Major unions and immigrant advocacy groups have focused these public actions on opposing the so-called Sensenbrenner bill, which the House of Representatives passed on Dec. 16, 2005, and on supporting an alternative measure introduced in the Senate by Republican John McCain and Democrat Edward Kennedy.

The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act (HR 4437), introduced by Republican congressman James Sensenbrenner, would make it an aggravated felony—a criminal, not just civil, offense—to live in the United States without proper documents or to commit even minor violations of immigration regulations. It would make millions permanently ineligible for adjusting their immigration status.

According to a March report by the Pew Hispanic Center, nearly 12 million undocumented workers—about 5 percent of the workforce—live in the United States, 4.4 million of whom arrived since 2000.

The House bill would also make “aiding” or “counseling” an undocumented immigrant a felony.

Building on the Clinton administration’s 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, the bill would expand the federal government’s powers of mandatory detention and expedited deportation of undocumented immigrants, and further limit their right to appeal. It also calls for building a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border and for reinforcement of border policing, including the use of the U.S. military in surveillance activity.

Legislation similar to the Sensenbrenner bill was introduced in the Senate February 23 by Republican Arlen Specter. That bill also provides for a “guest worker” program.

The actions protesting the Sensenbrenner bill have promoted the McCain-Kennedy bill, touting it as an “avenue to legal status” for millions of foreign-born workers.

The McCain-Kennedy bill, or Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act, introduced in both the Senate and House with bipartisan support, would beef up the immigration cops and further centralize the border operations of federal, state, and local police agencies.

The most publicized provision of that bill is the “temporary worker” program, which embodies elements of a “guest worker” plan proposed by President George Bush. It would allow undocumented workers who can prove they have worked in the United States since May 12, 2005, to apply for a temporary visa, valid for six years. Workers outside the United States could apply for a three-year temporary visa, renewable for another three years, if they showed evidence of a job offer through a federal registry and no “U.S. worker” took that job.

The worker would have to clear security and criminal checks, and pay a $1,000 “fine”—for having been “illegal”—plus application and other fees.

McCain-Kennedy would establish a huge federal database, the Employment Eligibility Confirmation System, allowing bosses to electronically verify a worker’s identity and job eligibility. Workers hired through this registry would be able to change jobs, but would remain dependent on their boss to keep their legal status. Those workers hired from outside the United States would be subject to deportation if they were unemployed for 45 days.

As a result, despite “protections” stated in the law, these workers would face bosses’ permanent threat of firing and deportation, making them a ready-made pool of superexploited labor. Workers in this program would be able to apply for permanent residence status (green card) only at the end of their six-year temporary visa, after paying another $1,000 “fine” and added fees.

One feature underplayed by liberal supporters of the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act is the Employment Eligibility Confirmation System. While initially used only for temporary workers, who would be issued a “tamper-proof” card, the goal is to eventually expand the use of this system to check on all workers.

The central database will compile information about workers’ country of origin, legal status, occupation, city of employment, annual wages paid, dates when a worker begins and ends a job, and “biometric” data such as fingerprints and iris scans.

“The information will be warehoused in a massive database that establishes the framework for a national ID system, raising grave civil liberties and civil rights concerns,” says the National Immigration Law Center in a generally favorable analysis of the bill.

The officials of several unions support the McCain-Kennedy bill, including the Service Employees International Union, UNITE HERE, and United Food and Commercial Workers. The Laborers union and AFL-CIO oppose the guest worker plan, saying it puts downward pressure on wages. At a February 28 news conference in San Diego, AFL-CIO officials said they favored laws tying the number of green cards “to the demands of the labor market, with more green cards issued when there is a demand for more foreign labor,” the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
 
 
Related articles:
Oppose employers’ immigration ‘reform’!
Unionize all workers, native- and foreign-born
Over 100,000 rally in Chicago against House immigration bill
D.C. protesters: ‘Immigrants are not criminals’
N.Y. top court: undocumented get back pay for job injury  
 
 
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