Washington Post
By David Nakamura
March 28, 2013
A
bipartisan deal on immigration is at risk of stalling because of a
worsening dispute over a new guest-worker program, exposing fault lines
between crucial interest groups and threatening to delay the unveiling
of a Senate bill early next month.
The
impasse has prompted a bitter round of name-calling between labor and
business groups, both of whom accuse the other of imperiling
comprehensive immigration reform.
The
Obama administration has remained on the sidelines as the standoff has
deteriorated, calculating that the president would risk alienating
Republican senators crucial to the process. Obama said this week that
the issue is “resolvable.”
The
dispute has emerged as perhaps the most serious obstacle to a final
deal from a bipartisan group of eight senators, who are attempting to
fashion model legislation for broad immigration reform. The same issue
helped derail the last serious attempt at reform in 2007 with assistance
from Obama, then a U.S. senator from Illinois.
The
current talks center on rules governing the “future flow” of migrants
who come to the United States for low-paying, menial jobs. Republicans,
citing business interests, want to give temporary work visas to up to
400,000 foreign workers a year, mostly at minimum wages. But unions and
many Democrats, fearing the impact on American workers, want fewer
workers and higher pay under the program.
Senators
involved in the immigration talks insist they remain on schedule to
complete a bill, including a path to citizenship for 11 million illegal
immigrants, in early April. Obama also expressed confidence this week
that the guest-workers disagreement could be solved.
“I
don’t agree that it’s threatening to doom the legislation,” Obama said
in an interview Wednesday with Telemundo, the Spanish-language TV
network. “Labor and businesses may not always agree exactly on how to do
this, but this is a resolvable issue.”
But
behind the scenes, negotiations over the guest-worker program — and the
White House’s refusal to take a position — have soured relations
between the AFL-CIO and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which only a month ago
joined hands to publicly proclaim agreement on an overall plan.
“Unions
say they want a guest-worker program, but their behavior is to the
contrary,” said Geoff Burr, vice president for federal affairs for the
Associated Builders and Contractors. “They are insisting on a program
that no employer would consider using.”
Union
officials believe they have leverage because they have publicly
committed to supporting Obama’s push for a path to citizenship, a key
issue for Latino voters who overwhelmingly supported the president’s
reelection last year.
“This
is not what Barack Obama campaigned on,” AFL-CIO spokesman Jeff Hauser
said. “I don’t understand why people believe business has a seat at the
main table after fighting for anti-citizenship candidates in 2012.”
As
a senator eyeing union support for a White House bid, Obama voted in
favor of an amendment to an immigration bill in 2007 that would have
eliminated a new guest-worker program after five years. The amendment,
which passed by one vote, has since been cited as a key reason that
immigration legislation failed to advance that year.
Obama
made no mention of a guest-worker program in the immigration principles
he laid out in a speech in Las Vegas two months ago. The omission was
notable considering the bipartisan Senate group had included the idea in
its own principles that same week.
Instead,
the White House has deferred to the Senate group — which includes four
Democrats and four Republicans — to work out an agreement between the
Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO.
“If
it’s included in line with the other principles that the president has
rolled out in terms of what should be included in comprehensive
immigration reform, that’s certainly something that we could support,”
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday of a guest-worker
program. “But we’re going to reserve judgment on what that looks like
until it’s actually produced.”
Administration
officials say privately that the Senate group asked the White House to
give the lawmakers “space” to take the lead in finding common ground
between labor and business. Obama also is mindful of causing a political
firestorm if he is seen trying to big-foot the efforts of the senators,
potentially angering the Republican members, officials said.
But
Obama has met separately over the past two months with business and
labor leaders at the White House on immigration, and he has also vowed
to step in with his own legislative proposals if the Senate is unable to
come to an agreement on a bill. The White House announced this week
that the president will travel to Mexico and Costa Rica in early May to
highlight cultural and economic ties.
One
Republican Senate aide involved in the talks said the White House’s
absence from negotiations has been helped ensure that the negotiations
do not become “overly politicized.”
But,
the GOP aide added: “Everyone understands this is a critical piece for
future flow. It’s central. There’s been a good faith effort to get to a
result, but the White House has not been involved. Eventually, the White
House will have to make a choice.”
The
senators involved maintain that the negotiations continue to move
forward. Four members of the working group inspected border-control
measures in Arizona on Wednesday, and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.)
said after that the group is “90 percent” complete on the legislation.
“There are a few little problems to work on,” he said. “We’ve been on the phone all day working with” the other members.
The
guest-worker program is not the only contentious area of the Senate
legislation. The bill is likely to include a large increase in visas for
high-tech workers and the elimination of some categories of family visas, two areas that have provoked strong push back from advocates who
fear it could make it harder for families to be reunited while favoring
employment-based migration.
The
guest-worker dispute broke into view last week when Chamber of Commerce
officials went public with their concerns over the process, leading to
angry responses from AFL-CIO officials.
The
chamber has called for 400,000 new visas for guest workers, along with
the ability for the workers to switch jobs once they are in the United
States. Union officials countered with an offer of 10,000 visas and say
the foreign workers should be allowed to pursue citizenship once they
have entered the country.
The
senators have reportedly agreed to cap the program at 200,000 visas per
year, starting at a much lower figure and moving up as the economy
improves.
The
biggest sticking point, however, has been wages. The chamber wants to
pay the foreigners the greater of prevailing or actual wages of American
workers, and the unions are holding out for a higher pay scale based on
median wages of each industry.
Business leaders contend that the AFL-CIO — and, by association, the White House — are not negotiating in good faith.
“The
president is obviously close to unions on this issue. The
constituencies they’re trying to keep happy with immigration reform do
not care about this piece of it,” said Tamar Jacoby, president of
ImmigrationWorks USA, a federation of small-business owners that
supports immigration reform. “They want to keep Latino voters happy,
keep unions happy — and, dare say it, who cares about the economy?”
Jacoby
said that based on last year’s election results, the White House is
calculating that “Republicans so badly need to get on the right side of
history with Latino voters, they will throw business to the wolves and
throw future immigrants under the bus.”
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