House Passes Bill Lifting Per-Country Visa Quotas

By Andrea Salazar

By a 389-15 vote, the House passed legislation Tuesday night removing per-country quotas on employment-based visas for high-skilled immigrants.

As it stands now, any given foreign nation has access to no more than 7 percent of the visas the United States issues. Supporters say this bill would help manufacturers by removing that cap and making visas available to high-skilled immigrants around the world.

The bill now goes to the Senate where Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who chairs an immigration subcommittee within the Senate Judiciary Committee, praised the passage of the bill as “a harbinger for progress on other immigration issues.”

“This will remove outdated constraints that prevent us from attracting the kind of innovators who can create job growth in America,” Schumer said. “We will move the bill as quickly as possible in the Senate, where we expect it to find overwhelming support.”

Hispanic Lawmakers Protesting Alabama Immigration Law

By Andrea Salazar

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas) reacted today to the arrest of a German national in Tuscaloosa, Alabama last week who failed to possess proper identification.

“This highlights the disastrous consequences of profiling as well as the potential threat to foreign investment in a state that enacts and enforces laws that lead to arrests of anyone who doesn’t speak, act or look in a ‘non-suspicious’ manner,” Gonzalez said.

The German Mercedes Benz executive was arrested November 16 for not having his driver’s license on him when he was pulled over for not having a tag on his rental car. He was released after a colleague provided the executive’s passport, visa and German driver’s license, according to the Associated Press.

Gonzalez and 10 other CHC lawmakers are in Alabama this week protesting what some experts consider to be the strictest immigration law in the country. In a statement released this morning, Gonzalez called the law “ill-conceived.”

“Let us hope Henry Kissinger doesn’t visit Alabama anytime soon,” Gonzalez said, warning that the law could result in the arrests of U.S. citizens.

Police In Virginia May Now Check Immigration Status

Virgina Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) has authored a legal opinion that will allow law enforcement officials in the state to check the immigration status of those they stop or arrest. More in today’s Washington Post online…

Anti-Illegal Immigrant Group Proposes "Safe Departure" Checkpoints

Fox News is reporting that the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) is pressuring the White House and the Homeland Security Department (DHS) to establish “safe” checkpoints along parts of the U.S./Mexico border.

ALIPAC believes this will persuade illegal immigrants to leave the U.S. without having to take more perilous routes through the desert, or pay cartels.

Neither the White House nor DHS has issued a statement in response…

- Brandon Kosters