From http://www.visalaw.com
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HOUSE IMMIGRATION SUBCOMMITTEE CHAIR INTRODUCES CONTROVERSIAL IMMIGRATION
REFORM PACKAGE


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House Immigration Subcommittee Chairman George Gekas, a Republican from
Pennsylvania, has introduced a sweeping immigration restriction bill that
includes dramatic reductions in immigrant visa numbers and a number of new
restrictions on immigrants - both legal and illegal - as well as employers who
hire illegal immigrants. H.R. 5013, the Securing America's Future through
Enforcement Reform Act (SAFER), would also make it a federal crime to overstay
a visa by more than six months, potentially making tens of thousands of
illegal aliens into wanted criminals. The bill also contains several
provisions that target terrorists, suspected terrorists and those who support
terrorists.

Gekas appears to be interested in capitalizing on a perceived anti-immigrant
mood in the country following September 11th. However, the bill's biggest
losers will be in the nation's Hispanic immigrants. Republicans will no doubt
be extremely cautious in dealing with this legislation. Republican support for
similar measures in the past has been directly blamed for costing Republicans
crucial elections in key states such as Florida, California and Texas .
President Bush has also been actively courting Hispanic voters and the Gekas
bill will likely be perceived negatively by the White House. Neverthelless,
Gekas' role as chairman of the House's immigration subcommittee will no doubt
mean the bill will be given a high profile this session.

Gekas appears to be employing a strategy similar to the strategy that was used
by Republicans on the Immigration Subcommittee during the push for passage of
the IIRAIRA immigration reform act in 1996. In that bill, very popular
provisions punishing criminal aliens and illegal aliens were combined with
provisions that dramatically curtailed legal immigration. The hope was that
members of Congress would be afraid to oppose a measure cracking down on
illegal immigration and would accept measures curtailing legal immigration to
avoid being portrayed as soft on illegal aliens. Instead, members of Congress
favoring immigrants were able to split the legal immigration provisions out of
the bill and the legal immigration billed quickly died in Congress. In this
case, Gekas may be hoping that members of Congress will support the bill to
avoid the label of "soft on terrorism." Whether members of Congress instead
decide to split the terrorist provisions into a separate bill remains to be
seen.

Among the bill's major provisions are the following:

- An across the board 20% reduction in legal immigration levels

- Elimination of the annual Diversity Visa green card lottery

- Make it a federal crime to overstay a visa by more than six months

- Require the INS to fully implement the SEVIS student and exchange visitor
tracking system in place on time in January or shut down all processing of F-1
and J-1 visas

- Require employers to check the validity of new employees' social security
numbers to verify employment eligibility

- Match voter registration lists against social security lists to make sure
voters are really citizens

- Increase the size of the Border Patrol to 16,000

- Track all aliens entering and leaving the US

- Allow for the expedited deportation of aliens who are members of terrorist
organizations, support terrorism or solicit funds for terrorist organization

- Require longer term visa holders and permanent residents to be fingerprinted
and periodically register their addresses with the INS

- Consulates will have to interview all visa applicants in person (presumably
ending visa revalidation by mail for persons in the US as well as drop box and
mail in visa applications at consulates in countries with low visa denial
rates).

- Bail bondsmen will be allowed to hunt down people who violate the terms of
their visas


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"Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe, and enthusiastically act upon...must inevitably come to pass" (J. Meyers).

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