Employers Win Fight On Immigration Simpson To Strip Limits On Foreign Job-Seekers From His Bill

Saying he could not overcome the “distortions” of business lobbyists, U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson announced Thursday that he would strip his immigration bill of “every shred” of limits on foreign workers destined for specific jobs in the United States.

Simpson, R-Wyo., is the lead sponsor of immigration reform in the Senate and had proposed allowing no more than 90,000 foreign workers to legally enter the U.S. each year, down from the current 140,000. The proposal was part of a sweeping immigration measure being considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

But many employers opposed any curbs on employment-related immigration and dispatched their lobbyists to inform the senators of the havoc that would result from the curbs. Simpson, clearly embittered, said he and other senators who heard from lobbyists began swapping “the horror story of the week” about the immigration limits.

“They were a little too cute by half,” Simpson said as he announced the withdrawal of the employment-related measures. He said he wanted to focus on other portions of immigration reform “without the issues of business immigration crowding the field.”

“That either makes us good lobbyists or bad lobbyists, I don’t know,” said Jenifer Eisen, director of American Business for Legal Immigration, a consortium of business groups that was formed to oppose the employment-related portions of Simpson’s bill.

The exchange between Simpson and the business groups is part of the series of emotional outbreaks that are accompanying immigration reform through Congress. Impassioned speeches are already being written in the House as members prepare for debate of immigration reform there during the week of March 18. On the Senate side, Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, followed Simpson’s lead Thursday with a fervent denunciation of a national identification system that would help bar illegal immigrants from jobs.

“This is a life-and-death situation,” DeWine said, denouncing the potential inaccuracies in such a system. Simpson later offered a revised version of the identification system that would include substantial safeguards.