Thought Theater

Senate Moves Forward On Immigration Bill genre: Polispeak

The Senate moved to limit debate on immigration legislation which makes it likely that they will vote on legislation before the weekend. The final bill is expected to call for tougher border security and to provide an opportunity to obtain citizenship for many undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States. Yahoo has the full article here.

The vote to advance the measure was 73-25, 13 more than the 60 needed.

Despite the controversy surrounding the bill, the outcome was not a surprise. Even some of the bill's opponents said they were satisfied they had been given ample opportunity over past week to try and give the bill a more conservative cast.

Final passage would set the stage for a difficult negotiation with the House, which passed legislation last year that exposes all illegal immigrants to criminal felony charges.

In my opinion, the most critical element of the new legislation involves the inclusion of stiffer penalties for businesses that hire undocumented employees. In the last 20 years, the process of employee eligibility verification has become virutally meaningless. The new legislation contains the following provisions.

On Tuesday, the Senate called for tougher employer penalties on businesses that hire illegal workers. The vote was 58-40.

Employers who do not use a new computerized system could be fined $200 to $600. The system would include information from the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and Homeland Security Department.

There would be $20,000 fines for hiring illegal immigrants once the new screening system is in place, double the current maximum. Repeated violators could be sentenced to prison terms of up to three years.

Congress passed employer sanctions as part of the 1986 amnesty law, but they were never fully enforced and workers and employers got around them with fraudulent documents.

The House passed a bill in December that would impose fines on employers of undocumented workers ranging from $5,000 to $40,000. But, unlike the Senate bill, the House measure would require employers to screen all employees — an estimated 140 million people — instead of only new hires.