In a message dated 12/7/07 12:18:43 A.M. Central Standard Time, News@JobDestruction.info writes:
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1795 -- 12/06/2007 >>>>>
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and San Jose Rep. Zoe Lofgren are getting
religious all of a sudden!
While worshipping at the altar of greed and avarice they are trying to
craft a deal they call "Noah's Ark". It's a cutesy name for their newest
plan to bamboozle the American public.
But Pelosi seemed to invite some sort of new deal-making gambit in
November when she spoke about what she called the "Noah's Ark" path
to immigration reform. In the biblical story, male and female
animals walked aboard the vessel together but this, of course, is
politics, so what she envisioned was a pairing of strange
bedfellows. "(In) this Noah's Ark approach, you get this, we get
this, we work together to get them both."
OK, so here is the deal:
Bay Area business group hopes to jump-start immigration overhaul by
persuading House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and San Jose Rep. Zoe Lofgren
to craft a deal: Let industry hire more guest workers from abroad,
and in return industry will back measures like improving border
security and helping the children of undocumented migrants obtain
legal status by going to college or joining the military.
So now let's spell out the "Noah's Ark" deal in plain English: Pelosi and
Lofgren will give industry more H-1B, H-2A, and H-2B visas, and in return
industry will give them the support they need to pass the DREAM act and
amnesty. That seems like a win-win deal for the open-border and cheap-labor
lobby -- but they have one problem -- how do they convince a skeptical
public to go along? It simple actually -- they will fool the public by
offering them some border security. How much you want to bet that they will
pledge to complete the border fence that was already mandated by Congress?
Folks, "Noah's Ark" is a rotten deal for every American worker. If all of
those visas are increased there won't be a job category that will be safe
from the corporate mobsters.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/05/BUVGTO9A7.DTL
Bay Area Council weighs in on immigration policy
Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
A Bay Area business group hopes to jump-start immigration overhaul by
persuading House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and San Jose Rep. Zoe Lofgren to
craft a deal: Let industry hire more guest workers from abroad, and in
return industry will back measures like improving border security and
helping the children of undocumented migrants obtain legal status by going
to college or joining the military.
In a letter obtained by The Chronicle, the business-backed Bay Area Council
warns that the failure of comprehensive immigration reform has left
Northern California's high-tech, tourism and agribusiness firms unable to
hire enough foreign workers under special visas called the H-1B, H-2B and
H-2A, respectively.
The national gambit is a departure for the council, which normally focuses
on state or regional issues, but the local business leaders think they have
extra clout on immigration because Lofgren chairs a key committee and
Pelosi runs the House.
"The immigration issue is bigger than tech, it's bigger than H-1B," said
Robert Hoffman, a lobbyist for Oracle Corp., which belongs to the council
as well as to various tech groups. "Immigration is central to all the
industries in the Bay Area economy, which is why it's a high priority for
the council."
Letter short on solutions
The two-page letter sent to the lawmakers doesn't explain how Pelosi and
Lofgren might solve issues that stymied the Senate this summer. And
immigration experts say the two leaders face opposite pressure from
Democratic hard-liners who think a crackdown on undocumented workers,
rather than more legal immigrants, should come first.
"There's ultimately got to be a leadership call," said Doris Meissner, a
senior fellow with the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. She said
there is some chance that the Bay Area gambit will spark discussion, but
added that many in Congress resent the business community for not pushing
harder on comprehensive reform.
Officially, however, Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly welcomed the Bay Area
Council letter in a carefully worded statement that did not shut the door
on a partial solution.
Pelosi "has been pretty clear that there would be no H-1B or H-2A or H-2B
fixes unless there is genuine action on proactive immigration reform," he
said.
That statement substitutes the word "proactive" for what she and other
democratic leaders had previously called "comprehensive" immigration
reform, and with that shift, Pelosi signals a willingness to touch several
different political nerves.
To begin with, Capitol Hill insiders say, Pelosi must contend with members
of the Latino caucus who are most bitter about the collapse of the
comprehensive immigration bill and most leery of cutting any deal with
industry that would solve its problems - getting more foreign workers for
tech firms, ski resorts and farms - without tackling any of the issues
important to their constituents.
Given that the whole concept of amnesty for illegal migrants sank the
Senate bill earlier this year, the Bay Area Council initiative seeks to
lure Latino lawmakers into the deal by pledging something more modest -
business backing of the so-called DREAM Act, a bill to help the children of
undocumented workers get legal status by graduating from high school and
attending college.
Whether that would be sufficient inducement to get the Latinos aboard - or
excite the vehement opposition of enforcement-minded members of either
party - remains to be seen.
'Noah's Ark'
But Pelosi seemed to invite some sort of new deal-making gambit in November
when she spoke about what she called the "Noah's Ark" path to immigration
reform. In the biblical story, male and female animals walked aboard the
vessel together but this, of course, is politics, so what she envisioned
was a pairing of strange bedfellows. "(In) this Noah's Ark approach, you
get this, we get this, we work together to get them both."
So while Pelosi might like to get opposing factions on immigration to work
together - and get high-tech and other industries more imported labor - it
remains to be seen whether the political animals of Capitol Hill will line
up as meekly as the beasts in the Bible.
"Right now immigration is so toxic it's hard to get any sort of
compromise," said Meissner, the think tank expert.
E-mail Tom Abate at tabate@sfchronicle.com.
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