Iraq Supplemental Bill and Immigration

H.R. 2642 - The Iraq supplemental spending bill, as it came out of committee, would:

- Grant a three-year work visa followed by a permanent greencard to all illegal aliens who have been working as shepherds, goat herders and dairy herders.
- Grant a five-year work visa to the estimated 1.3 million illegal aliens working in other agricultural jobs — plus all of their families. There is no instruction on what happens after the five years.
- Grant a tripling of the maximum number of H-2B visas for lower skill, non-agricultural seasonal workers.
- Grant industries an extra 218,000 additional permanent green cards for skilled foreign workers.

The applicants will have to show and do:
- by “a preponderance of the evidence” that he worked 863 hours or 150 work days (defined as 5.75 hours of work per “work day”), or earned at least $7,000 in agricultural employment between January1, 2004, and December 31, 2007;

- Filed an amnesty application with a “qualified designated entity,” or with DHS directly if he is represented by an attorney or a nonprofit organization, during an 18-month application period that would begin six months after enactment of the amnesty;

- Was not a known terrorist or convicted criminal; and paid a “fine” of $250.


RIDICULOUS CLAIMS ABOUT RUNNING OUT OF FOOD WITHOUT AN AMNESTY
Senators Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) claim that we will fail to harvest crops and feed the world this year without an amnesty for illegal aliens.

Could be debated on May 21, 2008.