The Associated Press reports that the House Labor and Industry Committee approved a bill that would require contractors on public construction projects in Pennsylvania to verify the Social Security numbers of their employees. The bill would require contractors on state or local projects costing at least $25,000 to use existing federal programs to verify all of their workers. Employers who fail to make checks could be subject to suspension from future projects. The sponsor, Democratic Rep. John Galloway of Bucks County, stated that the bill would "help save good-paying construction jobs for individuals who are entitled to them." The bill is aimed at keeping illegal immigrants out of public construction projects.

http://www.necn.com/06/20/2012/House-panel-OKs-immigrant-verification-b/landing_politics.html?&apID=8efda3db7b9e4785ac4e1322f18c1ab9 /

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The Associated Press reports that the House approved a bill that would permit Border Patrol to avoid over a dozen environmental laws on federally managed lands, allowing them unregulated access to 100 miles of borderlands along Mexico and Canada. The bill was approved 232 to 188 and its chief sponsor, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), asserted that the restrictions on federal lands have turned the wilderness areas into highways for criminals, drug trafficking, and rapists. However, opponents of the bill see it as a measure that would sacrifice important environmental protections in order to advance an "anti-immigrant and anti-regulatory agenda." The bill would also transfer control of more than 65,000 acres of the Alaska Tongass National Forest to a private corporation. Critics call the proposal a "land grab worth billions of dollars in timber sales."

http://www.necn.com/06/19/12/House-approves-waiver-of-border-environm/landing_scitech.html?&apID=5b945c2688874ec59a7ac8586aad6037

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The Texas Insider reports that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) sent a letter to Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) John Morton demanding information on the President's "deferred action" policy. According The Texas Insider, recent internal documents obtained by the House Judiciary Committee reveal that the policy was implemented more than 60 days before the Administration said it would go into effect. Rep. Smith asserts that the documents "demonstrate that illegal immigrants have already benefited from the new policy, even though there are no standards in place." Rep. Smith addresses the issue as an act of fraud. The full letter is available at here

http://www.texasinsider.org/?p=64700

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The National Journal reports that Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Republican Chuck Grassley on Wednesday removed a huge barrier to legislation that could speed the visa system for highly skilled immigrants. He removed his objection to legislation that would ease the immense backlogs for applicants from India and China, home to many "super-skilled" immigrants. President Obama endorsed the bill, and ironically, so did the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives, which passed the bill last year. The bill, named the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, would remove per-country quotas on permanent work visas. The legislation would not add to the overall number of available green cards, but it would speed up processing for skilled immigrants who now face a waiting period of up to 70 years on temporary work visas. Grassley lifted his opposition to the bill only after he struck a deal with Democrats to include enhanced oversight and annual compliance audits to the H-1B program, a program Grassley believed was "rife with fraud, exploitation of foreign workers and disadvantage for U.S. job seekers."

http://www.nationaljournal.com/thenextamerica/immigration/big-step-forward-on-high-skilled-immigration-bill-20120712

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