Senators reject biometric tracking in immigration reform

A traveler uses a biometric scanner at the George H.W. Bush Intercontinental Airport in 2008. (Dave Einsel/Getty …

A bipartisan group of senators voted against adding a biometric system to the sweeping immigration reform bill that would ensure people on tourist, student and other temporary visas leave the country when they are supposed to. The failed amendment was one of the most controversial additions to the bill considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee at Tuesday's hearing.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, a Republican from Alabama, backed the amendment that would have required the government to use fingerprints and other biometric data to track visitors when they leave the country at airports and other ports of exit. Democrats, including Sens. Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin, argued the system would be too expensive to implement. It was voted down 6-12, with two Republicans joining the 10 Democrats in opposing it. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina who helped draft the original bill, said he opposed the amendment because the government hasn't shown "the will or the desire" to implement the system, and he doubted including it in the bill would change that.

Despite some conservative opposition to the immigration bill, attempts to significantly alter the bill have failed in the committee mark-up process so far.

The current immigration reform bill seeks to legalize most of the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the country and prevent future illegal immigration though an employment verification system and more border security measures. About 40 percent of the unauthorized immigrants currently in the country entered legally and then overstayed their visas, which Sessions argued raises national security concerns.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress passed a bill mandating that the government institute a biometric tracking system for people on temporary, nonimmigrant visas such as for tourism. Twelve years later, the system still hasn't been implemented due to cost and other complications.

The Department of Homeland Security estimated it would cost up to $6.4 billion to implement a biometric tracking system in the nation's airports, according to a report in USA Today. It's unclear how much it would cost to install similar technology in the country's land ports, where nearly 80 percent of people enter the United States.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said at the hearing that he was concerned that requiring the biometric system would delay the citizenship process for the 11 million unauthorized immigrants who will benefit from the bill. The amendment said none of those immigrants would be able to apply for citizenship before the biometric system was put in place. The current bill lays out a 10-year waiting period for citizenship for the group.

A spokesman for Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida and a member of the "Gang of Eight" that drafted the bill, told The Hill he was "disappointed" with the vote, and that he would try to reintroduce it once senators begin debating the bill on the Senate floor.

Another rejected amendment, introduced by Sessions on Tuesday, sought to significantly reduce future legal immigration. Sessions argued it would help the American economy to keep legal immigration numbers down. All of Sessions' colleagues on the committee, Republican and Democrat, voted against the measure.

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Obama dares graduates to reject cynical voices

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — President Barack Obama is telling college graduates that only their generation can break the cycle of a political system consumed by "small things" that works for the benefit of a few.

Obama gave his first commencement address of the year at Ohio State University on Sunday.

The president told students that if they engage in democracy, they can make sure they inherit a country that has lived up to its potential.

Obama mentioned that young people in earlier generations helped secure equal rights for women, workers and gays.

He asked them to reject cynics who say government is the root of all problems.

Obama is to give two other commencement speeches later this month — at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and Morehouse College in Atlanta.

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Irish unions reject pay deal, warn of trouble ahead

By Padraic Halpin

DUBLIN (Reuters) - A majority of Irish public sector workers rejected a new pay deal on Tuesday and warned the government against unilaterally cutting wages, giving it a headache as it seeks to exit an EU-IMF bailout later this year.

The government and the country's main unions agreed in February to extend a three-year-old pay deal that has been credited with avoiding the kind of industrial unrest seen in other euro zone countries hit by debt woes.

But the deal had to be approved by hundreds of thousands of union members and after only a handful of unions backed the new proposals, it needed the backing of SIPTU, the country's largest union, whose members account for some 25 percent of all workers.

It rejected the deal by a margin of 54 percent to 46 percent and its president warned the government that it would face a "major confrontation" if it went through with a threat to cut pay in order to make budgetary savings.

"The result reflects the deep and well justified sense of grievance among working people throughout the country and public service workers in particular," Jack O'Connor, one of the union leaders who negotiated the agreement, said in a statement.

"We urge the government not to proceed with legislation to cut the pay of public service workers as it would inevitably precipitate a major confrontation."

The update to the Croke Park agreement - named for the sports stadium in which the original deal was struck - proposed pay reductions for higher earners, longer working hours and cuts in premium Sunday payments.

This would save 1 billion euros (845.8 million pounds) over three years, a key part of efforts to reduce a large budget deficit under the country's 85-billion-euro European Union-International Monetary Fund bailout, and Prime Minister Enda Kenny said the savings still needed to be found.

Kenny said the government would reflect on the implications of the votes but analysts said his Labour Party junior partners in government, closely tied to the unions and suffering in the polls, would find it hard to stomach pushing through pay cuts.

"I think backbenchers are likely to balk at the prospect of legislating for pay cuts, not least given the recent electoral performance of the Labour Party," said Bill Roche, Professor of Industrial Relations at University College Dublin.

"If legislation did pass through, there's every prospect of confrontation on a very significant scale so I wouldn't rule out the Labour Relations Commission stepping back into the breach to try to get parties to sit down. That's frankly more palatable."

"DEFINITELY A SETBACK"

Public servants took wage cuts averaging 15 percent before the Labour Relations Commission helped negotiate the first Croke Park deal in March 2010, where a leaner public service was promised in return for no more pay cuts or forced redundancies.

The Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO), which rejected the deal by a margin of more than two-to-one, suggested that the government use budgetary savings from a bank debt deal struck with the European Central Bank (ECB) to avoid pay cuts.

While investors have been impressed by Ireland's ability to avoid street protests and strikes, helping it return to capital markets last year, bond dealers said yields on Irish debt were unlikely to increase until things ratcheted up further.

"Investors have long questioned how Ireland has maintained the level of industrial peace it has, so this will be noted but clearly pictures of people taking to the streets would be much more significant," said Ryan McGrath of Cantor Fitzgerald.

"It's definitely a setback though."

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; editing by Michael Roddy)

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