EM for Nov 11/title> <meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> </head> <body> <div align="center"><h2> League of Women Voters of Lane County<br /> Everymember Material, November, 2007. <br /> US Immigration Policy: An Overview of Key Issues</h2></div> <h4>Introduction </h4> <p><b>Rationale:</b> The unit in November will prepare the membership to answer consensus questions on US immigration policy in December when we respond to the study of immigration and immigration policy by LWVUS. Our goal in November is to identify and explore key issues. In December we will discuss these issues further and make decisions regarding them.</p> <p>Everymember Material: The material for the November unit includes discussion questions and the "Executive Summary" from Immigration and America's Future: A New Chapter, Migration Policy Institute, New York, 2006. (We have the publisher's permission to print unlimited copies of this chapter.) Discussion times per question are set for a 90 minute unit meeting.</p> <h4>Keep these facts and figures in mind:</h4> <p>Almost 12% of our population of 300 million are foreign born. About one third of this number are citizens, one third are authorized immigrants, and one third are unauthorized immigrants. Of all immigrants, about 53% are from Latin America, (mostly Mexico), and 27% are from Asia.</p> <p>Historically high numbers of immigrants have been entering the US since 1990. About 1.8 million immigrants now come annually. Approximately 800,000 are unauthorized and are widely disbursed, living in significant numbers in at least twelve states. The current US immigration policy does not reflect reality. The LWVUS would like to take an active roll in changing the policy. Our study and response to the consensus questions will contribute to that effort. Let us talk. </p> <h4> Discussion Questions<br /> November, 2007 Units</h4> <ol><li><p>Criteria for authorized entry to US (15 minutes) : Family reunification and employment have been the reasons that most visas have been issued by the US government in the last century. What relative importance should US immigration policy now give to these and other criteria when issuing visas? </p> <p>Discuss the criteria listed below. Feel free to add to the list. (Note that criteria for short term visas such as those for tourists and students are not listed below and are not part of this discussion.)</p> <p>Possible criteria for the US government's issuing visas:<br /> a. Family reunification<br /> b. Need for workers by American employers<br /> c. Need for employment by potential immigrants<br /> d. Need for workable immigration policies in a law abiding society<br /> e. Religious freedom<br /> f. Freedom from political oppression<br /> h. Job security for American workers<br /> i. Fair wages and working conditions for all workers<br /> j. Benefits to American society of cultural and racial diversity</p></li> <li><p><b>Costs and benefits</b> (20 minutes): Discuss the relative costs and benefits of immigration as experienced by the listed groups. How might these costs and benefits be balanced? Some suggested items for discussion are listed in parentheses. Feel free to add to the list.</p> a. <b>Federal government </b>(benefit: income taxes and employment taxes; cost: enforcement bureaucracy).<br /> b. <b>State and local governments</b> (benefit: income, property and sales taxes; cost: education, health care, and social services).<br /> c. <b>Employers</b> (benefit: supply of employees with high skill levels as well as unskilled, low wage workers; cost: determining legal status of employees, experiencing raids by law enforcement officials, high turnover due to documentation issues).<br /> d. <b>Immigrant workers</b> (benefit: jobs, income, education, at least some health care, physical safety; cost: insecurity if unauthorized, possible difficulty in finding or establishing a community, separation from family).<br /> e.<b> Low skilled citizen workers</b> (benefit: general economic growth; cost: decrease in wages, competition for jobs, deterioration of health and safety standards).<br /> f. <b>Higher skilled citizen workers</b> (benefit: general economic growth; cost: possibly increased competition for high level jobs).<br /> g. <b>Society at large</b> (benefits: sustained economic growth, lower prices for consumer goods, increased social diversity; cost: expense to state and local governments of providing services to new immigrants with low skills and little education; challenges of integrating new immigrants to the community.</li> <li><b>Verification (20 minutes):</b> What should be expected of employers by way of document verification and what changes would be necessary to make it feasible for employers to meet these expectations?<br /> What impact do immigration enforcement measures have on the civil rights of citizens or on the rights of legal immigrants?<br /> Consider: <ul><li> The impact of requiring a government issued photo ID for jobs, schooling, medical care, etc. (in addition to the current requirements for such an ID).</li> <li> The necessity of everyone's having secure social security cards or other secure biometric identification documents.</li> <li> The need for improved technology and data base access to improve verification.</li> <li> The situation of US citizens who do not have documentation.</li></ul></li> <li><b>Border enforcement</b> (15 minutes) : What should be the key elements of a border enforcement program? <ul><li> physical barriers</li> <li> increased personnel at ports of entry</li> <li> improved technology</li> <li> tracking of persons with nonimmigrant visas</li> <li> consideration of immigrants' civil rights</li></ul> <li></li> <b>Treatment of the 10-12 million unauthorized immigrants now living in the US</b> (20 minutes): Illegal immigrants know that they are breaking the law. How should they be treated? Should we distinguish between those who have jobs waiting for them and those without work plans? </li></ol> Members of the Immigration Study Committee:<br /> Flo Alvergue, Fred Andrews, Fran Boehner, Merle Bottge, Alice Dugan, Karen Ecker, Susan Eskildsen, Nancie Fadeley, Nonna Haydock, Pat Hocken, Mary Ann Holser, Lilla McDonald, Vincenza Scarpaci, Kathleen Shelley, Barbara Smith, Dorothy Soper, chair </body> </html>