Senator John Cornyn Introduced S.2691 for "Legal" Employment-Based Immigration Legislation
Today, John Cornyn, Senator from Texas, introduced in the Senate S. 2691, Securing Knowledge Innovation and Leadership (SKILL) bill, which is similar to the legal employment-based immigration bills incorporated in the comprehensive immigration reform bills of Senator Bill Frist and Senator Alen Specter. These legal employment-based immigration bills are similar to the Education bill named PACE Act which is still pending in the Senate.
Senator Cornyn strongly opposes the legalization of undocumented immigrants as opposed to the Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and most of the Senators in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The compromised comprehensive immigration reform proposal faced strong challenge from Senator Cornyn before the bill collapsed in the Senate during the Easter break. Cornyn-Kyl bill and McCain-Kennedy has engaged in a fierce duel in the Senate Judiciary Committee and in the full Senate. The collision was marked by the legalization of illegal immigrants that are incorporated in the McCain-Kennedy bill.
By introduction of S. 2691, Senator Cornyn practically joins the original Bill Frist bill that strongly supported legal immigration and strongly opposed legalization of illegal aliens by focusing on the border security and the immigration enforcement. Question remains whether the legal immigration bill can pass the Congress as separate from the Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation. We are concerned that this bill may bring a further division between the legal immigrant community and the illegal immigrant community with the potential damaging consequences to both legal and illegal communities. We have maintained a tradition of strongly supporting legal employment-based immigration. We just hope that the legal and illegal reform legislation does not end up with the fate of S. 1932 as driven by the political forces using the traditional battle tactic of 'divide and conquer.' From the perspectives of the legal employment-based immigrant community, all of the pending bills support their interest and they will be least affected by whichever bill the Congress finally would pass. This is a time to unite and not a time to divide.