Washington – What started out as border security measures in an Iraq-Afghanistan spending bill became immigration legislation as lawmakers added new visas for foreigners and did away with some asylum limits.
House and Senate negotiators reached agreement Tuesday in the final $82 billion bill devoted primarily to paying for military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Originally, the House pushed for uniform requirements for driver’s licenses, toughening of asylum laws and authorization of the completion of a fence across the California-Mexico border.
Those measures survived negotiations despite widespread opposition in the Senate. As the bill made its way through the process, it grew to provide 10,500 visas for Australians and up to 50,000 visas that went unused between 2001-04 for nurses or their family members.
In addition, the bill will exempt returning seasonal workers from the annual 66,000 ceiling on visas, effective Oct. 1 through Oct. 1, 2006. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., pushed the measure to provide crab pickers and oyster shuckers for her state’s seafood industry.
Judy Golub, senior policy and outreach director for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said many provisions in the bill had no other way for Congress to address them or should have been addressed years ago. The provision for seasonal workers, for example, will help businesses temporarily, “but isn’t a fix.”
“It’s a weird way to do immigration,” Golub said.
The new federal standards for driver’s licenses and other border security measures were attached to an earlier House- passed version of the bill by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.
Another provision, backed by the White House, dealt with people granted asylum. Currently, 10,000 people who have been granted asylum can apply for permanent residency each year. The provision eliminates that restriction.
Under the legislation, Americans applying for driver’s licenses will have to bring far more information with them to motor vehicle offices. They will be asked to show birth certificates, a photo ID, proof of their Social Security number and a document with full name and home address.
Motor vehicle departments will be required to verify the documents and the Social Security numbers. States still could give licenses to illegal immigrants, but they would have different designs or colors to alert security officers that they are unacceptable as IDs for boarding planes or entering federal buildings. The Homeland Security Department will decide how much documentation will be needed for license renewals.
