Obama vs. FIRM, the most stupid fight of our times

In my previous entry, due to its length, the legislative proposal could not be uploaded complete so I am uploading it in the second part of this entry. I take the opportunity to mention a detail I missed in that previous entry in the first part.

I. What result do I expect in the bizarre fight Obama vs. FIRM of January 21 in which FIRM says it will submit Obama? I expect a clear win for the xenophobic Right that will score another victory over the stupidity of the so-called pro-immigrant leaders.
In less bizarre fights, you should have been expected to know your opponent’s grappling skills so you save yourself of the embarrassment of being submitted yourself. In the case of Obama, they should have read The Audacity of Hope, from which I quote:

"That the opponents of the immigration bill could make such statements privately, while publicly pretending to stand up for American workers, indicates the degree of cynicism and hypocrisy that permeates the immigration debate. But with the public in a sour mood, fears and anxieties fed daily by Lou Dobbs and talk radio hosts around the country, I can’t say I’m surprised that the compromise bill has been stalled in the House ever since it passed out of the Senate.
And if I’m honest with myself, I must admit that I’m not entirely immune to such nativist sentiments. When I see Mexican flags waved at proimmigration demonstrations, I sometimes feel a flush of patriotic resentment. When I’m forced to use a translator to communicate with the guy fixing my car, I feel a certain frustration."
(The Audacity of Hope, p. 266)

This, not to remind you that Rahm Emmanuel was who welcomed Shuler, the leader of the anti-immigrant position among Democratic House Representatives, to the Democratic Party and was who practically imposed a silence (fortunately) on the immigration issue during these elections. Does that make them anti-immigrants? Of course, not. It just makes them opposed to the stupidity with which these so-called pro-immigrant leaders have hurt their own cause. As I said in my previous entry, they, having made this issue radioactive, are going to give the growing anti-immigrant cell inside the Democratic Party the perfect excuse to sink this issue. Do I feel sympathy for them? Do they look adorable Palin-style? For the same reason I, with no knowledge of surgery or even general medicine, would not perform an open heart surgery just because I want or to feel powerful, I cannot condone their irresponsibility. It’s not a matter of a naughty or adorable behavior. Many young talented lives are destroyed every day; a person dies every day in the desert, or drawn or murdered at the border trying to reach America with honest intentions.
Finally, why do I bother to write these long entries? Because it is my hope that somebody can read them and do something and be a bit luckier than what I have been in these last four years.
II. This is the complete and updated legislative proposal that, as I stated in my previous entry, makes sense inside the strategy proposed there.

Draft of the proposal of Amendment of the S. 1033, Comprehensive Bill on Immigration Reform:
Ethic Fundament:
The Founding Fathers dreamed of a country where each man be judged for his own character. Nevertheless, as the Jim Crow, the Chinese Exclusion Act or the Slave Fugitive Act, the present immigration law has become a law lacking morality. To defend this law just because it is a law and to condemn any person law-broke it would lead to call Rosa Parks a criminal because she defied the immoral segregation laws. The immorality of the present system reaches astonishing levels when we realize that Alexander Hamilton, the most important immigrant of our history, would not have been able to come legally with this law. Thus, we propose repealing Section 202(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1152(a)) as a tribute to the spirit of our Funding Fathers that each person be judged by his or her own character and that subjecting people to limits due to the country in which they were born is a new system of castes contrary to that spirit.
Furthermore, because most residence visas are awarded based on what President Kennedy called accidents of birth, the character of the applicant has become completely irrelevant if he has not been born in the right country or family. In the case of skilled labor, less than 10% of those getting residence visas get them through one of the five employment-based categories (1) and actually most of them have to rely more on personal relations than in the quality of their own skills. Even though education should not the only one indicator of character, at least most of the employment-based immigrants have made something to achieve a better education. The problem of the predominance of factors different from character is even worse in the case of unskilled immigrants.
For people without the privileges of birth rewarded by the law there is simply no way to come legally to America, no matter what their characters are. What does the present immigration law rewards then?
a) Your relatives in America. No relatives, no green card. Result: A prosperous market of fake marriages.
b) Your socioeconomic situation in your country of origin. If you come from a Third World country and you do not belong to a privileged socioeconomic class, your chances depend on deceiving the consulate officer, get a tourist visa and adjust status here. If Third World countries had markets that worked, you could argue that the market has selected the wealthiest as the fittest. Unfortunately it is well documented the uncompetitive nature of those markets and the lack of social mobility typical of those societies.
c) Your country of origin could mean the difference between waiting more than 20 years and coming legally since the very first day.
d) Your luck to win a lottery. Nevertheless, if you win the lottery but you do not have relatives here or somebody who somehow knows you here enough to give you a job, at the end no residence visa will be awarded to you.
e) Having been illegal before 1986 or having successfully go through the 245(i) process.
Should it surprise us the disappointing performance of many of these immigrants during the last decade? Even more important than that, the present law does nothing to assimilate the millions of immigrants whose children will become an important political power in the future. Thus the ethic fundament rescues the most important criterion: the quality of the immigrant over his quantity.
So, to judge the 12 million illegal immigrants we a new standard: the full residence is something you have to DESERVE.
Efficiency Fundament:
The illegal immigration problem begins in the labor market (2). If the number of visas loses pace with the labor demand, sooner or later, those positions will be filled with illegal immigrants (basically in the case of the unskilled labor market) or the sectors will have to suffer inefficiencies (basically in the case of the skilled labor market). If previous attempts, like the 1986 Reagan’s amnesty or the Clinton’s 245(i), have "failed", this has been mainly the result of subsequent restrictions created by conservative politicians for legal immigration to help the labor market reach a sustainable equilibrium. The 18th Amendment, better known as the Prohibition, was another conservative attempt of putting artificial restrictions on the market (3). After its failure and repeal, all we got left was wasted years and resources, the cultural effects of the illegitimacy of that law and a strengthened organized crime.
To reduce illegal immigration to a marginal phenomenon that can be dealt with using law enforcement, your immigration law has first to have a defensible moral standard (quality criterion) and second be efficient in terms of the labor market (quantity criterion).
Other fundaments:
a) National security: You can hardly be serious about national security with 12 million people living in the shadows (4). Nevertheless, it is not surprising that the same people who filibustered in Congress the Kennedy-McCain proposal (S. 1033), also blocked in December of 2004 the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission just because the Senate did not accept to include in the law their anti-immigrant proposals, which had not been asked by the 9/11 Commission. They lifted the filibuster only after they were promised to include such proposals in another law, the one that later became the infamous Real ID Act.
b) Medicare and Social Security: The younger generation of immigrants and their children will let the Medicare and Social Security funding make a soft landing.
c) Armed Forces: The younger new generation of immigrants will let our Armed Forces to refresh our overstressed troops if necessary.
d) Health: To regularize the status of illegal immigrants will let prevent sanitary risks originated in the fear of illegal immigrants to expose their migratory status.
Draft of the proposal:

1. Guest workers and immigrants must have a level of command of English acceptable for the status to which they are applying. For undocumented workers here in the United States, English will be evaluated at three levels: listening, speaking, reading and writing. The level required from residence applicants will be more demanding than the level required from the guest worker program applicants and the most demanding level will be for those applying for residence as skilled workers. Thus the levels will be four in total. In the case of new immigrants, the test will be on reading and written English and the level required from resident applicants will also be higher compared to the level required from the guest worker program applicants.

Public services in Spanish will be limited to health, access to justice and security related services.
English should be the main step in the integration between the native born and immigrants and also between immigrants of different languages.

2. Undocumented workers here in the United States must pay an important fine. Nevertheless, applicants will be able to pay it in installments in the same terms as any other tax debts to the IRS. The fine will be bigger for residence applicants than for guest worker applicants.

3. The Kennedy-McCain proposal imposes very long terms separating the illegal immigrant (applicant) from legal residence. This could be inefficient as the more gifted among the applicants would find it more difficult to improve their education in the short term and so America would unnecessarily deprive itself from the benefits of their education maybe for ever. Originally my proposal allowed undocumented skilled workers make the waiting terms of the Kennedy-McCain proposal shorter paying an additional fine. Nevertheless now I do believe that to make the terms of the Kennedy-McCain proposal shorter what the applicant (skilled or unskilled worker) should do is to take the most demanding English and Civics tests and obtain a good grade in the type of test corresponding to the category (immigrant, guest worker) and subcategory (skilled, unskilled) of legalization he chose at the moment of his application. The idea is to encourage achievement and social mobility among the applicants. Even though the above mentioned categories do not exclude each other, the importance of the integration issue and the misleading accent given to it by anti-immigrant groups in their last attacks have made advisable to put the emphasis on integration as a criterion to make shorter the terms that separate the applicant from a deserved legal residence. The amount collect as a result of this fine will go to an educative and training fund for the least skilled sector of the American labor supply and/or to a fund contributive to the Medicare and Social Security funds. I would prefer the first option.

4. Residence applicants and illegal immigrants here in the United States will contribute with a number of hours as volunteers in the church, political party, charity or any other approved institution of their choice. The goal is that the applicants, especially unskilled workers who pay less in taxes, compensate society in this alternative way for the services they use but, at the same time, the goal is integrate the applicants to the American institutions with which they identify the most. If the applicant’s economic situation made too onerous for him to employ his time in volunteering, the applicant will be able to make a donation to one of the institutions mentioned before for an amount equivalent to the hours he will not be able to volunteer at the rate determined by the immigration authority for his specific situation after having made a statement justifying his petition.

5. Residence applicants who are at the moment illegally in the United States will have to pay a small tax on the remittances they make abroad. The amount collected as a result of this tax will go to the same fund mentioned in point 2. The idea is that Americans and immigrants keeping their money in America may have an additional benefit at the expense of those who do not.

6. It will be recommended that the migratory status be considered to aggravate the punishment in case of felonies at recommendation of the judge who see the criminal case. It is not possible that while hundreds die in the desert trying to reach a better life, a group of criminals comes here to create chaos and so let themselves to be used as poster boys of the anti-immigrant groups’ campaign of deception (5).

7. If somebody applies to be a guest worker and then changes his mind and wants to adjust status to immigrant, that fact will not give him an additional term or advantages with respect to those who originally applied to be immigrants.

8. The guest worker program is a complement to the immigration program, so the risk of creating a permanent subclass of guest workers or an alienated subculture gets seriously diminished.

9. Diversity and Family based immigration will not imply automatically the right to work in the United States. Being here, those immigrants will have the advantage of easier availability of information for their Civics test, more opportunities to volunteer and demonstrate good character and frequent practice for their English test but the right to work is something they will have to compete for in the terms of this proposal. Trying to use immigration to equilibrate the labor market including authentic family-based immigration could be deceptive and create the new windows of opportunity for new illegal immigration that we are trying to prevent as there are many legitimate cases of relatives brought to the United States who are not interested in working. The gap so created would open again important job opportunities for new illegal immigrants. As we stated, the accident of birth should not be a reason to be awarded the right to work in America so we strip family-based immigration of such right. Nevertheless, to avoid that many of those relatives become the next wave of illegal immigration, this option implies that some kind of control at the workplace is absolutely necessary. It is time to put an end to the market of marriages based not on legitimate family reasons but on the wish of having a short cut to the United States labor market.

10. Social security contributions of the last three years must be returned to those applying for the guest worker program and to those applying for the immigrant program before obtaining a Tax Identification Number and must be counted in their accounts to those who applied for the immigrant program after obtaining a Tax Identification Number before the Internal Revenue Service. Our Congressmen should be able to explain that, unless you typify confiscation as a punishment for this particular situation and apply that punishment retroactively, you would have to return the money withheld to illegal immigrants using the same criterion used by the Internal Revenue Service for undue payments by taxpayers. Furthermore, that would imply a differentiate punishment for those with Social Security and Medicare withholdings, even if they got Tax Identification Numbers, with respect to those who were paid without withholding and to whom the payment of the Self Employment Tax could not be demanded under such circumstances. Our Congressmen should be able to explain that these are not cases of identity theft to commit fraud (which deserve nothing but criminal prosecution) but cases in which a Social Security Number is taken at random and with the only objective of getting a job. Finally, our Congressmen should be able to explain that if an additional monetary punishment is considered necessary by some, the most effective way to do it is not confiscated the withholdings of some illegal immigrants but fairly increasing the fines for all of them.

11. The objective of this proposal is to be the hard version that complements the Kennedy-McCain proposal so our Congressmen have an alternative that pleases good-faith conservatives and so they can count with a hard proposal (this one) with which to negotiate in Conference with a compatible soft proposal (Kennedy-McCain) over details like fines, levels of tests or number of hours of volunteering without sacrificing the key elements of a fair and efficient immigration reform capable of bringing a long-term solution to this issue.

Alfredo M. Bravo de Rueda E.
[e-mail]
AMENDMENTS PROPOSED TO S. 1033

1. Add Sec. 133 (d) (5) require organizations whose goals are related to the defense of immigrant rights to develop programs of collaboration with their local police departments and of motivation of their communities against gangs. These organizations will report the performance of those programs to the Department of Homeland Security within the six months after the day of enactment of the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act. Not fulfilling this commitment will result in these organizations losing their character of charitable organizations for effects of income tax deductions and for effects of receiving volunteers for the effects of the added Sec. 306, which amends Sec. 245 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1255) in the terms here described.

2. Amend Sec. 305 (1) (C), which amends Sec. 214(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1184(g)), to read as follows:

‘‘’(C) under section 101(a)(15)(H)(v)(a), may not exceed—
(i) 400,000 for the first fiscal year in which the program is implemented;
(ii) In any subsequent fiscal year, the number of visas that entitle their holders to work shall result of the estimation made by the Essential Worker Visa Program Task Force for that year. The number of family-sponsored visas will be determined according to the respective Sections of this Act but they will not grant automatically the right to work in the United States. To earn this right, the holder of a family-sponsored visa must have obtained a position in the ranking to which Sec. 245B (a) (7) (A) (ii) as amended by Sec. 702 (a) refers that is good enough to obtain a visa without such sponsorship and within the parameters proposed by the Essential Worker Visa Program Task Force and approved by Congress. No new diversity visas will be issued."

3. Add Sec. 306, which amends Section 245 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1255), by adding at the end the following:

"(n) (1) ‘(B) second paragraph: The term of 4 years can be waived if the alien gets a position in the ranking resulting from the English exam and the Civics and History tests for skilled immigrant workers. The ranking to which this section refers is that of Sec. 245B (a) (7) (A) (ii) as amended by 702 (a)."

4. Amend Sec. 306, which amends Sec. 245 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1255), to read as follows:

"(2) (B) (ii): has taken the English and Civics and History tests for his kind of occupation and obtained a position in the ranking to which Sec. 245B (a) (7) (A) (ii) as amended by Sec. 245B (a) (7) (A) (ii) as amended by Sec. 702 (a) refers that meets the minimum standards to obtain a visa within the parameters proposed by the Essential Worker Visa Program Task Force and approved by Congress. If the alien has not obtained a qualifying position in the ranking, he will have six years to achieve that minimum level or will not be qualify to adjust status under the terms of this section.

5. Add Sec. 306, which amends Sec. 245 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1255), to read as follows:

"(2) (B) (iii) has signed with the Department of Homeland Security a commitment to volunteer 180 hours in the next six years. The alien must inform the Department of Homeland Security within the next three months after filing his petition for adjustment of status in what the institution(s) he will be performing these hours. The same way, he will inform the Department of Homeland Security if the alien decides to volunteer in another institution(s) different from the originally chosen in the month following the change. The institutions at which these hours can be performed could be churches, charities, government institutions, political parties and, in general, any institution approved by the Department of Homeland Security as appropriate to facilitate the integration of the alien to the American society. In case the performance of these hours were too onerous for the alien, the alien can file a petition explaining his reasons to the Department of Homeland Security and fulfill this requirement making a donation to any of these institutions for an amount equal to the 125% of his rate per hour or an equivalent approved by the Department of Homeland Security times the number of hours he would not be performing as a volunteer. The Department of Homeland Security can reject the reject the petition y rejecting the reasons given by the alien to replace his volunteer commitment with a donation in the month following the petition. Otherwise, it is considered accepted.

6. Add Sec. 307 (b) (7): the number of visas to be granted each fiscal year. In the case of immigrant and non-immigrant visas giving their holder the right to work, their number must be result from the labor demand estimated for those occupations in which the foreign-born labor supply is important. The findings for the second year will constitute a basket of occupations for which a three-year projection will be made. The basket of occupations should be revised each three years unless exceptional circumstances make it advisable an earlier revision. The annual revision of the estimation will be used to adjust the number of these visas to be granted the next fiscal year. The Essential Worker Visa Program Task Force will inform Congress annually on their sources for the estimation, the methodology and the results of the estimation. The objective of this estimation is that the number of visas allowing their holder to work in the United States keeps pace with the needs of the labor market.

The number of family-sponsored immigration visas granted each fiscal year will be determined using the criteria of Sec. 601. The objective of these visas is to let families unify and extend diversity and must not be a shortcut to the right to work in America.

7. Add Sec. 307 (b) (8): the constitutional grounds to recommend the application of aggravated sentences to aliens found guilty of felonies by judges of American courts in criminal cases.

8. Add Sec. 307 (b) (9): the feasibility of a small tax on remittances with a smaller rate for guest workers than for immigrants. The proceeds of this tax shall be deposited in the same fund in which fines shall be deposited according to Sec. 701 (a).

9. Add. Sec. 307 (b) (10): mechanisms to improve the assimilation of immigrants to American values. Part of this report will be the public services to which services in Spanish should be limited on the grounds of health, access to justice and national security.

10. Add Sec. 307 (b) (11): the best use that can be made of the fund to which Sec. 250 (i) (4) refers and who should be in charge of such special fund.

11. Add Sec. 307 (b) (12): the terms under which aliens applying under Sec. 701 should be allowed to enlist in the Armed Forces. This report will be issued within the first 3 months after the enactment of this Act.

12. Eliminate Section 502, Bilateral Efforts with Mexico to Reduce Migration Pressures and Costs.

13. Amend Sec. 601 (b) to amend Section 201(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1151(d)) to read as follows:

"’(d) Worldwide Level of Employment-Based Immigrants: The worldwide level of employment-based immigration will be determined following the criteria of Sec. 307 (b) (7). From this total, the number of visas assigned to employment-based non-immigrant aliens will be the number of visas unused by employment-based immigrants.

14. Eliminate Sec. 602 and repeal Section 202(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1152(a)).

15. Amend Sec. 603 (a) to include at the end of Sec. 203(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1153(a)):

(a) (5) Family-sponsored visas will not grant the right to work in the United States of America. To earn this right, the alien must have obtained a position in the ranking to which Sec. 245B (a) (7) (A) (ii) as mended by Sec. 702 (a) refers that is good enough to obtain a visa within the parameters proposed by the Essential Worker Visa Program Task Force and approved by Congress.

16. Amend Sec. 603 (b) to amend Sec. 203(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1153(b)) to read as follows: The preference allocation for employment-based immigrants will follow the criteria of Sec. 307 (b) (7).

17. Amend Sec. 250A (i) (1) (B) created by Sec. 701 (a), which amends Chapter 5 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1255 et seq.) to add a second paragraph as follows:

"’(i) (1) (B) Nevertheless, the waiting period of 6 years of Section 250A can be waived if the alien gets a qualifying position in the ranking resulting from the English for skilled immigrant workers test and the Civics and History for skilled immigrant workers test. The ranking to which this section refers is that of Sec. 245B (a) (7) (A) (ii) as amended by Sec. 702 (a)."

18. Amend Sec. 250A (i) (3) created by Sec. 701 (a), which amends Chapter 5 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1255 et seq.) to read as follows:

"(i) (3) (A) IN GENERAL: In addition to the fee required under paragraph (2), the Secretary of Homeland Security may accept an application for adjustment of status under this section only if the alien pays a $10,000 fine. This fine can be paid in installments with a down payment of $1,000. The Department of Homeland Security will evaluate the plan of payments for the applicant with the same criteria used by the Internal Revenue Service for tax debts.

19. Amend Sec. 250A (i) (4) created by Sec. 701 (a), which amends Chapter 5 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1255 et seq.) to add a second paragraph as follows:

"(i) (4) All fees collected under this section shall be deposited in the Treasury in accordance with section 286 (w). The fines collected under this section shall be deposited in a special fund in the Treasury to improve competitiveness of American citizens and legal residents belonging to the less skilled sector of the American labor supply.
Social Security and Medicare withholdings and contributions must be returned to those applying for the guest worker program and to those applying for the immigrant program if made in the last three years before obtaining a Tax Identification Number from the Internal Revenue Service. If the applicant alien obtained a Tax Identification Number, those withholdings will be counted in the alien’s respective accounts.

20. Amend Sec. 250A (j) (1) (A) created by Sec. 701 (a), which amends Chapter 5 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1255 et seq.) to read as follows:

"(j) ‘(1) (A) shall be granted employment authorization pending final adjudication of the alien’s application for adjustment of status provided that the alien has signed a commitment to take the English and Civics and History tests for his kind of occupation according to Sec. 245 (2) (B) (ii) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1255) as amended by Sec. 306 unless the alien has already met the minimum requirements of the category to which he is applying and has signed with the Department of Homeland Security a commitment to volunteer 180 hours in the next six years according to Sec. 245 (2) (B) (iii) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1255) as amended by Sec. 306."

21. Amend Sec. 702 (a), which amends Chapter 5 of title II of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1255 et seq.) to add Sec. 245B after section 245A to read as follows:

"Sec. 245B (a) (1): The alien establishes that the alien has been employed in the United States, either full time, part time, seasonally, or self-employed, or has met the education requirements of subsection (f) or (g) of section 250A during the period required by Section 250A (i) unless waived under the terms of that same Section."

22. Amend Sec. 702 (a), which amends Chapter 5 of title II of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1255 et seq.) to add Sec. 245B after section 245A to read as follows:

"Sec. 245B (a) (3) (B): Before the adjudication of an application for adjustment of status filed under this section, an alien who is at least 21 years of age shall pay a fine of $5,000. This fine can be paid in installments with a down payment of $1,000. The Department of Homeland Security will evaluate the plan of payments for the applicant with the same criteria used by the Internal Revenue Service for tax debts."

23. Amend Sec. 702 (a), which amends Chapter 5 of title II of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1255 et seq.) to add Sec. 245B after section 245A to read as follows:

"Sec. 245B (a) (7) (A) (ii) has not failed the minimum requirements of level of the English and Civics and History tests for his kind of occupation and has had a satisfactory performance in the commitment to which Sec. 245 (2) (B) (iii) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1255) as amended by Sec. 306 refers.
As part of the duties of the Essential Worker Visa Program Task Force contemplated in Sec. 307 (b) (1) and (b) (2), the Essential Worker Visa Program Task Force will propose the English and Civics and History tests the aliens will take in the following levels:
(A) Unskilled Guest Worker: The English test will have the minimum acceptable command of read and written English to be a functional part of the American society. In the case of aliens applying under Sec. 701, the test will include a listening and speaking part to test a minimum command of English also on these grounds.
The Civics and History test will be limited to constitutional rights and main characteristics of the government of the United States of America.
(B) Skilled Guest Worker
The English test will have the minimum acceptable command of English to perform the kind of work the skilled guest worker expects to perform in the United States.
The Civics and History test will include the basics of constitutional rights, history and of the form of government of the United States but at a slightly more difficult level than the Civics and History test designed for Unskilled Guest Workers.
(C) Unskilled Immigrant
The English test will have the kind of command of English expected from graduates of high schools of the United States.
The Civics and History test will have the kind of knowledge of history, form of government and constitutional rights expected from graduates of high schools of the United States. Part of this test will be an essay where the applicant will explain how the applicant can contribute to make America better as a person and in its occupation.
(D) Skilled Immigrant
The English test will have the kind of command of English expected from graduates of colleges of the United States. The standard here considered will be the TOEFL score required by average graduate schools of the United States.
The Civics and History test will have the kind of knowledge of history, form of government and constitutional rights expected from graduates of colleges of the United States. Part of this test will be an essay where the applicant will explain how the applicant can contribute to make America better as a person and in his occupation.
These tests will be designed by or according to the recommendations to be made by the Essential Worker Visa Program Task Force and the contents required to succeed in them will be made available in a Web page the Essential Worker Visa Program Task Force will make available for these ends. Also, Consulates and Embassies of the United States should provide applicants abroad free access to the information necessary to take these tests successfully.
Applicants can take these tests more than once within the waiting periods they have available according to these Sections. Applicants can also take the more demanding types of tests to upgrade their status to skilled guest worker or immigrant if they get a position in the ranking that let them do so.
The department of Homeland Security will determine the institutions authorized to administer these tests and the fees they can charge to the applicants. These institutions will report the results of the tests taken each month to the Department of Homeland Security in the 10 days following the end of each month. With these results, the Department of Homeland Security will elaborate a ranking and grant the visas that allow their holders to work according to the merits reflected in the ranking in the case of applicants for the guest worker program or the immigrant program and will determine whether the applicant has met the minimum required level in the case of applicants under Sections 701 and 702."

24. Amend Sec. 702 (a), which amends Chapter 5 of title II of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1255 et seq.) to add Sec. 245B after section 245A to read as follows:

"Sec. 245B (a) (7) ‘(C) The Department of Homeland Security will be able to exceptionally depart from the criteria of Section 245B. In such a case it will justify its decisions and include those justifications in their reports to Congress. In the case of academic or non academic achievements made by the applicant, the Essential Worker Visa Program Task Force may recommend the Department of Homeland Security to waive these criteria. Non academic achievements imply outstanding conducts or achievements in the benefit of their communities or that somehow demonstrate an outstanding moral character."
These exams will take into account any disability of the alien that could affect the results of the tests as far as the alien’s disability will not result in the alien being unable to cover his or her expenses without public aid.

25. Amend Sec. 1102, which amends Sec. 286 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.) by changing the first paragraph of (3) to read as follows:

"(3) Of the fees deposited into the H–5 Nonimmigrant Petitioner Account:"

26. Amend Sec. 1102, which amends Sec. 286 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.) by adding at the end the following:

"(4) The fines collected under this section shall be deposited in the special fund in the Treasury to improve competitiveness of American citizens and legal residents conforming the less skilled sector of the American labor supply to which Sec. 250A (i) (4) created by Sec. 701 (a) refers."

27. Add Sec. 1107, which amends Sec. 286 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.):

"The petitions under the current law will be solved under the criteria of the current law unless the petitioner prefers to have his or her case solved under the terms of these Sections."

NOTES
(1) In 2001 employment-based immigration was 7.8% of the total (83,145), the smallest group after diversity-based immigration, from a total of 1,064,318 immigrant visas. The visas for the fifth preference were 65.
(2) The important Pew Hispanic Center work of 2005 proved that the main determinant of illegal immigration was the labor demand in America. Their last work shows a declining tendency in the number of illegal immigrants between 2007 and 2008 that does nothing but to confirm the findings of the work of 2005. The unusual results for 2004 are an isolated phenomena explainable by the January 2004 Bush’s speech on guest workers.
(3) Actually, the Prohibition was an attempt to restrict the market of final goods while the anti-immigration laws are an attempt to restrict the market of factors.
Besides that:

1. Blacks and immigrants were the favorite targets of the conservative and white supremacist movements behind the Volstead Act enforcement.

2. As the depression affected tax revenues, alcohol taxation became an interesting alternative. Prohibition Commissioner Moran had told Congress in 1927 that any attempt to enforce the Volstead Act would cost $300 million. In the case of illegal immigration, the last estimations go from more than $200 billions (in 5 years and assuming that ¼ would deport themselves) to $500 millions.

(4) Chief Aguilar from the Border Patrol has declared to the Appropriations Committee that the work of the Border Patrol would be easier if they could use their resources to go after the real criminals instead of after inoffensive immigrants. Your security measures must depend on the kind of risk you face and the risk posed by a well trained terrorist or drug trafficker is not the same as the risk posed by an inoffensive illegal immigrant.
(5) In the last decade anti-immigrant groups have used the cases of criminal aliens to push their xenophobic agenda at the expense of the efficiency of law enforcement: From 1991 to 2002 an average of 35.82% of the aliens removed were criminals but that percentage was 53.82% in 1994 and has been decreasing to 25.14% for 2002.