Panel starts look at immigration

House members split on family, degree-holding qualifications

House Judiciary Committee member Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, center, adjusts the flag pin on fellow committee member Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., right, as they share a laugh with Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013, prior to the committee's hearing on America's Immigration System: Opportunities for Legal Immigration and Enforcement of Laws against Illegal Immigration.  (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
House Judiciary Committee member Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, center, adjusts the flag pin on fellow committee member Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., right, as they share a laugh with Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013, prior to the committee's hearing on America's Immigration System: Opportunities for Legal Immigration and Enforcement of Laws against Illegal Immigration. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

— The House Judiciary Committee’s Republican chairman urged a methodical study of potential changes to immigration law with a focus on improving U.S. economic competitiveness.

The “momentous debate on immigration” that Congress is beginning “will be a massive undertaking with significant implications for the future direction of our nation,” Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said at the opening of Tuesday’s hearing on ways to improve the legal immigration system. “We can’t rush to judgment.”

A bipartisan group of senators is trying to craft comprehensive legislation that would include tougher border security and a path to citizenship for millions of illegal aliens now in the United States.

Goodlatte said Congress should “move forward methodically and evaluate this issue in stages.” Further hearings will focus on border security and enforcement against illegal immigration, he said. Lawmakers should “fully vet the pros and cons of each piece,” he said.

Only 12 percent of legal immigrants to the U.S. are selected “on the basis of their skill and education,” Goodlatte said. Countries such as Australia, Canada and Britain “select over 60 percent of their immigrants on this basis,” he said.

The long wait for permanent U.S. residency erodes economic competitiveness by discouraging highly skilled workers who received temporary visas to work in the U.S., he said. So do laws that “erect unnecessary hurdles for farmers” to hire foreign workers, he said.

“Our agriculture guest worker program is simply unworkable and needs to be reformed,” Goodlatte said.

Comments by Republican and Democratic lawmakers at the hearing’s outset underscored philosophical differences between the parties about immigration. Democrats stressed the value of laws that allow intact families to immigrate, regardless of their educational attainments.Republicans complained of lax enforcement and highlighted the economic benefits of allowing more skilled and highly educated workers into the country.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., who rejoined the Judiciary Committee this year to help lead an overhaul of the immigration laws, said his parents came to the U.S. with limited education. They didn’t have advanced degrees that qualify some immigrants now to obtain H-1B visas, he said.

“While I don’t hold any of these prestigious degrees either, I’ve done well here,” Gutierrez said.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said Intel co-founder Andrew Grove, a native of Hungary, and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who was born in Russia, immigrated with their families, not as holders of visas reserved for highly skilled workers or people with advanced degrees.

Goodlatte asked San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, a Democrat, if there are “options we should consider between the extremes of mass deportation and the path to citizenship” for 11 million people unlawfully in the U.S.

“A pathway to citizenship is the option that Congress should select,” said Castro, whose twin brother, Joaquin, was elected to Congress last year. “I don’t see that as an extreme option,” the mayor said.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chairman of the panel’s immigration subcommittee,said that when Congress last overhauled the immigration law in 1986 it didn’t ensure effective enforcement against illegal immigration while it gave amnesty to millions of illegal aliens in the country at the time.

“We have traveled this road before,” he said. “In 1986 we are told that immigration was settled once and for all,” he said. “The country got amnesty but is still waiting 35 years later for border security and employer verification.”

Lofgren said lawmakers shouldn’t overestimate the value of border enforcement in an era when “net migration from Mexico is zero.” Concerns about border security “should not be used to delay top-to-bottom reform of ourlaws,” she said.

Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said he backs legal residence and citizenship for people brought to the United States illegally as children.

“A good place to start is with the kids,” Cantor said in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute. “One of the great founding principles of our country was that children would not be punished for the mistakes of their parents.”

Cantor was among 160 House Republicans who voted against such legislation in 2010 when it passed the House, then controlled by Democrats. That measure, known as the DREAM Act, died in the Senate.

The 2010 legislation would have provided a path to citizenship for children of illegal aliens who came to the U.S. before age 16, stayed at least five years and earned a college degree or served in the military.

On Tuesday, President Barack Obama sought to rally business support for his immigration proposals at a White House meeting with a dozen chief executive officers including Goldman Sachs’ Lloyd Blankfein and Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer.

Obama is pushing Congress to act by midyear on immigration legislation that would include a path to citizenship for many of the illegal aliens in the U.S.

Information for this article was contributed by Roxana Tiron, Roger Runningen and Lisa Lerer of Bloomberg News.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 02/06/2013

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