Senate begins debating ‘Gang of Eight’ bill.
By Dileep Thekkethil
A new study released by the conservative Center for Immigration Studies claims that a new bill that is being debated on the Senate floor would admit 105,000 H-1B visa-holders and an additional 220,000 H-4 dependent visa-holders in the first year.
In all, the legislation “would admit nearly 1.6 million more temporary workers than currently allowed,” says the study, which was released in Washington, DC, Wednesday, two days before the Senate began debating the new bill.
“After that initial spike, the bill would increase annual temporary worker admissions by more than 600,000 each year over the current level – an increase four times larger than the one called for in the 2007 Bush-Kennedy proposal (about 125,000),” the study adds.
“[These] are not people that come as immigrants who would presumably stay and build a business and are going to be permanent,” Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, an opponent of the bill, said, at the teleconference where the CIS study was released, according to the transcript posted on the group’s website. “They’re people who would come in and compete for jobs on a temporary basis against unemployed Americans.”
CIS, like many conservative groups, is fiercely opposed to the current immigration bill, which offers a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented illegal immigrants. The nonprofit is also vehemently opposed to the H-1B visa program, which is being expanded under the new bill.
The United States Senate, began debating the bill Friday. Pushed by a bipartisan group of eight senators known as the “Gang of Eight,” the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act” was passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee last month.
The bill is expected to sail through the Senate, where Democrats have a majority. But the legislation is likely to face resistance in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives.
1 Comment
this bill is going nowhere, just like the last time these traitors tried to pass it. given the current raised awareness of h1b abuses i don’t even think it will make it out of the senate.