ACTION ALERT: Senate looking at slipping in another immigration INCREASE. UPDATED

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UPDATE 5:08 on Thurs by Neil Munro on Breitbart:

Sen. Lindsey Graham is using the coronavirus recovery bills to dramatically expand the award of EB-5 green cards to wealthy Chinese if they lend money to U.S. real estate investors and other companies, according to several activists and Politico magazine.

“How can people pushing this not see how politically explosive this is?” said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies. “An EB-5 increase would almost exclusively benefit Chinese: It is hard to imagine what they are thinking.”

The plan by Graham, (R-S.C.) was provided to Politico, which said it would “boost the number of [EB-5] visas offered to wealthy immigrants who invest money in the United States as it tries to boost a faltering economy amid the escalating coronavirus outbreak, according to four people familiar with the situation.” [Full update is here.]

[resuming from yesterday's blog] This just in from NumbersUSA:

Senators mulling immigration increases in emergency spending bills.

Tell your Senators to OPPOSE!

Our Capitol Hill team is learning of some troubling news. There are a handful of Senators, along with some in the White House, who are looking to slip an INCREASE of legal immigration into the emergency spending bills currently being drafted to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

The provision being discussed would increase the number of EB-5 visas from 10,000 to 75,000. The EB-5 visa program provides foreign nationals with a green card in return for an investment in an American business that leads to the creation of at least 10 jobs for American workers. Currently, investors have to invest at least $900,000, but the provision could reduce that amount to $450,000.

Quite simply, the EB-5 visa program is the selling of U.S. citizenship. It's ridiculous to think that while Americans are concerned about their jobs and their health, that some Senators are looking for ways to benefit foreign nationals instead.

Please call your two U.S. Senators and urge them to oppose any efforts to slip an EB-5 increase into the economic stimulus package. Congress should not be burying bad immigration policy into emergency bills.

The talking point: tell your Senators to oppose an increase in EB-5 visas in the emergency bills.

Sen. Rob Portman:  202-224-3353 or by email here

Sen. Sherrod Brown: (202) 224-2315 (DC) or (216)  522 7272 (Cleveland)

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Agriculture amnesty bill

Bronson Stocking at Townhall reports on yet another push for amnesty in the House:

Lawmakers have forgotten the lessons of the previous amnesties, or they are hoping the American people have. Yesterday [Weds.], a bipartisan group of House members introduced the Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2019. Like the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, the new bill claims it will only apply to a limited number of illegal-alien agricultural workers, and it promises tougher employment verifications in the future. These are the same broken promises politicians made when they passed amnesty back in 1986. 

Via Neil Munro at Breitbart:

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is opposing the bill. “The name of this mass amnesty bill name should be changed to the Mandatory Farm Labor Act of 2019,” FAIR said.

NumbersUSA just sent out an update on the bill:

Agriculture amnesty bill to include weak E-Verify provision

A bipartisan group of House Members has introduced a new agricultural amnesty bill that includes a new twist from past ag amnesties -- a provision that requires farmers but nobody else to use E-Verify. The E-Verify provision isn't enough, however, to hide the fact that this will be an amnesty for millions of illegal ag workers and encourage more illegal immigration.

The Farm Workforce Modernization Act, H.R. 4916, was introduced on Wednesday. The official text has yet to be released, so we don't know all the details. But here's what lead sponsor Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) says the bill would do:

Establish a program for agricultural workers in the United States to earn legal status through continued agricultural employment and contribution to the U.S. agricultural economy.

Reform the H-2A program to provide more flexibility for employers, while ensuring critical protections for workers. The bill focuses on modifications to make the program more responsive and user-friendly for employers and provides access to the program for industries with year-round labor needs.

Establish mandatory, nationwide E-Verify system for all agricultural employment with a structured phase-in and guaranteed due process for authorized workers who are incorrectly rejected by the system.

NumbersUSA's Director of Government Relations, Rosemary Jenks, issued the following statement:

Congress tried amnesty as a solution to large numbers of illegal agricultural workers in 1986 with the Immigration Reform and Control Act. As predicted, it failed because the workers left agriculture for easier, better-paying jobs as soon as they got their amnesty, and illegal immigration actually increased thanks to the promise of future amnesties. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act will have the same result: amnestied aliens competing with Americans for non-farm jobs; and more illegal immigration incentivized by amnesty. Moreover, by mandating E-Verify only for agricultural employers, it will actually encourage more illegal aliens to compete with American workers and legal immigrants for non-farm jobs, where E-Verify is not required.

Last year, House lawmakers considered advancing legislation that would require all employers in the U.S. to use E-Verify in exchange for reforming the H-2A agricultural guest worker program. The legislation did allow current illegal ag workers to apply for the new guest worker program, but did not provide an opportunity for permanent amnesty like the Farm Workforce Modernization Act promises to do.

The most concerning aspect of H.R. 4916 is that 44 U.S. Representatives from both sides of the aisle have signed on as original cosponsors.

[NumbersUSA will] continue to monitor the legislation and will post actions after Congress returns from its current recess and we have been able to read and analyze all the details.

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