Immigration Reform Moves to Senate Committee

The Senate Judiciary Committee continued consideration of S. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act. This week, the committee discussed sections dealing with temporary worker visas.  The committee will meet tomorrow and again next week with the goal of finishing Committee consideration of S.744 before the week’s end.  The bill mandates e-verify; requires photo identification as part of the documentation; eliminates the patchwork of local immigration laws; provides new avenues for legal immigration; and creates a legal status for undocumented workers currently in the United States. The bill also prohibits employers from “knowingly” hiring an undocumented worker.  In addition, the bill includes a temporary worker program.  However, the program places unique restrictions on the construction industry that prevent construction from fully utilizing the future temporary worker visa program. There was an effort this week to eliminate the arbitrary cap on the construction industry’s use of what are known as “W” visas. This amendment by Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) was not adopted by the Committee.  AGC will continue to work with the Senate to improve the immigration bill throughout the process.  The group of eight in the House of Representatives is under growing pressure to finalize their efforts to agree to a comprehensive immigration bill.  There is still no clear path forward in the House as Republicans seem torn between a comprehensive bill and a series of smaller bills that deal with different aspects of immigration reform.    For more information or to send letters urging comprehensive immigration reform with a workable guest worker program for the construction industry, please visit the AGC website. For more information, please contact Jim Young at (202) 547-0133 or youngj@agc.org.