Dear Readers: 

I’m back from my annual family vacation (this year it was cool Alaska, British Columbia and Seattle). Of course, the week after a vacation is always crazy and I’m still crawling out from under the mass of email that won’t seem to get down to a comfortable backlog. I’m starting to identify with the government agencies I regularly take to task for their failure to turn matters around quickly.  

Thanks go to David Jones for holding down the fort here at the newsletter. Well done David! And to associate editor Penny Egel, great job as always. 

I was hoping to have a special newsletter this week providing a section by section summary of the Cornyn-Kyl immigration reform bill. This is the major competing immigration reform bill that is going to be debated in the Senate. The bill’s primary sponsor is Senator Cornyn (R-TX), the chair of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee. No Democrats are expected to co-sponsor.  

The bill’s sponsors released a summary of the bill, but not the actual text. So we have an idea of what to expect, but until we get the actual bill, I’m reluctant to provide too much information. But I can tell you a couple of details on what to expect: 

• The bill does not contain the legalization provisions that are found in McCain-Kennedy. However, there is a concept called Mandatory Departure which allows people in illegal immigration status to voluntarily leave the US and then have the right to reenter through normal immigration means. This has the effect of waiving the 3 and 10 year reentry bars.
• The bill has a new W guest worker visa that is similar to the H-2B visa except employers need not show a position is temporary or seasonal. There is no initial limit set on the number of visas, but a special commission will make recommendations on establishing an appropriate cap (McCain-Kennedy has an initial cap of 400,000, but the number rises or declines based on market demand).
• Cornyn-Kyl will beef up the I-9 system and make the Basic Pilot I-9 electronic verification program mandatory for all employer
• The DV lottery program would be eliminated and its numbers would go to other categories
• Allows for recapture of unused visas numbers and the summary mentions that employment based green card numbers will be “restructured” to reflect current demands

While many pro-immigration groups will not be happy with the bill (more for what it lacks than what it contains), I’m an optimist and believe that the bill is not terrible and a good place to start in terms of hammering out a compromise bill that can get passed in both houses of Congress. 

Another interesting development this week was an embarrassing lack of communication between Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senator Cornyn. Senator Frist made a comment to the media that he did not think immigration reform legislation would be completed this year. This apparently caught Senator Cornyn completely off guard as reported in the Houston Chronicle: 

"Cornyn, R-Texas., said he was unaware of Frist's comments and found them disturbing. "I hope that isn't right," said Cornyn, who is likely to unveil his proposal, including a guest worker program, next week with his co-author, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

"My impression was that he wanted to do something sooner rather than later," Cornyn said. "I need to talk to him."”

There are also two proposals in the House of Representatives released by two Congressman well known in the immigration debate. Sheila Jackson-Lee, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Immigration Subcommittee has released a very detailed proposal that has been well-received by pro-immigration organizations. We cover that bill in this issue.

Tom Tancredo, the Colorado Republican who has developed a reputation for being the leading opponent of immigration in Congress, has just released his own proposal which, not surprisingly, seeks to dramatically curtail immigration to the US. We will also cover that bill in an upcoming issue of the newsletter.

Finally, today Senator McCain was quoted as saying that he intends to work with Senator Cornyn to come up with a compromise bill.

We’ll be following the issue closely in our newsletter. As soon as we get the full text of the Cornyn bill, we’ll prepare a section-by-section summary, just as we did for the McCain bill.

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In firm news, we’re pleased to announce that Maryam Tanhaee, a former law clerk at our firm, will be joining us as an attorney in our Memphis office beginning in August. Welcome back, Maryam! 

I also wanted to let folks know that Bender’s Immigration Bulletin, one of the leading print publications covering immigration law, has published a special REAL ID Act issue which has been authored by me. I’m on the editorial board of the publication and heartily recommend it to immigration lawyers looking for in depth coverage of immigration law. Many of America’s top immigration law scholars write for the BIB and if you handle immigration matters, it’s must reading. Call a LexisNexis sales representative at 800-227-4908 to order.  

Yesterday, I moderated a panel for a telephone seminar on nursing immigration put on by ILW.com. ILW.com has really done a great job producing telephone seminars on the hottest immigration topics and they’re well worth attending. I’ll be moderating another health care immigration program covering allied health professionals (basically, everyone except nurses and doctors) in August. Go to www.ilw.com to sign up for that program. 

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Finally, as always, we remind readers that we're lawyers who make our living representing immigration clients and employers seeking to comply with immigration laws. We would love to discuss becoming your law firm. Just go to http://www.visalaw.com/intake.html to request an appointment or call us at 800-748-3819 or 901-682-6455.

Regards, 

Greg Siskind