Senate Committee Adds Immigration Amendments

On May 15th, the Senate Appropriations Committee held a mark-up session for the emergency war supplemental bill. Among the various amendments added to the bill were several immigration-related measures which passed, including:

• A scaled back version of AgJobs, introduced by Senators Craig (R-ID) and Feinstein (D-CA);
  
• A 3-year returning worker extension for the H-2B program, introduced by Senator Mikulski (D-MD);
  
• A recapture of employment based immigrant visas, and early adjustment filing, introduced by Senators Gregg (R-NH) and Murray (D-WA);
  
• A reauthorization of the EB-5 program introduced by Senator Leahy (D-VT); and
  
• A border security grant funding program, introduced by Senator Hutchison (R-TX).
  

Ultimately, the prospect of these measures surviving debate on the Senate floor is very slim, because they will all likely be subject to points of order on grounds of germaneness, which are extremely difficult to overcome for a variety of reasons