This lunacy is the brainchild of three Arizona
Republicans – House members Jim Kolbe and Jeff Flake,
and Senator John McCain. With the introduction of these
bills in the House and Senate last month, this trio
deserves all-time lows on the
“most horriblest clowns” list maintained by the
invaluable immigration reform radio talkshow host
Terry Anderson.
The plan adds two new visa categories to the existing
laundry list of non-immigrant visas in
section 101(a)(15) of the Immigration Act.
The plan will allow an apparently unlimited number of
brand-new foreign workers under a new H-4A category, and
will grant new H-4B visas - also apparently unlimited –
to illegal aliens and to visa over-stayers who are
already working in the United States without
authorization.
Here’s a handy memory aid for the proposed new visas:
H-4A visa – “The Foreign Worker Importation
Act of 2003.”
H-4B visa – “The Illegal Alien and September
11th Hijacker Adjustment Act of 2003.”
The H-4A aliens will be new arrivals who apply for
their visas at
U.S. consulates abroad in order to take pre-arranged
jobs in the United States that Americans
supposedly won’t do – or won’t do for what the
employers are
willing to pay, more accurately.
The H-4A applicants will miraculously apply and be
hired for American jobs while they’re still in their
home countries, and while Americans are
unemployed at home. Amazing, isn’t it?
Successful H-4A applicants will be imported for three
years, renewable for another three years. Corporations
employing more than 500 workers can get in on the H-4A
action for a one-time fee of $1,000. Smaller companies
can buy the privilege of importing foreign workers for
even fewer pieces of silver – $500. Each lucky H-4A
alien will pay an additional application fee, to be
determined later.
After getting a foot in the door with non-immigrant
status, the next step for these newly-minted
non-immigrants will be to file for permanent
residence through the very same employer or perhaps
through a new-found family member.
And after seven years with a “green
card” – voila! – United States citizenship.
Non-immigrant visas are
intended for foreign tourists, students, diplomats,
journalists, crewmen, nurses, artists, entertainers,
language students, cultural exchange visitors, and
certain of their spouses and children. The visas allow
foreign nationals into the country legally for limited
purposes, without resorting to sneaking in through
someone’s
ranch, or in the
trunk of a car.
Whether any non-immigrants ever actually leave the
United States is another story. But under this new
“temporary worker” plan, non-immigrants who let their
status expire (along with those who never had status in
the first place) can apply for an H-4B visa and become
legal again.
Amazingly, the H-4B visa program is reserved for
illegal aliens only. It snubs the law-abiding student
and tourist to reward scofflaws who take American jobs
without authorization. Being illegal is a requirement
for the H-4B visa!
Illegal aliens who claim to have been living and
working illegally in the United States prior to August
1, 2003, can apply for a three-year H-4B visa for
$1,500. And if they can’t afford the $1,500 fee all at
once, Secretary Tom Ridge’s friendly
Department of Homeland Security will extend them
credit at market rates. [H.R.
2899, pages 27-28 – honest!]
The three-year H-4B visa allows aliens and their
willing American employers an extension for as long as
it takes to change status over to the H-4A category. And
once the former illegal aliens cleansed by their H-4B
visa make the jump over to the H-4A status, the clock
starts all over again. As newly-minted H-4A aliens
they’ll get three more years of employment, renewable
for yet another three years, increasing their chances of
finding a way to petition for permanent resident status.
But who will get the H-4B visa amnesty?
Remember the September 11th
terrorists who came to the United States
claiming to be foreign students, but never
attended class – or were “tourists” who just
disappeared?
If the
jihad fanatics managed to find willing H-4B
employers, they would have been eligible to change back
to legal non-immigrant status under this insane plan.
They also could have prolonged their stay even longer by
adjusting again from H-4B to H-4A.
But the H-4B “Illegal Alien and September 11th
Hijacker Adjustment Act” gets even worse. The H-4B visas
throw a gigantic monkey-wrench into the already
ludicrous and
delay-ridden
Immigration Court system of the Executive Office for
Immigration Review –EOIR.
Thanks to the
three stooges from Arizona, aliens will
be able to stop their deportation proceedings, file for
a three-year H-4B visa, and walk out of Immigration
Court with lawful status all from the very same process
that was supposed to be deporting them! [See
H.R. 2899, page 30]
And if an alien’s H-4B application gets denied – due
to Immigration Act
section 212(a)(2), (3), and (4) inadmissibility –
who cares! They’ve just successfully tied up their own
deportation for an eternity while waiting for their
fellow 8.4 million
illegal alien workers to have their H-4B adjustment
applications decided too.
Eduardo Aguirre’s crack team at the Bureau of
Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS)
will be ready for all those new H-4B applications,
right?
Unfortunately, non-deportation of aliens in the
federal immigration bureaucracy is nothing new. The H-4B
visa is just one more below-the-radar amnesty program,
and yet another get-out-of-jail-free card in the
ongoing permanent amnesty that is the Justice
Department’s EOIR Immigration Court.
The Grand Canyon state trio have only just introduced
this bill. No word yet on where the Bush Administration
stands. Let’s be hopeful, but watchful.
Juan Mann [send him
email] is a lawyer and the proprietor of
DeportAliens.com.
