U.S. built border fence into Mexican territory; it'll cost up to $3.5M to fix

We here at Re-think Immigration waver between thinking this is the funniest piece of immigration-related news in a while, to thinking it's a particularly sad one, indicative of federal inefficiency.

So it appears that the federal government built a 15-mile-long fence along New Mexico's border with Mexico back in 2000. Recently, however, they realized they'd built 1.5 miles of it about six feet into Mexican territory. From the AP article:

The Mexican government was notified and did what any landowner would do: They sent a note politely insisting that Mexico get its land back.

"Our country will continue insisting for the removal (of the fence) to be done as quickly as possible," the Foreign Relations Department said in a diplomatic missive to Washington.

When the barrier was built in 2000, the project was believed to cost about $500,000 a mile. Estimates to uproot and replace it range from $2.5 million to $3.5 million.

(This is today's last post.)

H-1B visas for highly-skilled 'dealt death blow'

The newly-blocked S.1639 immigration reform bill is talked about a lot in reference to inflow from Central and South America, and mostly in terms of "low-skilled" immigrants. However, as we've posted before, the "high-skilled" and their employers also had a stake in the bill.

CIO Insight reports:

High-tech companies such as Microsoft argue that a decline in the number of United States-born computer science graduates over the last seven years has forced them to rely on the H-1B visa and employment-based green card programs to deliver adequate supplies of qualified IT and engineer professionals.

"That can only be achieved through immediate reform of these programs to ensure they are meeting the needs of our economy ... It is our hope that the Congress will prioritize finding a solution to these urgent issues before the end of the year," said Microsoft officials.

Earlier: High-tech execs demand foreign workers

MATT.org spotlight

A daily feature, here we spotlight interesting links on the MATT.org website.

• There is a new section in MATT's forums dedicated to helping employers find legal workers. Be the first to post! (FYI: you can join the forums in seconds.)
• In this thread, posters discuss the failure of S.1369.
• Learn about Mi Futuro Fund, part of the MATT Foundation's initiative to give workers incentive to return home.
  

Daily video: Jon Stewart looks back on the immigration reform bill

Aired on "The Daily Show", Comedy Central (June 28, 2007).

GOP presidential candidates could lose Hispanic support in 2008

As predicted in yesterday's posts, Washington news has readily moved on from immigration reform to the U.S. presidential campaigns. CBS News brings both topics together in a piece that asks if the GOP's candidates risk losing the key Hispanic vote.

The article highlights McCain as one of the few Republicans seeking the nomination who supported S.1639 and goes on to say:

Should McCain end up winning the nomination however, both he and his party may be grateful for his refusal to abandon his support for the bill.

A new USA Today/Gallup poll demonstrates why. While the Republican Party has made strong inroads among Hispanic voters in recent years, the poll indicates a dramatic shift toward Democrats in the midst of the sometimes-emotional immigration debate. The poll found that 59 percent of Hispanics polled either identify themselves as or lean toward supporting Democrats, compared with just 20 percent who identified with the GOP. For a party which received about 40% of the Hispanic vote in 2004, that's quite a change.

While the CBS article doesn't make this conclusion, it seems to us that after a great majority of the GOP blocked S.1639 in the Senate yesterday, the Hispanic cohort is more likely to keep on moving to the Dems' side. And for now, according to the USA Today/Gallup poll, they prefer Hillary.

Cartoon of the day

A daily feature, here we post a cartoon relating to immigration. These cartoons are meant to shed light on different viewpoints.

By Dave Cagle; published on MSNBC.com.

Friday blog round-up

A daily feature, here we highlight interesting posts, points of view, and links as recorded on the blogosphere.

• Frank Salvato of NewsByUs writes post-S.1639: "Our politicians have become oblivious to their constitutional duty to their constituencies because we have become apathetic to the governmental process."
• Joe Gandelman of TheModerateVoice asks if S.1639 being blocked makes "George Bush now a political lame duck—or a political dead duck?"
• ColoradoMediaMatters reports that two radio hosts in that state "baselessly" asserted that 78 percent of Americans are opposed to immigration reform. The UPI/Zogby poll actually said only 56 percent were.
  

Candidate tracker: Immigration bill failure

A regular feature, here we track what U.S. presidential candidates have had to say about immigration-related policy in recent days.

• Hillary Clinton is disappointed in the failure to alleviate what she calls the "immigration crisis"; she calls to "repair the broken, unfair bureaucratic system" currently in place.
• Barack Obama said: "This bill was by no means perfect, but even though there were provisions that some of us disagreed with, we should have worked to find common ground on a solution to a problem that isn't going away anytime soon."
• Mitt Romney said in a speech that "[t]he failure of this bill is related to the failure of Washington politicians to connect with the American people."
• Rudy Giuliani released a statement: "The legislation was a hodgepodge at best, and I believe it would have ultimately made our country less secure."

"The morning after": a post-S.1639 round-up

• Salvadorean and Mexican presidents lament the failure of S.1639 in Congress.
• Sen. Reid (yea) calls defeat a win for a "status quo that amounts to silent amnesty".
• Sen. Specter (yea) said: "We have to find some way to deal with [the 12 million undocumented immigrants] which is realistic."
• Sen. Kennedy (yea) said "[W]e are in the struggle for the long haul."
• Sen. Webb (yea): "Enforce the laws on the books."
• Sen. Sander (nay) says his concerns with the bill centered around the middle class.
• Sen. Harkin (nay) said: "America is a nation of immigrants, but we are a nation that believes in controlled immigration."

More guesses on when immigration reform could return to the Senate floor

We posted earlier that it seemed likely that immigration reform will be shelved for the remainder of the U.S. presidential election campaign season. The Congressional Quarterly adds a little more:

The future now appears bleak for any immigration overhaul legislation in the remaining 18 months of the current Congress.

Refusal to invoke cloture now means “the bill is dead for this year,” Arlen Specter, R-Pa., warned before the vote. And with elections looming next year, it will not return before 2009, he predicted.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., did not go that far. “This is a legislative issue,” he said. “It will come back. It’s only a question of when.”

Basically, it seems almost certain immigration reform is temporarily, Congressionally dead.

Earlier: BREAKING: Senate blocks immigration reform bill

(This is today's last post.)

Results of readers' poll on S.1639

These are the results of our readers' poll just before the U.S. Senate cast their votes that blocked S.1639 for the time being. (No more votes will be counted.)

BREAKING: Senate blocks immigration reform bill

Just a few moments ago, the U.S. Senate blocked S.1639, the comprehensive immigration reform bill, for the time being. In fact, the AP reports that Congress is "unlikely to revisit it this fall or next year, when the presidential election will increasingly dominate American politics." The vote was 46 to 53 in favor of invoking cloture.

It seems immigration reform will take a backseat for quite a while. Post your comments/feelings on the situation.

Cartoon of the day

A daily feature, here we post a cartoon relating to immigration. These cartoons are meant to shed light on different viewpoints.

Published by the Universal Press Syndicate, June 28, 2007.

Reader poll: vote before the Senate does!

We want to gauge your opinion so please continue voting—and do so as soon as possible! Send this link to friends. Please don't vote more than once.

Daily video: Telemundo predicts that cloture vote will fail by 2 votes

Aired on Telemundo; June 27, 2007.

MATT.org spotlight

A daily feature, here we spotlight interesting links on the MATT.org website.

• An op/ed by E.J. Rangel, in which he says that discussion of foreign loans to and investments in Mexico are missing from the immigration debate.
• Michelle Guevara reports that immigration raids are on the rise.
• Learn about the MATT Foundation's initiative to create more jobs south of the border through micro-loans.
  

'Virtual' AZ border fence to stay quite virtual for now

Remember the 28-mile 'virtual fence' we said was going up on Arizona's border with Mexico? Well, it appears we missed an essential part in reading the AP's coverage: UPI reports that while the cameras, radar, and all else were supposed to go up on June 13, now no date is set.

The delay is due to technical problems, glitches, etc. which makes us wonder whether a virtual fence whose efficacy is based on technology is going to be an effective one.

Earlier: Get to know the 28-mile 'virtual fence'

Today: Cloture vote, round two

All media are reporting that the Senate will vote on invoking cloture again on the S.1639 comprehensive immigration reform bill today. From CNN:

"I think it's razor-thin," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, an opponent to the bill. "There were 64 votes to proceed to this bill. A number of people I'm confident voted to proceed to it to allow the debate to go forward. But I don't know that they will be voting for cloture."

It appears a few other amendments to the bill will be debated before this vote is called for, so we all have to stay put for now.

BREAKING: Senate kills "touchback", four-year-minimum amendments

The U.S. Senate voted 53 to 45 to kill the amendment to bill S.1639 that called for illegal immigrants to return to their home countries before obtaining temporary or permanent legal status. This vote eliminated the "touchback requirement" entirely from the bill.

Also dead is the amendment that only illegal immigrants who have been in the country for at least four years may become eligible for legal standing. That vote's tally came in at 79 to 18.

(This is today's last post.)

Reader poll: Immigration reform bill

We want to gauge your opinion so please vote! Also, send a link to your friends so we can get some substantial numbers.

Cartoon of the day

A daily feature, here we post a cartoon relating to immigration. These cartoons are meant to shed light on different viewpoints.

Appeared on the WashPostWritersGroup wire on June 27, 2007.

MATT.org spotlight

A daily feature, here we spotlight interesting links on the MATT.org website.

• From the forums, here's a thread where people are discussing U.S. companies with ties to sweatshops. (FYI: It takes a few seconds to join the forums yourself.)
• Here's another thread, a pretty long one, that discusses the "cost of immigration reform".
• Learn about MATT.org's "Build a Wall of Wealth" proposal.
  

Wednesday blog round-up

A daily feature, here we highlight interesting posts, points of view, and links as recorded on the blogosphere.

• BaconsRebellion talks about what he sees as "dysfunctional zoning policy" and its relation to "dysfunctional immigration policy" in Virginia.
• EyesOnTrade culls together clips re: how Latino groups are calling for opposition to NAFTA trade agreements that would "increase the pressure on impoverished small farmers in Latin America to attempt to come to the United States".
• ImmigrationProf points us to an interesting scholarly article that includes a defense for "earned legalization" of undocumented workers.
  

Daily video: El Cenizo, the TX border town where Spanish is the official language

Make sure to watch the discussion at the end of the news-clip—many different, very interesting opinions there.

(Aired on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" on June 26, 2007.)

CT governor vetoes bill to allow illegal residents in-state tuition rates

Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed a bill yesterday that would have allowed the state's illegal residents to benefit from in-state tuition at state colleges and universities. From the New York Times:

“I understand these students are not responsible for their undocumented status, having come to the United States with their parents,” Governor Rell said, in a statement issued by her office on Tuesday afternoon. “The fact remains, however, that these students and their parents are here illegally, and neither sympathy nor good intentions can ameliorate that fact.”

The legislation was approved by a 21-to-15 vote in the Senate and a 77-to-68 vote in the House. Although Democrats hold the majority in both chambers, the close votes make it unlikely that the two-thirds needed to override the veto will be achieved.

NYT/CBS/MTV Poll: 30% of young people favor an open immigration policy

The results of the latest New York Times/CBS News/MTV poll, released today, indicate that young people (defined as 17- to 29-year-olds) are—unsurprising to most, probably—leaning more to the left than the general public.

Young Americans are much more open to abortion rights, electing a black or female president, and, in what will interest this blog's readers the most, an open-door immigration policy:

30 percent said that “Americans should always welcome new immigrants,” while 24 percent of the general public holds that view.

Immigration bill A.M. update

Well, it seems that the "Reid scenario" didn't come into play yesterday afternoon. However, we do have more insight as to what may happen today and the rest of this week.

The Los Angeles Times, among several newspapers today, reports that there is growing opposition among Senate Democrats to S.1639:

A handful of Democrats who could be crucial to the bill's fate, including California's Barbara Boxer, remains undecided. And Tuesday, five Democrats who welcomed debate on the issue a month ago switched position and voted to oppose further discussion of the bill.

Regardless, the Senate will be discussing the 26 proposed amendments to the bill today.

Earlier: MORE BREAKING: Senate memo predicts Reid may push for a final vote on the bill today

MORE BREAKING: Senate memo predicts Reid may push for a final vote on the bill today

PajamasMedia, a blog/op-ed operation, says it has obtained a memo that predicts that Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev) will use "an unprecedented combination of legislative procedures to shove through the immigration bill today".

The memo was written by a former Secretary for the Majority and Minority in the U.S. Senate, Elizabeth B. Letchworth. She calls this potential move by the Senate Majority Leader the "Reid scenario". In an e-mail she writes:

“The Reid scenario of offering amendments in strategic places in order to block any and all other amendments will commence when they return from their weekly party caucuses @ 2:15PM. [Today, Eastern] At the end of the amendment. offering process Sen. Reid will file cloture on the bill.”

To read the memo in full and to understand which procedures Reid could use and how, go here.

(This is today's last post.)

BREAKING: Immigration reform bill clears Senate test vote

U.S. senators voted 64 to 35 to invoke cloture; in other words, bill S.1639 has moved on to be considered for a real vote. (Two weeks ago, in its first go, as bill S.1348, only 45 senators voted for cloture.) The Senate will now move on to consider proposed amendments to the bill.

This week is set to be an exciting one on Capitol Hill.

What's going on in the Senate right now?

Well, no news, we think, means just that. In the meantime, the AP reports that President Bush is confident the comprehensive immigration reform bill will pass by week's end. And while we're all waiting, this "Immigration Bill 101" might provide some good reading.

MATT.org spotlight

A daily feature, here we spotlight interesting links on the MATT.org website.

• A video discussing an op/ed column that alleges that children at immigrant detention centers are treated like criminals.
• A thread in the forums discussing death threats against Hispanic politicians in California. (FYI: You can join the forums in a matter of minutes.)
  

Get to know the 28-mile 'virtual fence'

The AP put together a handy Q&A (note: the link is no longer accessible) on just how the 28-mile "virtual fence" Homeland Security is building along a portion of Arizona's border with Mexico. And if you're behind on your border fence news, you may want to at least read the first bullet point:

Q. What is it?

A. Currently, nine 98-foot towers have been installed along a 28-mile stretch of desert around Sasabe, Ariz., on the border with Mexico. The towers are to be equipped with cameras, radar and computer equipment, with data that can be accessed wirelessly. There will also be unattended ground sensors. The project's official name is SBInet.

And the New York Times wrote a piece on the fence today, replete with great photographs, like the one attached to this post.

Daily video: Should employers have to verify the status of workers?

Aired on FOX News on June 25, 2007.

Tuesday blog round-up

A daily feature, here we highlight interesting posts, points of view, and links as recorded on the blogosphere.

• Bill Hobbs of the ElephantBiz blog writes that McCain is facing a conservative grassroots backlash due to his support of the immigration reform bill. Be sure to watch the video Hobbs posted.
• Steve Benen of the CrooksandLiars blog writes that the California GOP is fraught with immigration problems from within.
• TravelsofBryan comments at length on his reaction to reading the transcript of Dick Lamm's speech titled "Eight methods for the destruction of the United States". Bryan calls Lamm "too extremist".
  
• BizzyBlog agrees with the Heritage Foundation article that declares the immigration bill a "national security nightmare".
• DailyTitan writes that illegal immigration has led to the closure of 84 California hospitals.
  

BREAKING: House GOP to vote on a resolution critical of immigration bill

The Wall Street Journal reports that Republicans in the House of Representatives will vote on a resultion today that is critical of the comprehensive immigration reform bill President Bush has pushed to revive in the Senate. From the article:

The administration had hoped to forestall such action given the timing of the Senate debate. But faced with pressure from their members, Republican leaders informed the White House that they will go ahead with the conference vote, just hours before a closely fought Senate roll call on proceeding to the bill.

Whether that resolution will sway the Senate today is unclear. Meanwhile, the AP reports that the bill will face another procedural vote today in the Senate. This vote will determine whether it goes forward.

'New scrutiny' on deaths in immigrant detention centers

The New York Times reports that bipartisan "scrutiny" on deaths in immigrant detention centers may lead to the creation of a body that would be specifically charged with overseeing such centers. Nina Bernstein writes:

No government body is charged with accounting for deaths in immigration detention, a patchwork of county jails, privately run prisons and federal facilities where more than 27,500 people who are not American citizens are held on any given day while the government decides whether to deport them. (...)

Spurred by bipartisan reports of abuses in detention, the Senate unanimously passed an amendment to the proposed immigration bill that would establish an office of detention oversight within the Department of Homeland Security. Detention capacity would grow by 20,000 beds, or 73 percent, under the bill, which is epected to be debated again today in the Senate.

Cartoon of the day

A daily feature, here we post a cartoon relating to immigration. These cartoons are meant to shed light on different viewpoints.

Published on June 14, 2007 in the Indianapolis Star

Opinionated soundbites: The border fence

• Two New Jersey mayors participating in an immigration discussion at Princeton University yesterday agreed that the U.S.-Mexico border fence is "a waste of taxpayer money".
• Meanwhile, an eloquent reader of a central Illinois newspaper wrote an editor's letter yesterday in which he said that securing the border is necessary before considering immigration reform.
• A small California newspaper's editorial yesterday read: "No matter how much money is thrown at securing the fence on the border between the U.S. and Mexico (...) illegal immigration is as American as baseball, apple pie and Chevrolet."
• And yet another newspaper reader, this time one of the Washington Post, today writes: "The idea of doing border enforcement first and then addressing the other matters is a formula for making certain the other matters are never addressed, because sufficient political trade-offs would no longer be available."

Candidate tracker

A soon-to-be regular feature, here we track what the U.S. presidential candidates have had to say about immigration-related policy in recent days.

It seems the New York Times has made our job easier for us—we meant to do a re-cap of all the presidential hopefuls have said about immigration up until now, but they have a great website detailing all that, with quotes from everyone from Fred Thompson to Joe Biden. As a result, we'll start our own compilations after this initial post.

BREAKING: Immigration reform bill could be voted on tomorrow

As the New York Times reports that debate regarding the revived immigration reform bill started ahead of time today on the Senate floor, the New York Daily News reports that the immigration reform bill could be voted on as soon as tomorrow.

(This is today's last post.)

UPI-Zogby poll: All U.S. officials should enforce immigration law

Results of a new UPI-Zogby poll were released on June 22. From the UPI article:

While U.S. officials have asked state and local authorities to help enforce immigration laws, some have balked saying it would hurt their standing in immigrant communities.

But 44.7 percent of the 8,300 participants in a Zogby interactive poll strongly agreed local and state officials should help such enforcement and another 24.4 percent somewhat agreed. A total 25.3 percent of respondents disagreed with 12.6 percent somewhat disagreeing and 12.7 percent strongly disagreeing.

MATT.org spotlight

A daily feature, here we spotlight interesting links on the MATT.org website.

• University of Florida senior Frank Cabrera wrote an op/ed piece titled "Immigration Reform and Regional Security". Cabrera is one of many young people who are members of MATT's "Student Voices" website.
• Adam J. Segal reports on NAFTA from the nation's capital in this video titled "N. America wants more cooperation, not integration".
  

What's the difference between "S.1348" and "S.1639"?

Commenter Ultima asked a good question in response to an earlier post:

There is another bill out there with a different title and a different number S.1639. Aside from the title, the bill looks almost identical to S.1348. What's going on here? Is this another form of Kennedy treachery? Can MATT explain this development and the relationship between these two bills?

As far as we can tell, S.1639, introduced by Senators Kennedy and Specter on June 18, is essentially the same bill as S.1348. Apparently, it will replace S.1348 and be the one discussed on the Senate floor from here on out. It will be read into the Senate calendar this Wednesday. At that point, we are sure to know more about S.1639 and its relationship to S.1348.

*UPDATE*: We found the PDF of the S.1639 bill.

Earlier: Get to know "S 1348" & Senate begins rehashing S 1348

Cohen & Grigsby video links

Following on our post, below, on Cohen & Grigsby, the Pittsburgh law firm that lectured on circumventing U.S. immigration law, we found links to the YouTube video in question.

We also found a much more in-depth article on the situation, published by Information Week. Make sure to check out the comments following the piece.

Earlier: PA law firm that lectured on circumventing immigration law under senator's scrutiny

Daily video: Pat Buchanan and Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Il) discuss illegal immigration

Aired on June 24, 2007, "Meet the Press with Tim Russert" on NBC. (You may also want to read the full transcript.)

Former CA city councilwoman faces deportation

The AP reports that Zoila Meyer, a former California city councilwoman may face deportation for illegally voting in the 2004 election because she did not become a citizen after moving to the country from Cuba as a one-year-old.

Meyer is a legal resident and the mother of four citizens; she has said she did not realize voting was a "deportable offense."

PA law firm that lectured on circumventing immigration law under senator's scrutiny

The AP reports that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has called on Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to investigate the ethics of the Pittsburgh law firm, Cohen & Grigsby. The law firm posted a clip on the popular video-sharing website YouTube of their attorneys explaining at an immigration conference how to circumvent U.S. immigration law.

From the AP article:

"The goal here of course is to meet the requirements, number one, but also do so as inexpensively as possible, keeping in mind our goal. And our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker," Lawrence Lebowitz, the firm's vice president of marketing, told the audience in May.

Grassley, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee's immigration subcommittee, sent a letter to Cohen & Grigsby, demanding to know how many visa petitions have been filed by the firm in the past five years. He denounced the firm's tactics as discrimination.

Cartoon of the day

A daily feature, here we post a cartoon relating to immigration. These cartoons are meant to shed light on different viewpoints.

Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel (published June 12, 2007)

Students walk from Mexico to go to school in Arizona every day

The Los Angeles Times published an interesting news-feature today on students who walk from Mexico to Arizona every day to attend public schools there. Nicholas Riccardi writes:

Children who are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants but live in Mexico cross every morning to get a better education for free in Arizona, breaking the law that requires them to live within the boundaries of the district. To many of their parents, who have ties in both countries, not living in the district is the educational equivalent of jaywalking.

"I pay taxes. I work over here," said a 31-year-old corrections officer who would not give his name as he walked his son from Mexico to elementary school in San Luis. "What's the difference?"

There are no hard statistics on the number of children who break the residency requirement, but some people opposed to U.S. immigration policy have seized on the issue as another example of how they say migrants exploit the U.S. They contend that most school districts do not enforce the law because they risk losing state funding, which is based on the number of enrolled students.

"The whole thing's outrageous. We're not the school district for northern Mexico," said state Rep. Russell K. Pearce.

Record number of state laws target illegal immigrants

In what is likely the most interesting news analysis piece in immigration-related news in awhile, the Washington Post reports:

By the time most legislatures adjourned in May, at least 1,100 immigration bills had been submitted by lawmakers, more than double last year's record total, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. This year's total is expected to grow as the issue continues to dominate debate in statehouses still in session.

These bills are all "strongly worded proposals targeting illegal immigrants", which limit their ability to seek employment, find housing, receive government services, and obtain driver's licenses, writes Darryl Fears. He associates the immigration reform impasse on Capitol Hill with the increase in state-level laws and proposals.

Senate begins rehashing S 1348

NPR reports that the U.S. Senate begins its second round of debate regarding S 1438 this week:

The week begins with votes on a series of amendments followed by a procedural vote that determines if the compromise language has the 60 votes needed to keep moving toward final passage. The outcome is too close to call (...) But Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., a leading critic of the legislation, argued that support for the bill continues to plummet, both among senators thought to be behind it and among the public.

Get to know "S 1348"

As the U.S. Senate readies itself to revive the comprehensive immigration reform bill, known on the Senate floor as bill "S 1348", it seems pertinent that we all understand the minutae of the bill.

• The CitizenJoe blog has prepared a comprehensive yet very readable breakdown of the bill.
• OpenCongress also provides a very handy progress tracker.
• You can find the full-length bill at the Library of Congress.
• And finally, you can subscribe to live RSS feeds on the bill's progress at GovTrack.

Monday blog round-up

A daily feature, here we highlight interesting posts, points of view, and links as recorded on the blogosphere.

• Mickey Kaus wonders whether liberal politicians have forgotten about low-wage workers. (Kausfiles)
• Michelle Malkin supports Dunkin' Donuts' move to sue franchisees that knowingly employ undocumented workers. (MichelleMalkin)
• Making the Internet rounds is a video/sound clip of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass) singing in Spanish and discussing immigration reform. (Breitbart)
  

High-tech execs demand foreign workers

The New York Times reports that Bill Gates and his peers have been urging legislators to provide a greater number of visas for temporary foreigners and permanent immigrants. Google spokespeople told the NYT that this will be necessary to remain competitive in an increasingly competitive "knowledge-based economy".

This, of course, would only affect the smaller percentage of highly-skilled workers relative to the larger number of unskilled laborers who want to immigrate to the United States.

Welcome!

Welcome to Re-think Immigration, soon to be your home page for all things relating to U.S. immigration. We launch on Monday, June 25.