Democrats Accuse Rep. Smith of Hypocrisy

The San Antonio Express News reports that House Democrats have denounced an immigration bill authored by Rep. Lamar Smith as “petty partisan politics” and accused the San Antonio Republican of being a hypocrite for introducing the measure to spur deportations.  Smith filed the HALT Act to remove special considerations from immigration proceedings after the White House announced it would prioritize deportations to remove violent criminals and terrorists.

Smith defended the bill as a rebuke against what he saw as the Obama administration ignoring “the will of Congress and the American people by using executive branch authority to allow illegal immigrants to remain in the United States.”  Democrats dismissed the bill as political pandering that distracted from measures that seek to improve the immigration system such as the DREAM Act.

The Houston Chronicle reports that Republicans pushed forward with the bill during a raucous House hearing. Democrats, meanwhile, have lined up in opposition against the HALT Act.  Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., accused Smith and Republicans of engaging in political hyperbole to take away prosecutorial discretion that has been enjoyed by previous presidential administrations.  Republicans defend the bill as an effort to halt what they consider to be presidential abuse of administration privileges.   

http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2011/07/raucous-house-hearing-strays-from-immigration-law-into-lawmakers-patronage-of-prostitutes/

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Mayor of Lewiston, Maine Testifies on Immigrants’ Impact

The Morning Sentinel (ME) reports that Mayor Larry Gilbert of Lewiston, Maine testified before a Senate hearing on immigration reform about the benefits his town has enjoyed from an influx of Somali immigrants.  He described formerly vacant storefronts now occupied by immigrant-owned businesses in an effort to relate the economic energy immigrants can bring to a local economy.  Gilbert acknowledged that the benefits did not come without bumps along the way; issues that he said could be smoothed over with better support from the federal government in areas such as workforce training and learning English. 

http://www.pressherald.com/news/Lewiston-mayor-testifies-on-immigrants-impact-.html

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House Unanimously Amends Immigration and Nationality Act

The New York Times reports that the House passed, by a 426-0 vote, HR 398, to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to toll, during active-duty service abroad in the Armed Forces, the periods of time to file a petition and appear for an interview to remove the conditional basis for permanent resident status.

http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/bills/112/hr398[GS1] 

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House Passes H-1C Bill

The House voted 407-17 in favor of HR 1933, a bill reviving the H-1C nurse visa, a visa category that lapsed in 2009.  Lamar Smith, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, sponsored the bill.  H-1C visas will be available to up to 300 nurses per year who are sponsored to work in areas designated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to have a nursing shortage.  The number of nurses admitted was reduced from 500, but nurses will now be able to stay for up to six years in two three year terms.  The bill now moves on to the Senate Judiciary Committee for consideration.

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