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Coke Super Bowl Ad “America Is Beautiful” : Stunned by the Intolerance and Bigotry
I was actually stunned Monday morning, the morning after the Super Bowl, not because the Broncos had been blown out by the Seahawks, but because of the unbelievable reaction to Coca-Cola’s 60 second Super Bowl advertisement. And when I say stunned, I mean I was really stunned.
Last night my wife was reading to me some of the posts that were showing up on YouTube, right below the link to Coke’s advertisement. As I type this blog, 9455 comments have been posted, and that number is increasing every time I check it. I don’t spend a lot of time online, and virtually no time on social media sites, but I am told this is a ridiculously high number of comments. I thought about giving some examples here, but honestly, I can’t even dignify any of them by re-posting them.
Are we not a nation of immigrants? Are we not a melting pot? Was the Super Bowl not played just a few miles south of the largest melting pot in the world? Has anyone taken a walk and looked around Herald Square recently (where ESPN set up camp just outside of MACY’s for the week before the Super Bowl)? Has anyone looked at the faces of the thousands of people that walk around Time Square every day (which also happened to be right in the middle of Super Bowl Boulevard)? Isn’t Ellis Island, right in New York harbor, where many of our grandparents landed when they came to America, very likely speaking languages other than English?
I’m quite sure that many of the people who posted their slurs on YouTube don’t even know that our own government allows some immigrants to pass a test to become a U.S. citizen without even speaking a word of English. That said, it does not mean the immigrants don’t wish to learn or become proficient in English. Indeed, the opposite is true. According to the Pew Hispanic Forum, the development of English language proficiency among non-English speaking immigrants today mirrors that of 19th and early 20th century, when our ancestors of Italian, German, and Eastern European decent came to America (many through Ellis Island). While first generation, non-English speaking immigrants predictably had lower rates of English proficiency than native speakers, 91 percent of second generation immigrants are fluent or near fluent English speakers. And by the time we get to the third generation, that number goes up to 97 percent!
I’ve spent the last year writing about the virtues of immigration in general, and the positive outcomes that will result if Congress is able to pass, and the President actually signs, legislation dealing with Comprehensive Immigration Reform (“CIR”). Last July the U.S. Senate passed the Gang of Eight’s “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act.” Finally, last week, in the wake of the President’s State of the Union Address, House Republicans released their standards for immigration reform. The standards include enforcement, reforming the legal immigration system, and addressing the undocumented immigrant population. And for those of you who think that all immigrants should speak English, you’ll be pleased to know that the House Republicans’ standards for immigration reform includes a requirement that the path to legalization include a requirement that illegal immigrants “develop proficiency in English and American civics” as a pre-condition to becoming legalized. (And that we need CIR to fix our broken immigration system.)
I read a great piece in Forbes about Coca-Cola’s advertisement. Writes Tom Watson, “Coca-Cola’s … America, The Beautiful Super Bowl ad was among the most talked about spots of the otherwise disappointing (unless you’re a Seahawks fan) contest – and it was an ad with a clear purpose. Yet it was not in any way, explicitly political. The ad illustrated the stakes of immigration reform and took pride the impact of immigration on U.S. culture.”
We are a nation born of immigrants. I would also remind people that immigrants have a long and proud tradition of serving in the U.S. military, and that there are thousands of men and women in uniform today who were not born in the United States and who are willing to sacrifice everything for our country. Let’s show them, their parents, their brothers and sisters, their children, and their friends and neighbors, some respect.
Goodbye 2013 : Hope for Immigration Reform in 2014?
Do you remember how hopeful everyone was in January? “Now is the time.” That’s what President Obama said on January 29, 2013 in Las Vegas when he introduced his four (4) part plan for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (“CIR”). In early July, the U.S. Senate passed a marked-up and amended version of the Gang of Eight’s “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act,” and we were off to the House of Representatives. And that’s where we are today … still waiting for something … anything.
There’s a lot of discussion these days whether we’re ever going to have CIR (or any immigration reform for that matter). I heard an interesting piece the other morning on National Public Radio (“NPR”), where Brent Wilkes, national executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a strong supporter of CIR, said he’s not concerned if CIR happens before the end of 2013.
“The real clock is this session of Congress doesn’t end until next December,” said Wilkes, who predicts that the House will vote on immigration bills by April or May in 2014. “This has been a long, long process for us, well over 20 years, and we’re not so impatient that we can’t wait four more months,” he added. I suppose that’s encouraging.
But I am also hearing a lot of political chatter as to the likelihood of having CIR before next year’s congressional mid-term elections, during the 2016 presidential primary cycle, or ultimately even by the time the 2016 presidential elections take place.
In a nutshell, the analysis goes like this. Although the Hispanic population today makes up 17 percent of the nation’s population and is the fastest-growing ethnic group, they disproportionately live in congressional districts represented by Democrats. So there’s no real incentive, at this point anyway, for Republican House members running for re-election in 2014 to support CIR if it’s not going to benefit them in their own district or, worse, potentially hurt them.
On to the Republican presidential primaries, where Republic presidential candidates will be focused on placating their conservative base (i.e., the voters in presidential primaries). No chance for CIR at this point
Now we’re into 2016, where maybe a Republican presidential candidate (or dare I say the Republican party) will finally learn the lessons of 2012. (That’s three years from now in case you’re not counting.)
Speaking of lessons learned, former Governor and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently went on CBS Morning to talk about life after the elections. During his comments, he stated that a significant shortcoming of his campaign was appealing to minority voters. (Really?) Interestingly, he took a somewhat different approach on immigration than he had during the campaign when he advocated “self-deportation.” Romney said, “I don’t think those who come here illegally should jump to the front of the line, or be given a special deal — be rewarded for coming here illegally — but they should have a chance, just like anybody else, to get in line and become a citizen if they’d like to do so.” While an admirable view, I think it’s a little too late coming from Governor Romney (but of course, we’re talking about lessons learned).
OK, so how about some potentially good news. Last week Speaker Boehner (R-OH) made a hiring choice for his own staff that hopefully speaks to his seriousness to address immigration reform in 2014. Roll Call reported that “Rebecca Tallent, who currently serves as director of immigration policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), will join Boehner’s staff[.] Before joining the BPC, Tallent held several senior staff positions with Sen. John McCain, including chief of staff.”
The Roll Call piece went on to say that “[d]uring her time with McCain, [Ms. Tallent] helped the Arizona Republican draft a handful of immigration overhaul measures, including the last big push McCain made with the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy … in 2007. … Before working for McCain, she worked for former Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., a longtime advocate of overhauling the immigration system[.]”
CIR is very much overdue. “Now [still] is the time.” January seems so long ago, but I remain cautiously optimistic that the House will do something about CIR, albeit now likely in 2014.
Is Comprehensive Immigration Reform Dead?
Last week, I attended a retirement luncheon for Bishop Howard Hubbard, Bishop of the Diocese of Albany for the past 36 years. Bishop Hubbard and the late Sr. Maureen Joyce hired me in the summer of 2000 to set up and oversee an Office for Immigrant Services at Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Albany. This office sees low and no income clients, many of whom cannot afford to walk into a private practitioner’s office. Many of these (potential) clients also have immigration-related issues that would be well served by Comprehensive Immigration Reform (“CIR”).
While walking into the luncheon, Bishop Hubbard pulled me aside and asked how our numbers were in the office. I told him we were as busy as ever, and that if CIR was signed into law, we would have to re-think our office’s ability to handle the anticipated increase in caseload. When I said this, he looked at me curiously and said he thought that CIR was dead. I responded that in light of current events in Washington (e.g., the government shutdown, raising the debt ceiling, the fumbled rollout of Obama Care, etc.), that CIR was not dead, but that the support for it was definitely muffled. I hope I was right in saying that.
So what’s going on with CIR? Well, we know that the Democratic leadership in the House introduced H.R. 15, a CIR bill generally modeled after the successful bipartisan Senate bill (except that the House Democrats’ bill does not include billions of dollars requiring hundreds of miles of new border fence, as the Senate bill did). As of today, there were actually three Republican co-sponsors to H.R. 15: Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), Rep. Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Rep. Denham (R-CA).
In a statement released when he decided to co-sponsor H.R.15, Rep. Valadao stated: “I have been working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to find common ground on the issue of immigration reform. Recently, I have focused my efforts on joining with likeminded Republicans in organizing and demonstrating to Republican Leadership broad support within the Party to address immigration reform in the House by the end of the year. By supporting H.R. 15 I am strengthening my message: Addressing immigration reform in the House cannot wait. I am serious about making real progress and will remain committed to doing whatever it takes to repair our broken immigration system.” (Finally, some common sense coming out of the House.)
You would think Republicans would have learned after the 2012 election debacle that CIR was a necessity. You would also think that after Republicans took it on the chin in the media for their antics during the government shutdown that they would be looking for opportunities to curry favor with voters. Public Policy Polling recently released new polls that looked at eight Congressional districts currently held by Republicans. The poll finds that while voters in each of these districts are unhappy with their Republican Representatives because of the government shutdown, the polls also found that “voters make it clear in each of these districts that they’ll be more likely to vote to reelect their Congressmen next year if they vote for immigration reform.”
“Now is the time.” That’s what President Obama said on January 29, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada when he introduced his four (4) part plan for CIR. When will Republicans get this?
House Democrats Pass H.R. 15 Bill for Comprehensive Immigration Reform
In July, the U.S. Senate passed a marked-up and amended version of the Gang of Eight’s “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act.” The House, for its part, has until last week taken a more piecemeal approach to Comprehensive Immigration Reform (“CIR”). The House Judiciary Committee and others have passed smaller immigration bills relating to border security, internal enforcement, guest workers, and high-tech visas. Notably, there was no path to citizenship (or even a lawful immigration status) in the House bills that passed for the eleven to thirteen million undocumented immigrants in the United States. That changed last week.
On October 2, the Democratic leadership in the House announced the introduction of H.R. 15, a CIR bill modeled after the successful bipartisan Senate bill, with one notable exception. The House Democrats’ bill does not include billions of dollars requiring hundreds of miles of new border fence, as the Senate bill did. Instead, the House bill would set specific goals for border enforcement.
The likelihood of this bill being passed as is (or perhaps even passing at all) is pretty slim. Nevertheless, it keeps the dialogue about CIR moving forward. Here are some highlights.
First, the House Democrats’ bill’s border-security measures are more goal-oriented than the Senate’s bill, as passed. The Senate bill would spend $30 billion to double the number of federal border agents, complete 700 miles of fencing, and expand radar and aerial drone surveillance along the border. The House Democrats’ bill, on the other hand, requires the Department of Homeland Security to create a detailed plan requiring the apprehension of ninety percent (90%) of illegal border-crossers in high-traffic areas within thirty three (33) months, and across the entire U.S.-Mexico border in five (5) years.
Second, both bills would grant legal status to around 7.7 million of the 11.5 million unauthorized immigrants currently in the United States.
Third, both bills would allow an additional five (5) million legal immigrants into the United States in the next five (5) years. The House Democrats’ bill, like the Senate bill, would revamp the system for permanent residency and the admission of temporary workers.
Fourth, both the House Democrats’ bill and the Senate bill would tighten employer enforcement of illegal immigration. Specifically, both bills would require employers to use a new version of E-Verify, an electronic system for determining the legal status of current and prospective employees.
And finally, both bills would include a various other changes to the immigration system, including reforming the immigration court and detention process, making it harder for immigrants to attain legal status if they commit certain crimes, and streamlining the political asylum process.
So is this much ado about nothing? Perhaps. House Democrats contend that their bill could pass if House Speaker John Boehner would allow it to come up for a vote. The problem is that Speaker Boehner has repeatedly said that no bill will receive a vote unless a majority of House GOP members support it. Asked if there was any chance Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor would put the bill on the House calendar, Cantor spokesman Rory Cooper replied, “No.”
It remains to be seen what the House will do with H.R. 15 or any other immigration bills that might be introduced in the House. Not withstanding the current dysfunction in Washington, D.C. (the government continues to be shut down as I write this), I continue to be cautiously optimistic that CIR is within Congress’s grasp.
States Enact Their Own Immigration Laws While The House of Representatives Takes Baby Steps
As I write this piece, summer is slowly turning into fall, the leaves are just starting to change their colors, and Congress has come back to work from its summer recess. Comprehensive Immigration Reform (“CIR”) is only slightly closer to reality than it was since the U.S. Senate passed a marked-up and amended version of the Gang of Eight’s Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act. The House of Representatives continues to take baby-steps toward a piecemeal approach at CIR. We’ll see what happens there.
So, instead of focusing on what’s going on in Washington, D.C. in terms of CIR, I thought it might be interesting to take a different approach for this month’s article. That is, what’s been going on at the state level on the immigration front?
The National Conference of State Legislatures (“NCSL”) recently reported that “[a]s of June 30, 2013, state legislatures had already exceeded the number of laws and resolutions enacted in all of 2012. In the first half of 2013, lawmakers in 43 states and the District of Columbia enacted 146 laws and 231 resolutions related to immigration, for a total of 377. This is an 83 percent increase from the 206 laws and resolutions enacted in the first half of 2012.”
The issues touched upon nationwide have been expansive: education, employment, health, human trafficking, ID’s and driver’s licenses, law enforcement and public benefits, to name just a few.
I started out this column noting that our immigration system is badly broken at the federal level. The fact that the states, therefore, have responded by passing their own patchwork of laws attempting to regulate immigration, typically considered to be within the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government, makes the situation even worse.
The reason for this uptick in state-sponsored immigration legislation is reported to be two-fold. First, in 2012, states seemed to wait for the outcome of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Arizona v. United States. On June 25, 2012, the Supreme Court overturned three of four provisions in Arizona’s S.B.1070 regarding that states authority in immigration enforcement.
Second, just a couple of few weeks earlier than the Supreme Court’s decision, the Obama Administration issued a new policy on deferred action for childhood arrivals (commonly known as “DACA”). On June 15, 2012, then-Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano announced that certain people who came to the United States as children and who meet several key guidelines could request consideration of deferred action for a period of two (2) years, subject to renewal, and could also be eligible for work authorization. Deferred action is a discretionary determination by the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) to defer the removal action of an individual as an act of prosecutorial discretion. Deferred action does not, however, provide an individual with lawful status.
According to the NCSL, a number of state-enacted immigration laws have been quite positive. For example, Colorado, Minnesota and Oregon extended in-state tuition benefits to unauthorized immigrant students. As of this writing, 15 states now offer this benefit. Other states took up driver’s license eligibility, beginning with California in the fall of 2012, and Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Vermont in 2013.
What’s going on in New York thus far in 2013? As of June 30, 2013, our state legislature considered four pieces of immigration-related legislation, three of which were passed.
First, the controversial Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act (commonly known as the “New York SAFE Act”) amended gun licensing restrictions to include the consideration of citizenship or immigrant status (i.e., generally preventing the issuance or renewal of a license under the act to an alien not legally or lawfully in the United States).
Within the state budget, there were two immigration-related provisions. First, there was a provision which related to an electronic information sharing system that allows for the exchange of criminal history records for noncriminal justice purposes authorized by federal or state law, and defines noncriminal justice matters to include the use of criminal history records for purposes other than criminal justice matters, including immigration and naturalization matters. The state budget also included a provision which amended eligibility for unemployment benefits for illegal aliens; that is, illegal aliens or immigrants working without legal permission cannot obtain unemployment benefits.
By line item veto, Governor Cuomo vetoed a provision in the state budget which would have included funds for language classes for limited English proficient and immigrant students.
The NCSL also reported that the largest spike in immigration-related activity at the state level was in passage of non-legislative resolutions. That is, 31 states adopted 231 resolutions covering a myriad of issue areas. Twenty five sought action from Congress or the Obama Administration, including eight resolutions related to passing CIR. Others asked Congress to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (which it did), among other important areas.
Once again, the fact that the states are passing their own immigration related laws and resolutions is proof positive that our immigration system is broken at the federal level, and CIR is desperately needed. The Senate has already spoken. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte recently was quoted as saying that congressional fights over Syria and the debt limit “should not deter us from getting to [immigration] as soon as possible.” He said his committee and others have already passed smaller immigration bills relating to border security, internal enforcement, guest workers, and high-tech visas, and there could be votes on these measures as soon as October. Notably, there’s still no path to citizenship (or even a lawful immigration status) in the House bills that have passed for the eleven to thirteen million undocumented immigrants in the United States. I guess we’ll have to continue to wait and see what happens.
Labor Day and Immigrant Workers
Just as Memorial Day was an opportunity to remember those men and women who have died in our nation’s service (including non-citizens who have a long and proud tradition of serving in the U.S. military), Labor Day is an opportunity to pay tribute to American workers. But is it really just “American” workers that we should be paying tribute to?
Here’s some data to consider about immigrant workers (those here lawfully or otherwise), courtesy of the Migration Policy Institute:
• The number of immigrant workers in the United States grew by 44.7 percent between 2000 and 2011.
• In 2011, foreign born workers represented 16.6 percent of the United States’ civilian-employed workforce.
• Immigrants accounted for an astounding 50.5 percent of civilian employed workers with no high school degree, and for 15.6 percent of all college-educated workers.
• The top three industries of immigrant workers in the United States were (a) educational services, and health care and social assistance; (b) arts, entertainment, and recreation, and accommodation and food services; and (c) professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services.
• The top three occupations of immigrant workers in the United States were (a) management, business, science, and arts occupations; (b) service occupations; and (c) sales and office occupations.
• Here’s a sad statistic. Brain waste affected over a million college-educated immigrants in the United States. Specifically, in 2010, there were 1,565,742 college-educated immigrants who were either unemployed or working in unskilled jobs such as dishwashers, security guards, and housemaids. This represents 22.5 percent of the college-educated immigrant labor force in the United States. Among native-born college-educated persons, 6,126,303 (or 16.5 percent) were underutilized. There’s plenty more data where this comes from, including data for your own state.
The United States and its economy benefits immensely from the valuable skills and talents provided by the likes of foreign-born high-skilled scientists and engineers and medical doctors. But we also – including my own State of New York – heavily rely on immigrants workers at differing skill levels in a variety of industries, many of which are experiencing labor shortages (e.g., agriculture, food processing, construction, or eldercare). As a result, the role of immigrant workers is vital.
Recall the following study published by the President’s National Economic Council, Domestic Policy Council, Office of Management and Budget, and the Council of Economic Advisers, entitled “The Economic Benefits of Fixing Our Broken Immigration System”. This report details the range of benefits to the U.S. economy that would be realized from passage of CIR. More importantly, it also discusses the high cost of inaction.
There was also a study published by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (“ITEP”) that concluded that undocumented immigrants who live and work in the United States pay billions of dollars in taxes every year to state and local governments. If they earned a legal status, they would apparently pay even more. According to ITEP, “undocumented immigrants paid an estimated total of $10.6 billion in state and local taxes in 2010.” Moreover, “allowing undocumented immigrants to work in the United States legally would increase their state and local tax contributions by an estimated $2 billion a year.” If CIR were to occur, the increase state and local taxes in New York is estimated to be $224,126,000!
Despite this, many immigrant workers do not enjoy all the benefits that the United States offers “American” worker. Because of their undocumented status, many of those who are here unlawfully have no option other than to work in the underground economy. Worse yet, they are frequently subjected to exploitation by unscrupulous employers. That’s not at all a good reflection of what the United States is all about.
In 1894, Labor Day came to be, and with it came paid holidays, 40-hour workweeks and better working conditions for “American” workers. As we celebrate Labor Day in our backyards, perhaps barbequing with your families, let us also not forget the contributions of all the immigrant workers in our workforce.
“Documented”, a Film About a Pulitzer-Winning Journalist Who is Also an Undocumented Immigrant
And now for something completely different. I wish I went to the movies more often. All those summer blockbusters (or busts)! I actually haven’t been to the movies in ages. I think that’s about to change.
Recently, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took his first step on the national political stage when he publicly joined other tech leaders, civil rights activists and undocumented immigrants to call for the comprehensive overhaul of our nation’s immigration system.
Zuckerberg was at the West Coast premiere of Jose Antonio Vargas’s film “Documented,” a film that Vargas wrote and directed. Vargas, inarguably the most famous undocumented immigrant in America today, is a former San Francisco State student and San Francisco Chronicle staff writer who made national headlines by revealing in a 2011 New York Times Magazine essay that he is an undocumented immigrant.
“Documented”, directed by Vargas himself, centers around his personal experience as he prepared to reveal his undocumented status in the New York Times magazine essay. The film shows Vargas traversing the country as he speaks at college campuses and visits conservative towns where undocumented immigrants are apparently not welcome.
Throughout the movie, Vargas reminds people that “there is no line” for him to join to acquire citizenship. When he engages some of Mitt Romney’s supporters at a 2011 campaign stop, Vargas says “But sir, but sir, there’s no line. … I was brought here when I was 12. I didn’t know I didn’t have papers since I was 16; my grandparents, who were American citizens, didn’t tell me. So I been here — I been paying taxes since I was 18, I just want to be able to get legal, to get in the back of the line somewhere.”
According to critics, Vargas elegantly positions immigration as the most controversial – and least understood – political issue in the nation. I agree. I liken it to the new third rail of politics.
I have not seen this movie yet. But I will.
Comprehensive Immigration Reform: Will the House of Representatives Do What’s Right for America?
So… the U.S. Senate passed a marked-up and amended version of the Gang of Eight’s “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act,” and now we’re on to the House of Representatives. What happens there is anybody’s guess. What we do know for sure is that Speaker of the House John Boehner has no intention of taking action on the Senate’s bill. “I’ve made it clear, and I’ll make it clear again: the House is not going to take up the Senate bill. The House is going to do its own job in developing an immigration bill,” Speaker Boehner said at a press conference last Monday afternoon.
So what does that mean for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (“CIR”)? I have no idea. How sad that I just wrote that. House Republicans seem so out of touch with what the American people want, and what’s good for America.
There have been countless reports in recent weeks referencing a number of studies which tout how great CIR would be for the U.S. economy. Take for example the combined report of the President’s National Economic Council, Domestic Policy Council, Office of Management and Budget, and the Council of Economic Advisers, entitled “The Economic Benefits of Fixing Our Broken Immigration System”. This report details the range of benefits to the U.S. economy that would be realized from passage of CIR. More importantly, it also discusses the high cost of inaction.
There was also a study published by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (“ITEP”) that concluded that undocumented immigrants who live and work in the United States pay billions of dollars in taxes every year to state and local governments. If they earned a legal status, they would apparently pay even more. According to ITEP, “undocumented immigrants paid an estimated total of $10.6 billion in state and local taxes in 2010.” Moreover, “allowing undocumented immigrants to work in the United States legally would increase their state and local tax contributions by an estimated $2 billion a year.” If CIR were to occur, the increase state and local taxes in New York is estimated to be $224,126,000!
I remember working in Washington, D.C. in the late 1980’s. Fresh out of college and going to grad school, I started interning on Capitol Hill for Sen. Alfonse D’Amato. He then hired me and I worked for him for ten years. In those days, it seemed like most of the legislation I saw get passed was largely bipartisan and things got done. Today, it’s the complete opposite. It seems like nothing gets done in Washington, and no one’s getting along across party lines. With that as the backdrop, it was incredible that the Senate passed their bill. As for the House, the House Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees combined have passed five piecemeal bills dealing with immigration reform. None offer a road to legalization or citizenship for the undocumented population, and none increase the number of visas for legal immigration or clear the backlogs that currently exist.
It remains to be seen what the House will do in developing their owner “immigration bill”, as Speaker Boehner suggests it will. I suppose it should be somewhat encouraging that Speaker Boehner told House Republicans last week to pass immigration reform legislation, stating that House Republicans will be “in a much weaker position” if they failed to act. He’s right.
New York State’s Shortage of “Mid-Level” Skilled Workers: Can Immigrants Help Fill this Void?
I recently read an article in the Business Review addressing New York State’s shortage of some 350,000 mid-level skilled workers. According to the article,“mid-level” jobs are those that fall between a high-school diploma and a four-year degree. Robert Geer, Vice President for Academic Affairs for the University at Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (“CNSE”), said that of the 3,100 people employed at CNSE, most have two-year or four-year degrees, while only 1 in 14 holds a Ph.D. The article got me thinking about what Comprehensive Immigration Reform (“CIR”) will do to address this issue, if anything.
CIR, as proposed in the Gang of Eight’s “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act,” includes a provision for a new “merit-based” point system (Track 1 as it is known in the bill). This point system allows foreign nationals to obtain a Green Card by accumulating points primarily based on their skills, employment history, and educational credentials. The bill provides that 120,000 to 250,000 Green Cards would be made available each fiscal year based on the point system. (The actual number would apparently fluctuate based upon a formula that takes into account the number of Green Cards requested the previous year and the unemployment rate.)
According to the bill, Track 1 would have two (2) tiers: one for higher-skilled immigrants with advanced educational credentials and experience, and a second tier for less-skilled immigrants. Beginning in the 5th fiscal year after bill becomes a law, half of the Green Cards would be allocated to applicants with the highest number of points under tier 1, and the other half would be allocated to applicants with the highest number of points under tier 2.
According to the current iteration of the bill, the allocation of points in both tiers is based on a combination of factors, including education, employment, occupation, civic involvement, English language proficiency, family ties, age, and nationality. The system seems to prioritize foreign nationals who are young, educated, experienced, skilled, and fluent in English. Family ties and others factors are weighted lower.
There is also a Track 2 to the merit-based system, which is designed to clear, over a period of seven years (starting in 2015) the enormous backlog that currently exists in the family- and employment-based Green Card “preference” system. Track 2 is designed to eliminate these backlogs by 2021.
Under the bill, commencing October 1, 2014, family- or employment-based Green Card applicants who have had their Green Card applications pending five (5) years or more under our current system will become eligible for a Green Card. (The Track 2 merit-based system also makes Green Cards available to Registered Provisional Immigrants who have maintained that status for at least ten [10] years.)
It’s not entirely clear how much the Gang of Eight’s bill, as currently proposed, will completely solve the problems identified in the Business Review’s article. Both tier 1 and tier 2 potentially can make a dent. The tier 1 point system, however, seems to favor those foreign nationals with more advanced degrees as opposed to the types of degrees identified as needed in the Business Review’s article.
However, the tier 2 may have some potential. Under the bill, between 60,000 and 125,000 Green Cards would be made available in each fiscal year for foreign nationals in high-demand tier-2 occupations. According to the bill, these are occupations for which the highest numbers of positions were sought to become registered positions by employers during the previous fiscal year. Some Green Cards will be reserved for occupations that require little or no preparation too. Under tier 2, the number of Green Cards available can also increase by 5% each year if demand exceeds supply in any year where unemployment is under 8.5%.
This is significant as it potentially allows workers who currently do not have great chance to obtain a Green Card with an opportunity to obtain one. This is also important considering the United States (and NYS) needs immigrants at all skill levels, as noted in the Business Review’s article.
Immigrants in the U.S. Military: Sacrificing All for a Country that May Not Yet Be Theirs
On Memorial Day, we remember those men and women who have died in our nation’s service. Did you know that non-citizens have a long and proud tradition of serving in the U.S. military? In fact, there are thousands of men and women in uniform who were not born in the United States who are willing to sacrifice everything for our country.
Did you also know that one of the first U.S. service members to die in the U.S. – Iraq War was Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, a non-citizen from Guatemala? He was killed in a tank battle in Iraq in March, 2003. According to CBS News, “The heroism and sacrifice of non-citizens was barely known — until Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez died in battle in Iraq. He came from Guatemala, and he came to the United States illegally. We can tell you how his story ended. He was killed in a tank battle in southern Iraq on March 21, [2003].”
Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez was granted U.S. citizenship posthumously. “No death of any soldier goes un-mourned. But the death of a man who died for a country that was not his — that proved especially poignant to many Americans, including President [George W.] Bush, who visited two wounded non-citizen soldiers and made them citizens on the spot.”
The presence of non-citizens in the U.S. military has deep historical roots. Non-citizens have fought in the U.S. Armed forces since the Revolutionary War. According to a report issued by the Immigration Policy Center, in August, 2009, there were 114,601 foreign-born individuals serving in the military; of that number, 12% of them were not U.S. citizens.
The military, and indeed our entire country, greatly benefits from the service of non-citizens in the U.S. military. Non-citizen recruits offer racial, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural diversity, something that is incredibly valuable given the U.S. military’s increasingly global agenda.
This has not gone unnoticed by Congress. Once again, according to the Immigration Policy Center, “[o]ver the [eight year period from 9/11], Congress has amended military related enlistment and naturalization rules to allow expanded benefits for immigrants and their families and encourage recruitment of immigrants into the U.S. Armed Forces. The U.S. military has also implemented new programs to encourage the enlistment and rapid naturalization of non-citizens who serve honorably during[.] Without the contributions of immigrants, the military could not meet its recruiting goals and could not fill its need for foreign-language translators, interpreters, and cultural experts.”
We are a nation of immigrants. The U.S. military is no exception. The U.S. military benefits (actually all of us benefit) from the presence of non-citizens within the ranks of the military. Today, as we remember the fallen, let us remember the importance of immigration and non-citizens to our nation and to our history. Let us also remember (and honor) the non-citizens that have made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our great country.
INSIGHT INTO IMMIGRATION 