LEGISLATIVE
UPDATE
Senate Holds Hearing on Special Immigrant Religious Worker Program
The Immigration Subcommittee (Chairman Abraham, R-MI) of the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on S 2406, a bill introduced on April 12, 2000. The bill is being called the “Mother Theresa Religious Worker Act of 1999”, and would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide permanent authority for the special immigrant religious worker program. The program was established under the 1990 Immigration Act, but was not made permanent and, as such, has required reauthorization every two or three years, which has created uncertainly among religious organizations. The key component of the law will expire on September 30 of this year unless Congress acts.
This legislation will make permanent provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act that set aside 10,000 visas per year for special immigrants. Up to 5,000 of these visas annually can be used for ministers of a religious denomination. In addition, a related provision of the law provides 5,000 visas per year to individuals working for religious organizations in "a religious vocation or occupation" or in a "professional capacity in a religious vocation or occupation." This has allowed nuns, brothers, cantors, lay preachers, religious instructors, religious counselors, missionaries, and other persons to work at their vocations or occupations for religious organizations or their affiliates.
Under the law, a sponsoring organization must be a bona fide religious organization or an affiliate of one, and must be certified or eligible to be certified under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Religious workers must have two years work experience to qualify for an immigrant visa.
Prior to 1990, churches, synagogues, mosques, and their affiliated organizations experienced significant difficulties in trying to gain admission for a much needed minister or other individual necessary to provide religious services to their communities. However, this improvement in the law in
In a statement made in support of the bill, Bishop John Cummins of Oakland wrote: “Religious workers provide a very important pastoral function to the American communities in which they work and live, performing activities in furtherance of a vocation or religious occupation often possessing characteristics unique from those found in the general labor market. Historically, religious workers have staffed hospitals, orphanages, senior care homes and other charitable institutions that provide benefits to society without public funding.”
AILA strongly supports the legislation. Senators Kennedy, Dewine, and Leahy are cosponsoring the bill.
Senate Scheduled to Markup Bill to Extend NACARA Filing Deadline
Now that the April 1, 2000 deadline for filing applications for Adjustment of Status under NACARA has expired, the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration has scheduled a mark-up of S 2058, a bill that would extend the filing deadline for NACARA. The mark-up will be held on Thursday April 13, 2000.
Lobbists and other advocates have been pushing for an extension of the filing deadline for more than a year. Although NACARA granted certain Nicaraguan and Cubans in the United States the right to apply for permanent residency, no final regulations were published to provide guidance on how INS would implement this law. Lobbists and others have argued that without a clear understanding of who is eligible and how that eligibility is established, many people who are eligible would not have a fair opportunity to submit their claims. Closing the filing deadline before the law could be fully understand was patently unfair.
S.2058 authorizes an extension of the NACARA filing deadline for “one year after the date of promulgation by the Attorney General of final regulations” for the implementation of the NACARA provisions on adjustment of status. Those final regulations were published on March 24, 2000, three days before the original filing deadline was set to expire.
AILA Continues to Fight for Real Reform in INS Reorganization
Representatives Lamar Smith and Hal Rogers (R-KY) are continuing their effort to move their ill-conceived and destructive INS reorganization bill. The full Judiciary Committee is likely to schedule a mark-up their bill after the Easter recess. Reintroduced as H.R. 3918, this bill – virtually identical to the earlier H.R. 2528 - is a false INS reform bill that fails to meet Lobbists’s criteria for reform: someone in charge with clout, separation, but coordination, of the enforcement and adjudication functions, and adequate funding for adjudications. Lobbists strongly supports H.R. 2680, introduced by Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) and S. 1563, introduced by Senators Abraham and Kennedy that fulfill these criteria.
Lobbists continue to work with our coalition partners to develop strategies that would promote the real reform agendas of H.R. 2680 and S. 1563, and that would ensure that the Smith/Rodgers bill does not sneak its way into an omnibus appropriations bill. These backdoor tactics have been used in the past as a way of avoiding full and fair consideration of the issue. Lobbists are working with the Administration and members of Congress to develop a bill that we can all support.
Lobbists encourage the active support of H.R. 2680 and S. 1563 by contacting their members of congress and urging reform that will actually improve INS.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein Introduces a Backlog Reduction Bill
On Thursday, April 13, 2000, Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced that she would be introducing a bill to reduce the huge backlogs that plague the INS. Senator Feinstein’s bill sends an important message to the INS that we no longer will tolerate tremendous backlogs that hurt millions of people seeking to become U.S. citizens, fleeing political persecution, trying to reunite with their families, and businesses seeking to employ foreign workers who are needed for our continued economic growth. This measure is an important first step in getting the INS to provide quick, effective and fair adjudication of the millions of applications that, for too long, have languished in the bureaucracy.
The bill also acknowledges that money is the major problem. For the past few years, Congress has provided directly appropriated funds to INS enforcement, while the adjudications branch has been subsisting on user fees – the funds that people and businesses pay when they file applications. At the same time, Congress has imposed numerous unfunded and conflicting mandates on the INS. The agency has paid for those mandates out of the only pot of money they have access to: the user fees. As a result, we have seen the backlogs skyrocket to the current unmanageable and unconscionable levels.