N.J. now front line on Senate immigration fight
By Seth Mandel
The political battle over immigration and the fate of the country's top employment eligibility verification program have come to
A spokesman for Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) confirmed to The Jewish State that Menendez has placed a hold on a Senate bill that would reauthorize E-verify, an employee eligibility database maintained by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) due to expire in November.
In its place, Menendez has sponsored a bill that would reauthorize E-verify, but contained five additional legislative features, including "recapturing" unused employment-based visas between 1992 and 2007.
"There are approximately 2.3 million family visas and 326,000 employment visas" Menendez is looking to recapture, the senator's press secretary, Afshin Mohamadi, told The Jewish State.
Critics of Menendez's actions have two main objections. Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., told The Jewish State that Menendez's replacement bill leaves the immigration system worse off than if the Senate had simply passed the stand-alone E-verify reauthorization, which the House of Representatives passed by a 407-2 vote. The second problem, Krikorian said, is that by putting a hold on the E-verify bill prior to Congress's August recess, Menendez has put E-verify in danger of lapsing regardless of the outcome of his new bill.
"Even if you think that the bill is a good idea, it's hard to make a case for holding enforcement hostage until the bill is passed," Krikorian said.
'Recapturing' unused visas
Menendez has said that his bill, called The Visa and E-verify Extension Act of 2008, would speed up the process for workers waiting to receive their green cards.
"Verifying that workers have their proper documentation is certainly important, and this bill ensures we are doing that while being fair to families who have waited in line for years and have paid their visa fees to reunite with their loved ones," Menendez said in a statement.
Menendez is seeking to ensure that the numerical caps on visas are met. As such, the bill also proposes to roll over unused visas in future years. The bill blames unused visas on "bureaucratic delays," and seeks to "prevent losses of family-sponsored and employment-based immigrant visas in the future, and for other purposes."
Krikorian said that couching the unused visas as "lost" items in need of "recapturing" misrepresents the issue.
"There's no such thing as recapturing something," Krikorian said, referring to the unused visas. "It's not as though somebody counted out tiddlywinks and they weren't used and they're sitting there on the table."
Supporters of recapturing visas, such as the online immigration activist organization Immigration Voice, claim that recapturing the visas would help clear the visa backlogs and ease future visa application congestion.
Menendez said that such a program would avoid forcing a choice between immigration legislation that is pro-business and that which is pro-family.
"We must couple the E-verify effort, which is good for business, with policy that is also good for families," Menendez said. "It fits with our American value system and is a step toward fixing our broken immigration system."
Krikorian said opponents of the Menendez bill reject the premise that such legislation would ease
"All of the immigration critics come from the point of view that immigration numbers are simply too high," Krikorian said. "And the number of categories has proliferated beyond where it should, resulting in chain migration that becomes difficult to control."
Additionally, Krikorian said, the bill sets a precedent that going forward visa caps must be met, even if it means rolling them over.
"It changes the conception of what these numerical caps are from a ceiling to a floor," Krikorian said.
The recapturing provision raises the question of what it would cost, and whether the additional fees from rolled over visas would offset the price of administering those visas.
"As far as I know there isn't one attached," Mohamadi said, when asked if there were a price tag on the recapturing provision.
Krikorian disagreed, noting that -- as Menendez himself pointed out -- waitlisted visas have been paid for, so there would not be an additional revenue stream from rolled-over visas.
The fate of E-verify
At least 10 percent of
USCIS spokesman Shawn Saucier said he did not want to speculate on what would happen after the November expiration of E-verify if it is not reauthorized in time.
"The administration is committed to working with both sides of the isle to ensure the reauthorization of this very valuable tool," Saucier told The Jewish State.
Congress is schedule to come back from its August recess Sept. 8, which begins an effective home stretch for E-verify reauthorization. Mohamadi said Menendez fully intends to reauthorize E-verify, but said that the schedule is out of Menendez's hands.
"He introduced the bill, so it's up to the committees and the leader's office to set policy on how to move forward with this and other immigration matters," Mohamadi said. "It's part of the mix, but we don't have final say on when or where it will get considered. But there will be some opportunity at some point in the future, obviously."
Krikorian said that even if the bill isn't an attempt by Menendez to give in to pressure groups and run out the clock on E-verify, Congress would have to act fast.
"It doesn't seem like there would be enough time, frankly," Krikorian said. "Obviously, Congress -- tomorrow they can come back and change the entire body of American law, but it's not likely to happen."
Krikorian said that the Senate can choose to fast-track the bill, bypassing the committee stage of the approval process by attaching the full bill to another bill that is already prepared to come to a floor vote.
Mohamadi could not confirm such a strategy, but did say that it may be dependent upon what other immigration legislation is ahead of Menendez's bill when Congress returns from recess.
"It's more a question of what the next immigration bill that comes to the floor would be, and I believe that might be in the works," Mohamadi said.
Lifting the veil on E-verify's hold
There is another factor, however, according to Krikorian. When a senator puts a "hold" on a bill, it is done anonymously. NumbersUSA, a nonprofit public policy organization that focuses on the effects of immigration on the
The lost anonymity of the hold, Krikorian said, could affect Menendez's intentions, because gambling with E-verify could make congressional Democrats vulnerable in November.
"It seems to me that [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid would be insane to let this become a campaign issue," Krikorian said. "But it will if Menendez sticks it out."
It's possible, Krikorian said, that Senate Democrats have "choreographed" how this issue will play out in a way that would keep them out of danger. But, Krikorian said, if Senate Democrats don't pass a reauthorization of E-verify before congressional elections, those who are up for re-election will be seen as unserious about immigration when compared to their Republican opponents, and "the ads write themselves."
Impact of immigration on N.J.
Twenty percent of N.J.'s immigrant households are using at least one welfare program, and immigrants make up almost half of those without health insurance in the state. It is estimated that illegal immigrants are five percent of the state's population and six percent of the state's work force.
Additionally, illegal immigrants represent six percent of the school-age children in the state -- the highest percentage in the country, and twice the national average. Thirty-six percent of illegal immigrants in