Compliance File

President Proposes Immigration Law Changes
Millions of illegal immigrants from all over the world work in jobs in the United States, washing cars, picking crops and cleaning buildings. President Bush recently unveiled a “temporary worker” program that could bring some of these workers out of the shadows.

Under his proposal, which was only broadly outlined at press time, foreign workers wanting to enter the United States could apply for a temporary, three-year work permit if they had a job offer in hand. Illegal immigrants already here could apply for the program, but only if they could prove they had a job on the day the new policy becomes law. Employers would have to prove they couldn’t find an American citizen to fill the job; the workers would be entitled to wage and safety protections, and would be allowed to apply for (but not be guaranteed) permanent U.S. residence. Once the three-year period expired, they must either apply for a three-year extension, or leave the country.

Bush claims the new rules would help the economy, protect illegal workers’ rights and make the country safer by keeping more border crossings in the open.

However, immigration advocates say the plan does not go far enough, and they criticize the plan as a weak attempt to curry favor with the Latino community in an election year; some conservative groups also oppose the measure, saying it might reward illegal immigrants by granting them some degree of amnesty.

One part of the bill, the Criminal Spam Act, authored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), institutes the first-ever criminal penalties for the most egregious spammers.

The new law makes it a crime to hack into a computer, or to use a computer system that the owner has made available for other purposes, as a conduit for bulk commercial e-mail; prohibits sending bulk commercial e-mail that either falsifies the source, destination or routing information associated with the e-mail, or is generated from hijacked Internet address space or falsely registered e-mail accounts or domain names; and subjects violators to stiff criminal penalties of up to five years’ imprisonment where the offense is committed in furtherance of any felony, or where the defendant has previously been convicted of a similar federal or state offense, and up to three years’ imprisonment where other aggravating factors exist.

“This is an important step in the fight against junk commercial e-mail by targeting one of the sources of the problem — those spammers who hijack computer systems or use other fraudulent means to carry out their misdeeds,” says Leahy in a press release. “Where the Internet is concerned, the government should step in only when absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, spammers have made this such a time.”