Immigration Bill's Point System Worries Some Groups

Kyl and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) described the difficult negotiations among a small bipartisan group of senators over how to devise a point system under which prospective immigrants would compete for green cards. Kyl said he pushed for rewarding highly skilled workers, "the best and the brightest," while Graham and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) pushed for more recognition of less-skilled workers.

Kyl said he tried to address their concerns by reserving 10,000 green cards for low-wage workers, but that did not satisfy other negotiators. Instead, they sought other ways to allocate points on a 100-point scale to lower-income people. Immigrants in high-demand occupations, such as janitors, cleaners and landscapers, would get 16 points -- a bit fewer than the points for engineers and scientists, who would get 20.

The horse-trading continued up to the last minute. Early in the day on which the senators announced their deal this month with the White House, Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) called Graham to voice concern, Graham said, that the deal still did not go far enough to help low-income workers. So the senators agreed to add five points for workers who have completed a certified vocational-training program. "It hit home with me because I have a cousin who had one of those certificates," Graham said. (People with graduate degrees could earn 20 points, by contrast.)

The agreed-upon point system does retain some benefits for extended family members, who would receive 10 more points in their application if they have already met a threshold of 55 points earned through their employment, education and knowledge of English. And the new system would still reserve green cards for U.S. citizens or permanent residents who want to bring in their spouses and minor children.

But after clearing the backlog of existing applications -- a process that DHS officials estimate would take eight years -- the current preferences for the adult children and siblings of Americans would be eliminated, and they would have to compete with everyone else. The applicants with the highest scores would be the ones to earn green cards.

The plan is already generating alarm among immigrant groups. "People who have come to this country worked hard, they have become U.S. citizens -- their first goal is to bring in their loved ones," said Nazanin Nasri, an immigration lawyer in Arlington who has many Iranian and Afghan clients. "They will be destroyed."

Kevin Appleby, director of migration and immigration policy for the organization of Catholic bishops, said the new system "ignores the fact that immigrant families have helped build this nation. Families start businesses, keep their members from government dependency and invest their energy in their new land."

Doris Meissner, director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service under President Bill Clinton, said the point system is being proposed with inadequate analysis. "I was amazed when I saw it because it hasn't really been talked about," she said. "There's been no ground laid for this whatsoever. Point systems are known in other countries, and there is certainly a body of written material on it, but it hasn't had any careful research.

"It may be a good idea," she added, "but there isn't any evidence to argue one way or the other."