AZMEX I3 24-6-13

AZMEX I3 24 JUN 2013   

From time to time my office distributes press releases and written statements on state and national issues, debate in the Senate, and legislation that I am working on. For your convenience, I post these documents on my site for your review.

Sessions Issues Statement On Tonight's Procedural Vote To Advance 1,200-Page Substitute Immigration Bill

Monday, June 24, 2013

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement after tonight's vote:

 

"The sponsors of the Corker-Hoeven substitute fell short of the votes they expected tonight to advance what they had erroneously billed to other Senators as a strong border security amendment. Failure to capture the votes they anticipated for this motion demonstrates the building unease this 1,200-page legislative monstrosity has created. I expect that unease will increase as Senators learn more about what's really inside this proposal.

 

The Gang of Eight and their allies revealed their true tactics tonight. They shut down debate and blocked amendments to a 1,200-page immigration bill that no one has read. It was anything but the open and fair process that they had promised.

 

What we know for absolute certain is that this bill guarantees three things: instantaneous amnesty, permanent lawlessness, and a massive expansion in legal immigration that will reduce wages for working Americans. This legislation is a crushing blow to the working people of this country, a surrender to illegality, and a capitulation to special interests over the interests of the citizens we pledged to represent."

 

 

BACKGROUND ON CORKER-HOEVEN SUBSTITUTE AMNESTY-FIRST IMMIGRATION BILL:

·        Immediate amnesty before enforcement

·        Guts legal requirement for biometric exit-entry system

·        Millions of green cards (permanent residency) before enforcement—debunking another false claim from sponsors

·        No border surge. Agents aren't required until 2021. It will never happen

·        No fence requirement. DHS retains discretion in the bill that preempts the call for a fence in ten years. Litigation also provides an escape hatch to never build the fence. The fence won't happen

·        Legalization for gang members and convicted criminals

·        Amnesty for future visa overstays (in other words, a prospective amnesty for future illegal immigrants)

·        Guaranteed welfare access for illegal immigrants

·        Undermines interior enforcement, prompting ICE officers to warn: "There is no doubt that, if passed, public safety will be endangered and massive amounts of future illegal immigration—especially visa overstays—is ensured."

·        Expands non-merit chain migration—less than 10 percent of future flow is merit-based

·        Doubles the number of guest workers and triples the number of immigrants granted lawful permanent residency—reducing wages for U.S. workers and driving up unemployment

2. USCIS not keeping track of immigration fraud, OIG says By Zach Rausnitz Comment | Forward | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn The fraud detection unit at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did not record nearly half of its findings of immigration fraud in a law enforcement database, the Homeland Security Department office of inspector general says. The OIG looked at findings of fraud in I-130 and 1-485 forms, which allow spouses and immediate relatives of immigrants to apply for residency, from 2008 to 2011. USCIS only recorded about 48 percent of its 1,144 findings of fraud associated with those forms into the TECS database, says the report (.pdf), dated June 12. Fraud detection personnel are required under USCIS procedures to record cases of immigration fraud into the TECS database. Failure to follow USCIS procedures for recording instances of fraud in the database "may have increased the risk that aliens committing fraud were granted immigration benefits or given additional opportunities to apply for benefits," the report says. TECS (which no longer stands for anything but used to be the Treasury Enforcement Communications System) is linked to other Homeland Security Department law enforcement facilities, and many agencies at all levels of government can access its data. USCIS concurred with the OIG's recommendation that it should enforce its database procedure. To bring attention to the procedure, the agency told auditors that it would remove TECS guidance from its fraud detection standard operating procedure and instead issue the guidance separately. The agency plans to issue guidance in that format within 30 days, the report says. For more: - download the report, OIG-13-97 (.pdf) Related Articles: Immigration reform could overwhelm the agencies that have to implement it GAO criticizes ICE for lax enforcement of compliance with student visa laws Read more about: TECS, USCIS