigration officer asks if you will bear arms for the United States, don’t roll up your sleeves and show your arms, Kernan said, to chuckles from the immigrants in the audience.

“You need to know that means will you defend the United States,” he said.

Ling Go, originally from China and now living in Acworth, wondered if speeding tickets would hurt citizenship chances.

Not if the fines have been paid, Kernan said.

In general, crimes that indicate a lack of good moral character are the ones that will ruin a chance at citizenship, Kernan said.

Also he cautioned immigrants not to leave the country too often or for too long. An absence of more than a year can sink a citizenship application, Kernan said. A prospective citizen must show where his loyalty is based, he said.

Esther Wilson, a U.S. citizen who lives in Marietta, attended the class on behalf of her sister, who traveled to the Philippines in May. She has not returned because she has Typhoid fever and diabetes and has been too fragile to travel, Wilson said.

“I’m worried about her not coming back,” Wilson said.

If a person with a green card visa stays outside of the United States too long, they could lose their residency and be turned away at the airport, Kernan warned.

Federal immigration officials have held a series of community meetings across the country this year to educate immigrants on common pitfalls and to demystify the process.

About 8.2 million legal permanent residents are eligible to apply for citizenship, immigration officials said.

At the Atlanta immigration office, 14,456 people took the oath of citizenship in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to Ana Santiago, a spokeswoman for USCIS. Nationwide during the year, 1.1 million people became citizens..

A new version of the citizenship test was phased in last year and became standard Oct.1. It is intended to emphasize an understanding of fundamental concepts of American democracy and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, more than rote learning of historical facts such as who wrote “The Star Spangled Banner.” The government has printed flash cards and exam materials for prospective citizens.

Pointing to a list of English words, Kernan told the group that those words would be scrambled into any number of variations to create sentences. They would need to read the sentence aloud, without lengthy pauses, to pass.

Everyone opened their study pamphlet to look at the words.

Understanding basic English is essential to participate in civic life in the United States, Kernan said. If an applicant fails, they can take the test again.

Kernan recalled the time an immigration officer raised his hand to administer an oath to a prospective citizen who didn’t understand and thought it was time to give a high-five.

“He was not ready,” Kernan said.

Source: AJC

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Let’s Give Visas to Startup Founders

Bring up the topic of economic stimulus and job creation, and you won’t hear much about immigration. If the topic does arise, it’s usually because somebody believes foreigners are taking U.S. jobs.

It’s time to bring the immigration question squarely into the debate over jobs. A change to immigration policy could help create jobs and rev up economic growth. It’s a change that wouldn’t be hard to bring about. I’m talking about the establishment of a Startup Founders Visa program.

The program would make it easier for those with great ideas and the desire to start a company to live and work in the U.S. The idea is simple, yet powerful. By letting in company founders, the U.S. would bring in risk-takers who want to create jobs and potentially build the next Google (GOOG), Cisco Systems (CSCO), or Microsoft (MSFT).

At the same time, a founder visa program could stem the tide of talented, tech-savvy foreigners who are leaving the U.S. to seek fortunes in their home countries, primarily China and India. Even foes of flexible immigration policies who rail against both skilled and unskilled immigrants may have a hard time finding fault with granting visas to startup founders.

REQUIRED: EARLY INVESTOR BACKING

This type of program has been championed by a long list of technology notables and entrepreneurship gurus, including venture capitalists Brad Feld, a managing director at Mobius Venture Capital, Paul Graham, a partner at early-stage venture firm Y Combinator, and technology startup experts Eric Ries and Dave McClure. This idea was originally conceived last year by Robert Litan, the Kaufmann Foundation’s vice-president of research.

Here’s how it would work. Suppose a talented engineer who is not a U.S. citizen has a great idea for a new type of search engine and wants to start a company. This entrepreneur wants to start that company in the U.S., where venture capital markets are the most mature, intellectual property laws are strong, and the talent level is high. It turns out that the would-be founder’s search engine idea is actually very good. So a qualified U.S. investor decides to put real money—say, $250,000 to $500,000—into the startup. That investor could nominate the potential founder for a Founders Visa while also making a formal commitment to fund his or her company.

The idea and the founder’s résumé would then need to pass muster with a government or industry-appointed board of venture capitalists, financiers, or technology experts. After passing, the founder would be granted a permanent resident visa.

To open up visa slots, Ries, Feld and others propose altering an existing visa known as the EB-5, now for immigrant investors. Created by the Immigration Act of 1990, the EB-5 lets foreign nationals who invest at least $1 million in the U.S., and thereby create 10 jobs, obtain a green card visa. In areas where unemployment is high, foreign nationals need only invest $500,000 to obtain residency. By adding a Founders Visa provision such as that I have outlined to the EB-5 visa, we could avoid having to create a new class of visas and any political hassles this might entail.

NEWT GINGRICH LIKES THE IDEA

Richard Herman, a Cleveland-based immigration attorney and co-author of the upcoming bookImmigrant, Inc.—Why Immigrant Entrepreneurs Are Driving the New Economy (and how they will save the American worker), says that allowing thousands of founders to get special immigration status could spur sufficient economic activity and innovation to realize billions of dollars in real economic gains for this country within a short time span. We’re talking years, not decades.

How palatable would such a program be politically? U.S. Representative Jared Polis (D-Colo.), himself a former entrepreneur, is developing legislation to make it easier for foreign founders of investor-backed startups to secure visas to remain in the U.S. On the other end of the political spectrum, even Newt Gingrich, the Republican former Speaker of the House, has bloggedabout the need to make the country “more accessible to skilled immigrants.” He wrote this after witnessing “the dynamic entrepreneurial and high-tech business culture in Tokyo, Beijing, and Seoul”—countries with which we are competing for top talent. Representatives of both ends of the political spectrum can agree on this issue.

As things stand, we’re losing the battle to retain the immigrants who fueled the recent tech boom. We’re experiencing the first brain drain in American history.Other countries in Europe and South America are realizing the potential of attracting skilled immigrants and are putting together programs to snap them up. The startups needed to boost our economy are being created in Shanghai and Bangalore. That’s great for those countries, but we need job creation in Silicon Valley in California and Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. That means warmly welcoming to America as many founders as we can.

Wadhwa is senior research associate at the Labor & Worklife Program at Harvard Law School and executive in residence at Duke University. He is an entrepreneur who founded two technology companies. His research can be found at www.globalizationresearch.com. Follow him on Twitter“@vwadhwa”.

[Source: Businessweek]