A second union representing immigration enforcement officers has expressed opposition to the Senate version of comprehensive immigration reform legislation, arguing that the bill fails to address the "insurmountable bureaucracy" at the agency that oversees lawful immigration to the U.S.
The National Citizenship and Immigration Services Council, which represents 12,000 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers, joins the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council in opposing the bill crafted by the so-called "Gang of Eight."
The bill introduced by a bipartisan group of eight senators would provide a way for undocumented immigrants to apply for legalization and eventually citizenship but only after the southern border is secured.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has been marking up the legislation, attempting to deal with a number of amendments that supporters worry could threaten eventual passage.
Kenneth Palinkas, President of the National Citizenship and Immigration Services Council, claimed that his union was not consulted in the crafting of the Gang of Eight's legislation.
"Instead, the legislation was written with special interests - producing a bill that makes the current system worse, not better," Palinkas said. "[The bill] will damage public safety and national security and should be opposed by lawmakers."
He added, "This legislation fails to address some of the most serious concerns the USCIS Council has about the current system which Congress must address."
Palinkas claimed that USCIS officers are pressured to rubber stamp applications and argued that management believes that the agency should serve illegal aliens and the attorneys that represent them instead of the American public.
"The legislation will provide legal status to millions of visa overstays while failing to provide for necessary in-person interviews," Palinkas said.
"Legal status is also explicitly granted to millions who have committed serious immigration and criminal offenses, while dramatically boosting future immigration without correcting the flaws in our current legal immigration process," he added. "We need immigration reform that works. This legislation, sadly, will not."
The opposition from the NCISC and the National ICE Council provides additional ammunition for critics of the legislation, such as Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.
Sessions has argued that the bill offers a pathway to citizenship quicker than its supporters claim and in exchange for weak promises of future enforcement.
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