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Op-Ed
Congress' small step toward immigration reform
The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act makes only a small, surgical tuck in the nation's complex immigration code. But this small change could have significant consequences.
by Tamar Jacoby
December 7, 2011
Among Republican presidential candidates, it's been demagoguery as usual. Why have a substantive debate when you can exchange inflammatory sound bites instead, especially on immigration?
But something surprising happened last week far from the campaign trail — on Capitol Hill, of all places. Just when we thought Congress would never act to address the nation's broken immigration system, members of the House made a critical breakthrough, voting overwhelmingly to approve a fix that will make American companies more competitive and the immigration system fairer and more welcoming.
The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act is not a broad, far-reaching bill. It's nothing like the comprehensive overhaul Congress has been debating for years. It doesn't add more slots for would-be immigrants. It makes only a small, surgical tuck in the nation's complex immigration code, phasing out quotas on the number of legal permanent residents who can be admitted in any given year from a single country. But this small change could have significant consequences, for thousands of immigrants and for the politics of immigration.
The per-country caps that would be eliminated by the bill are among the most absurd and cumbersome features of the U.S. immigration system. Under current law, thousands of foreigners are approved each year to enter the U.S. as legal permanent residents, some sponsored by employers who need their skills, others by family members who arrived before them and became citizens. But this approval is not enough to guarantee a visa. Instead, approved candidates get in line and wait for their number to come up under the annual cap for their countries. And because until now visas were allotted equally to all countries, no matter how big or small, candidates from big countries with strong ties to the U.S. have often waited years. Backlogs have gotten so bad that workers from India, for example, currently face waits of 70 years — in other words, many never get visas — and family members from Mexico wait more than a decade.
Phasing out the caps would dramatically reduce waits for many of the highly skilled workers America needs to remain a globally competitive knowledge economy. American companies will find it easier to hire researchers, engineers and other top talent from the big countries that produce most of the brainpower they rely on to do business. The U.S. will become a more attractive destination for foreign innovators and entrepreneurs. And they in turn will help create jobs for Americans, a much-needed boost for economic recovery.
The bill will also help family members of immigrants who have become citizens. Though the country caps for family-based visas are not eliminated, they would be expanded, with the maximum that can go to any one country rising from 7% to 15% of the total. This could significantly shorten the waits for spouses and children of immigrants from countries that send large numbers of newcomers to the U.S. — Mexico, the Philippines, India and China, among others. And by making it easier for people to enter the country legally, the bill could potentially make a dent in the illegal flow.
Many immigration reformers wish the measure went further, not just easing and eliminating country caps but also expanding the number of legal permanent residence permits, or green cards, issued every year. Unless we do this too, the critics argue, easing the caps is no more than a palliative. It robs slots from some countries and awards them to others, shortening waits for Indians and Mexicans but lengthening them for immigrants from other, smaller countries.
The critics aren't wrong: We do need more green cards. But that isn't politically possible today, not with unemployment hovering above 8% and politicians so gun-shy about immigration.
Still, the House bill represents a huge political breakthrough. Lawmakers in Washington have been trying to fix the system for a decade. Democrats and Republicans have been unable to agree on an approach. The politics of immigration have grown so polarized that it sometimes seems Democrats own the issue, while few Republicans will touch it.
The process that produced the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act was very different. The bill was proposed by Republicans. With some unusually nimble negotiating, its GOP sponsors persuaded influential pro-immigration Democrats to work with them. The resulting bipartisan measure was approved overwhelmingly, by a vote of 389 to 15. And although it has encountered some obstacles in the Senate, it has broad bipartisan support there as well.
Perhaps most important, the bill could usher in a new approach to immigration reform. For a decade, the conventional wisdom among reformers has been "all or nothing." We shouldn't pass any small fixes, the thinking went, because that would take the pressure off — we'd lose the head of steam we needed to pass comprehensive reform. But this strategy has produced only stalemate.
So maybe it's time to try a different approach: not all or nothing but step by step.
As the country-cap bill shows, the key to the new model will be to start small. Reforms should focus on the legal immigration system. Both Democrats and Republicans should initiate bills. Lawmakers will have to relearn the lost art of horse-trading. Over time, small steps will build trust and confidence. And who knows — perhaps, someday, they will build momentum for bigger steps.
Tamar Jacoby, a fellow at the New America Foundation, is president of ImmigrationWorks USA, a national federation of small-business owners working for better immigration law.
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From Google News
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Biological weapons threat is growing, U.S. warns
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States called on Wednesday for closer international cooperation to prevent terrorist groups from developing or using biological weapons, a threat it said was growing.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said countries must strengthen their ability to detect and respond to suspicious outbreaks of infectious disease that could be caused by pathogens falling into the wrong hands.
"Unfortunately the ability of terrorists and other non-state actors to develop and use these weapons is growing. Therefore this must be a renewed focus of our efforts," she said in a speech in Geneva.
"Because there are warning signs and they are too serious to ignore."
She said Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula had urged "brothers with degrees in microbiology or chemistry ... to develop a weapon of mass destruction."
A crude but effective terrorist weapon can be made by using a small sample of widely available pathogens, inexpensive equipment and "college-level chemistry and biology," she added.
States must do a better job of reporting on measures being taken to guard against the misuse of biological weapons and scientists should exchange views on threats, Clinton said.
She was addressing a global conference held every five years to review the Biological Weapons Convention banning biological and toxin weapons, which has been ratified by 165 states.
Iran's ambassador Seyed Mohammad Reza Sajjadi, whose country has ratified the 1975 pact, said the meeting should call on all non-parties, and in particular Israel, to join without delay.
Clinton said the United States saw no need to negotiate a verification regime for the pact as it is extremely difficult to detect biological material and research can serve dual purposes, both military and civilian. Global negotiations 10 years ago failed to agree on a verification mechanism.
"False verification is worse than no verification, in the sense that it gives you this sense of security that is not warranted," a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters.
Clinton called for maximizing the benefits of scientific research and minimizing the risks that it will be misused.
"For example, the emerging gene synthesis industry is making genetic material more widely available. This obviously has many benefits for research but it could also potentially be used to assemble the components of a deadly organism," she said.
There was a need to balance the need for scientific innovation with the need to guard against such risks, she said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/07/us-arms-biological-idUSTRE7B60RV20111207
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From the White House
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Meeting with Lady Gaga on Inclusion and Equality for Our Young People
by Valerie Jarrett
Lady Gaga is a source of strength for many young people who feel isolated and scared at their schools. Today, I had the opportunity to welcome her to the White House, where we discussed ways we could work together to make sure that no child comes under attack, regardless of his or her race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other factor.
One of Lady Gaga's newest projects is joining together with the MacArthur Foundation and Harvard University to launch the Born This Way Foundation, which will explore ways to help change the culture, the policies, and the curriculum surrounding the safety of our children in school.
Lady Gaga has described this cause as a personal one – she has said that as a child, she was often picked on for being different. I am deeply moved by the way she has used her story, and her success, to inspire young people, and shine the spotlight on important issues.
I am proud to be part of an Administration that has taken steps to address bullying. In 2010, the Department of Education made it clear to schools that allowing bullying against LGBT students can violate anti-discrimination statutes. In 2011, the Department reaffirmed students' rights to form gay-straight alliances and other similar groups. Earlier this year, President Obama and the First Lady held a White House Conference on Bullying Prevention. And today the Administration released a new analysis of state bullying laws and policies, summarizing the efforts currently in place to prevent bullying in and out of schools. The report shows that while states have made recent progress in enacting policies and legislation to address bullying, more must be done.
Over the last three years, we have seen that when we work together on behalf of human rights, we can accomplish truly amazing things, yet too many young people still remain at risk.
As we continue protecting our children, we look forward to working with Lady Gaga, the Born This Way Foundation, and with every American who is willing to help make our society more kind, inclusive, and equal.
Valerie Jarrett is a Senior Advisor to the President.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/12/06/meeting-lady-gaga-inclusion-and-equality-our-young-people
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Preventing Hunger and Protecting Taxpayers: Our Renewed Efforts to Combat SNAP Fraud
by Kevin Concannon
In recent years, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – formerly known as food stamps – has demonstrated an exceptional record in program integrity and stewardship of taxpayer dollars. The program currently serves as a bridge to success for over 46 million Americans who are at risk of being hungry when they face challenging economic times. More than half of those who rely on the program are children, elderly or the disabled, and many participants are newly unemployed and never thought they would be living in poverty. The program has never been more important and neither has the need to be a good steward of its dollars. In this vein, President Obama and Vice President Biden launched the Administration's new Campaign to Cut Waste in government spending in June to eliminate misspent tax dollars and USDA strongly supports this effort.
Today we are reinforcing this commitment, strengthening our resolve to ensure program integrity and working on behalf of American taxpayers to protect the federal investment in SNAP and make sure the program is targeted towards those families who need it the most. While we recognize that fraud occurs relatively infrequently in SNAP, it has great potential to undermine public confidence in government and jeopardize the ability of the program to serve the millions of struggling families who rely on benefits each month.
Thankfully, the vast majority of SNAP recipients are honest people who spend their benefits to meet basic nutritional needs and to put food on the table. Data shows that illegal activity – such as selling benefits to others for cash – only affects roughly one cent on the dollar. Still, we cannot tolerate even the smallest abuse of taxpayer resources. That's why we have implemented aggressive strategies to continue to improve SNAP integrity.
We actively investigate illegal activity so that we can remove any violators from the program. In fiscal year 2010 investigations of individuals and retailers resulted in over 44,000 persons being disqualified from SNAP and 931 retailers being permanently barred from accepting benefits. Going forward, we're seeking to increase sanctions and penalties for retailers who engage in fraudulent activity and we're using the regulatory process to fight the practice of buying and discarding food just to get money-back deposits.
By using state-of-the-art technology, our data-mining and analysis strategies are successfully identifying suspicious patterns in SNAP transactions. We're already working on our next-generation system which will be even more effective. We're aware that social media monitoring is also important to our efforts to prevent abuse in the program. For example, we recently updated our policies to make it very clear that advertising the sale of benefits through social media is illegal.
Again, cases of abuse in SNAP are relatively rare. But it's important that we work to combat any amount of fraud. That means being aggressive in our investigations and working with our State partners who administer the program to remain vigilant and ensure that program benefits are used as intended. I'm proud to say that USDA takes protecting taxpayer dollars very seriously and we are on the job 24 hours a day to make sure others do too.
Kevin Concannon is Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services in the United States Department of Agriculture
From the Department of Homeland Security
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~National Preparedness System Description Announced
by Craig Fugate, Administrator, FEMA
We first talked about the Presidential Policy Directive on National Preparedness last March and since then we have released the National Preparedness Goal outlining the capabilities necessary to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from the threats and hazards that pose the greatest risk to the nation.
Today, we took the next step in our ongoing efforts to work together to improve for a wide range of these threats and hazards, such as acts of terrorism, cyber attacks, pandemics and catastrophic natural disasters, by releasing a description of the National Preparedness System. What makes this preparedness system unique is that it involves the whole community – individuals, businesses, community- and faith-based organizations, schools and all levels of government. We recognize that the nation will be most prepared for threats and hazards when we work together and the National Preparedness System outlines the approach, resources and tools for achieving that goal.
The system has six main components for improving our preparedness:
Identifying and assessing risks; Estimating capability requirements; Building or sustaining capabilities; Developing and implementing plans to deliver those capabilities; Validating and monitoring progress made towards achieving the National Preparedness Goal; and Reviewing and updating efforts to promote continuous improvement. |
Each of these components calls for specific actions that we can take to improve our national preparedness. The first component, for example, will create a common way to assess risks, so we can more fully understand all of the risks that communities face. This clear view will help us figure out how best to work together to ensure we're making wise decisions to keep people safe from harm.
With the National Preparedness System description released, we will now focus on the details of how we will achieve our National Preparedness Goal. Over the next few months, we will continue to work with the entire community to determine roles and responsibilities as well as develop frameworks to support the coordination needed to effectively deliver the core capabilities outlined in the goal. Those coordination points will be detailed in a series of national frameworks and interagency operational plans. In addition to the recently releasedNational Disaster Recovery Framework, frameworks will be developed for prevention, protection and mitigation as well as updates made to the National Response Framework. Federal interagency operational plans will also be developed for all five frameworks. As with the previous steps in this process, we look forward to incorporating input from the whole community as we work to strengthen our nation's resilience to all hazards.
To read the system description or learn more about Presidential Policy Directive 8: National Preparedness, visit www.fema.gov/ppd8.
http://blog.dhs.gov/2011/12/ppd-8-national-preparedness-system.html
