Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Immigration Roundup: It’s Your Move, House

by Laura D. Francis

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All eyes are now on the House after the Senate June 27 passed an amended version of S. 744, the comprehensive immigration overhaul bill introduced in April by the bipartisan “gang of eight.”

The 68-32 bipartisan vote came after the Senate adopted an amendment largely dealing with border security that was aimed at easing Republican Senators’ reservations so they would vote for the overall bill. However, it also includes a provision from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would create a youth jobs program funded by an additional $10 fee per worker charged to employers that hire foreign workers on J-1 exchange visas.

The Senate did not alter the compromise amendment to the provisions on the H-1B highly skilled guestworker program adopted during the Senate Judiciary Committee markup process that was added to garner the vote of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), despite the outcry from organized labor.

The original bill would have required employers to hire “equally or better qualified” U.S. workers before H-1B workers and required “H-1B dependent” employers to make a “good faith effort” to recruit U.S. workers before hiring H-1B workers. The amendment instead would require only H-1B dependent employers (those with a workforce of at least 15 percent H-1B workers) to hire “equally or better qualified” U.S. workers first, while requiring other employers merely to make a “good faith effort” to hire U.S. workers before H-1B workers.

Hatch wound up voting both to advance the bill out of committee and to pass the bill out of the Senate.

But the Senate bill may have hit a roadblock in the House as House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) is continuing to press forward with his “step-by-step approach” to overhauling the immigration system despite repeated calls from Democratic committee members to tackle the issue comprehensively.

The same day the Senate passed S. 744, the House Judiciary Committee approved a bill (H.R. 2131) addressing highly skilled employment-based green cards and guestworker programs. Earlier in the week, the committee also approved a bill (H.R. 1772) that would make the E-Verify electronic employment eligibility verification system mandatory for all employers on a shorter timeline than the Senate bill. The week before, the committee also approved a border security and interior enforcement bill (H.R. 2278) and one (H.R. 1773) that would create a new agricultural guestworker program.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) also has said he doesn’t plan on addressing the Senate bill in the House.

But advocates say they will continue to press House lawmakers for a comprehensive bill, so perhaps that added political pressure will change the course of events.

In Other News:

• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas has been nominated as deputy secretary for USCIS’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security. Mayorkas has headed USCIS since 2009 and oversaw implementation of the deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA) program, which the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman in a recent report called a best practice in immigration benefits administration.

• In a case involving an Egyptian-born medical center faculty member, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 24 that plaintiffs claiming retaliation under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act must prove that retaliation was the “but for” cause of the adverse employment action.

• Employees who voluntarily provide their email addresses on the I-9 employment eligibility verification form now can be notified directly by E-Verify if the system returns a tentative nonconfirmation (TNC). Employers still have to inform employees of TNCs and give them a chance to correct the problem with the Homeland Security Department or Social Security Administration.

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