H-1Bs posting bonds?

Date: Tuesday, July 02, 2002 10:10 AM

*** H-1B NEWSLETTER ***

Get the Facts on H-1B at
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Rep. Gekas proposed one of the best new ideas I have seen for the handling
of nonimmigrant visas. The proposal is to require a bond to be posted to
bring an H-1B or other nonimmigrant worker into the US. He is also
supporting the much needed tracking of student visas.

Requiring a bond would solve several problems with these visas. One of the
great loopholes in our present system is that these aliens are not tracked
once they are in the US. That means that if the visa goes out of status the
INS doesn't know whether the H-1B left the country or stayed here and
continued to take jobs that Americans need. Since the bond would have to
posted and then claimed when the visa expires it would provide a means of
tracking the status of these nonimmigrants.

The INS is understaffed and underfunded and as a result they don't have the
resources to track visa violators down. A bond would give bounty hunters a
financial incentive to hunt these visa violators down. Even if the bond was
large, say $20,000, companies would get their money back once their H-1Bs
report to the INS.

I'm so impressed with Gekas' idea I will send this newsletter to his office.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020627-789332.htm

Gekas seeks curbs to legal immigrants
Stephen Dinan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Published 6/27/2002

A key House Republican introduced legislation yesterday to temporarily

cut legal immigration to the United States by about 20 percent as part of a
broad reform of immigration laws.

Rep. George W. Gekas, Pennsylvania Republican, the chairman of the

immigration subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, said government
agencies need time to restructure and to catch up with the current backlog
of applications.

"We believe we must take a bold step, and for the time being — I stress

that — reduce the number of legal immigrants," Mr. Gekas said.

The bill eliminates several categories of persons eligible for green

cards based on their relationship to a U.S. citizen or green-card holder.

It also authorizes the hiring of more border guards and thousands of

Immigration and Naturalization Service inspectors to go after illegal
immigrants and eliminates some of the methods illegal immigrants use to
avoid enforcement of deportation orders.

Mr. Gekas said immigration is no longer just a law-and-order issue,

it's now a matter of national security.

"Members of Congress and the public at large recognize that our open

society we're so proud of is, because it is so open, endangering itself,"
Mr. Gekas said.

As chairman of the immigration subcommittee, Mr. Gekas has a platform

for starting the public debate on reform, though how far the bill can go
this year is uncertain.

To go past Mr. Gekas' committee it would have to gain the approval of

Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Wisconsin Republican,
whose spokesman yesterday said he was still reviewing it.

Amid numerous pending proposals to restructure the INS and agencies

that handle domestic security and to crack down on illegal immigrants, Mr.
Gekas' proposal is the only one to propose a broad reduction in legal
immigration.

The bill would eliminate the entire diversity visa program, which

offers 55,000 slots a year through a lottery, as well as remove adult
siblings and adult children of U.S. citizens, and adult unmarried children
of legal permanent residents, from the list of those eligible for green
cards. Mr. Gekas' target is to reduce immigration by about 20 percent.

Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee from Texas, the top Democrat on the immigration

subcommittee, called the bill "a variety of controversial provisions that
really will have a difficult time getting through the House, much less the
Senate."

Groups that support stricter immigration limits were pleased with the

measure, but realistic about its chances.

The bill would also:
•Allow officials to require those coming on non-immigrant visas to post

a bond. If they violate the terms of their visas, a bondsman would be
responsible for bringing them in.

•Require schools that allow student visas to participate in the INS'

student-tracking system, due out by next year, or else lose the ability to
host foreign students, and would require the INS to meet its target for
deployment or have the entire student-visa program shut down.

•Try to cut down on fraud by requiring specific standards for documents

like Social Security cards.

•Require voter lists to be checked against Social Security databases

and INS records to make sure registered voters are citizens.

•Allow the nation to continue to accept refugees, but requires

congressional approval if the United States is on track to take in more
refugees than the rest of the world combined the previous year.

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