While most Americans opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — and also the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) — are concerned primarily about the impact such “trade” agreements would have on American jobs and U.S. sovereignty, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and others are also concerned that a TPP would make radical changes to U.S. immigration policy without answering to Congress.
Sessions circulated a “Critical Alert” memo last spring in which he listed his “Five Top Concerns With Trade Promotion Authority (TPA).” He noted that TPP “applies not only to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) but all international trade agreements during the life of the TPA.” (Emphasis in original.) His concerns included: 1. Consolidation of Power in the Executive Branch, 2. Increased Trade Deficits, 3. Ceding Sovereign Authority to International Powers, 4. Currency Manipulation, and 5. Immigration Increases. Under the fifth point, Sessions noted, in part:
There are numerous ways TPA could facilitate immigration increase above current law — and precious few ways anyone in Congress could stop its happening….
Stating that “TPP contains no change to immigration law: is a semantic rather than a factual argument. Language already present in both TPA and TPP provide the basis for admitting more foreign workers, and for longer periods of time, and language could later be added to TPP or an future trade deal to further increase such admissions….
The President has circumvented Congress on immigration with serial regularity. But the TPA would yield new power to the executive to alter admissions while subtracting congressional checks against those actions.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/immigration/item/21610-executive-change-to-immigration-policy-tied-to-trans-pacific-partnership-tpp
Sessions circulated a “Critical Alert” memo last spring in which he listed his “Five Top Concerns With Trade Promotion Authority (TPA).” He noted that TPP “applies not only to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) but all international trade agreements during the life of the TPA.” (Emphasis in original.) His concerns included: 1. Consolidation of Power in the Executive Branch, 2. Increased Trade Deficits, 3. Ceding Sovereign Authority to International Powers, 4. Currency Manipulation, and 5. Immigration Increases. Under the fifth point, Sessions noted, in part:
There are numerous ways TPA could facilitate immigration increase above current law — and precious few ways anyone in Congress could stop its happening….
Stating that “TPP contains no change to immigration law: is a semantic rather than a factual argument. Language already present in both TPA and TPP provide the basis for admitting more foreign workers, and for longer periods of time, and language could later be added to TPP or an future trade deal to further increase such admissions….
The President has circumvented Congress on immigration with serial regularity. But the TPA would yield new power to the executive to alter admissions while subtracting congressional checks against those actions.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/immigration/item/21610-executive-change-to-immigration-policy-tied-to-trans-pacific-partnership-tpp
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