See, earlier: Sen. Mike Lee Is No Immigration Patriot, And A Very Bad Choice For the U.S. Supreme Court and House Passes Big Ag Amnesty—With 34 GOP Votes

Grassroots immigration patriot groups like Carrying Capacity Network are raising the alarm about the apparently unkillable Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, S.386, which will import an Asian overclass to displace skilled American workers, and which may pass the Senate by unanimous consent i.e., evade public hearings as early as next week. CCN President David F. Durham tells VDARE.com that he fears traitorous donor-driven Republicans are using the impeachment fight to pressure President Trump into accepting the green card giveaway. Weirdly, Immigration patriot Senators seem to be asleep.

The bill has been hindered in the Senate because Democrats, led by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, F- at NumbersUSA, wanted it to be even more generous to immigrants. But in late December, Durbin and sponsor Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee (B+ at NumbersUSA, but only because he opposes illegal immigration) struck a deal to do just that. The revised bill is both worse and more likely to pass in its newly altered form.

The bill aims to eliminate country caps on visas, which prevent certain nationalities from overwhelming our immigration system. Currently, one nationality can receive no more than seven percent of the one million visas handed out per year. S. 386 would scrap the limits and allow Indians and Chinese to receive the lion’s share of green cards. Without the country caps, it is estimated that at least 75 percent of all employment-based visas would go to Indians.

Big Tech champions the bill because it would bring in more cheap labor. The Indian ethnic lobby supports it because it would bring in more Indians and also help the Indian economy with increased remittances, which make up 2.7% of India's GDP, 80 billion dollars in 2018.

Below, Republican Senator Mike Lee posted a picture of himself surrounded by Indian "supporters of S. 386" on Twitter:

Great talking to all the supporters of S. 386 today, the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act. It’s far past time to end country based discrimination in our nations immigration policy. pic.twitter.com/nn5LdpJON8

— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) October 17, 2019

The legislation passed the House in July with hardly any opposition; only 57 Republicans and eight Democrats voted against it. Disturbingly, many supposed immigration patriots, such as Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz supported it.

In the Senate, Georgia Senator David Perdue opposed the bill in September but only over the possibility it might bring in fewer foreign health workers. The bill was changed to guarantee 4,400 green cards for Filipino nurses every year, which  apparently answered Perdue’s concerns [Mike Lee Expands India-Giveaway Bill, Creates Work Permit Program, by Neil Munro, Breitbart, December 17, 2019]. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton supports it. Even Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who aspires to be the future of national populism, has stayed silent.

The bill now allows guest workers waiting for green cards to stay longer in the United States with renewable work permits. Those who apply for this “Early Adjustment” status would be given full workplace rights and their children who age out of their visas would be protected from deportation. (And remember, Trump’s mooted closing of the Anchor baby loophole has not yet happened, so all U.S. born children of guest workers are automatically citizens.) The deal puts no caps on the number of migrants who can apply for Early Adjustment. This change could upend America’s entire immigration system and allow hundreds of thousands of migrants to stay in the country indefinitely.

“Under the bill, anyone on a long term temporary visa who finds a professional job will, after a wait of 270 days, be able to obtain a three-year renewable work permit and permission to travel in and out of the country,” Center for Immigration Studies policy director Jessica Vaughn told Breitbart in December.  “It will be a status comparable to green card status, but without having to wait in line or be restricted by annual immigration limits. It will potentially apply to hundreds of thousands of people each year, including foreign students, exchange visitors, NAFTA workers, investors, and more” [GOP Sen. Mike Lee Predicts Quick Passage of S.386 Visa-to-Voter Bill, by Neil Munro, Breitbart, December 18, 2019].

Under the current rules, immigrants who apply for a green card while working on a temporary visa have to go back to their home country to wait for approval. But the Durbin-Lee deal allows them to work in America—and displace American workers—for as long they want.

The Durbin-Lee deal also tries to appease those who are ineligible for Early Adjustment status. The bill now reserves 4,600 green cards for immigrants stuck in the backlog overseas and who are not eligible for early filing.

Hopefully significantly, the bill has garnered criticism from the White House. “I don’t think that bill, as currently written, is going to be passing the Senate anytime soon,” Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller told Lou Dobbs in October. “The administration has made clear that our view on [H-1B visas] is that you cannot displace or replace American workers. And the president has taken unprecedented action in the immigration space to do exactly that, including most recently with the public charge regulation to keep newcomers from taking advantage of our welfare system.” [Stephen Miller: H-1B visa bill won’t pass ‘anytime soon’, Fox Business, October 2, 2019].

In that interview, Dobbs said S. 386 would “double H-1B visas.” Lee called that fake news and said his bill protects American workers. “I 100% agree with the White House that the H-1B program should not be used to displace or replace American workers,” the senator said in an October press release. “S. 386 is also ‘number neutral,’ meaning it does not increase the number of visas, H-1B or otherwise in anyway, and under no circumstances will it become a vehicle for increasing overall immigration levels.”

The line that it will not increase overall immigration levels is probably what convinced immigration patriots like Gaetz, Cotton, and Perdue to support it. But the new rules allow hundreds of thousands of guest workers to stay indefinitely as long as they receive Early Adjustment status. The new bill increases the immigrant impact by no longer forcing guest workers to leave. Now an American has to compete with low-paid guest workers who can stay for as long as it takes to obtain a green card. That sure sounds like S. 386 will be used to displace American workers, contrary to Lee’s statements.

This change may finally convince Republicans to oppose the bill.

But it is true that Trump’s limited political capital is tied up in the impeachment fight and he needs to keep Republican senators happy to stay in office. Trump likely had to accept a terrible Homeland Security secretary to appease Senate Republicans. He doesn’t have tremendous political capital at the moment.

Carrying Capacity Network’s David Durham is also concerned that S. 386 will be combined with the House’s agriculture Amnesty bill deceptively known as the Farm Workforce Modernization Act to create a Treason Lobby “Perfect Storm.”

But that move could increase the chances of the green card giveaway dying in the Senate. Only 34 Republicans voted for the House Ag Amnesty bill, a sharp contrast to the overwhelming majority of Republicans who voted for the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act. The three most senior House Republican leaders voted against the Amnesty. It’s hard to see how Mike Lee would defend such an idea to national conservatives.

Indeed, the Indian ethnic lobby fears that the new deal will act as a poison pill, although their interest groups didn’t specify what is the poison pill. It’s possible the Indians realize that allowing thousands of guest workers to reside in America might terminally alienate Republicans [India’s Visa Workers Lash Out at Dick Durbin for ‘Poison Pill’ in S.386 Talks, by Neil Munro, Breitbart, December 16, 2019].

And it would only take one Republican senator to defeat unanimous passage. Josh Hawley or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz could emerge as a hero by rising up to stop this bill. Both of them have presidential aspirations and want to appeal to the national populist moment. Standing up against an anti-American green card giveaway is a good way to build nationalist credibility.

Republicans must position themselves as the America First Party to win in 2020. Passage of S. 386 will only tell America that the GOP cares more about Indians (and their employers) than it does American workers.

Washington Watcher II [Email him] is an anonymous DC insider.