S.Amdt. 4094

1. Adds SEC. __. PROMOTING CIRCULAR MIGRATION PATTERNS wherever appropriate

   Adds a section

   Inserted: SEC. __. PROMOTING CIRCULAR MIGRATION PATTERNS.

   Inserted: (a) Labor Migration Facilitation Programs.--

   Inserted: (1) In general.--The Secretary of State is authorized to enter into agreements, with the appropriate officials of foreign governments whose nationals participate in the temporary guest worker program authorized under section 218A of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as added by section 403 of this Act, for the purposes of jointly establishing and administering labor migration facilitation programs.

   Inserted: (2) Priority.--The Secretary of State shall place a priority on establishing labor migration facilitation programs under paragraph (1) with the governments of countries that have a large number of nationals working as temporary guest workers in the United States under section 218A of such Act. The Secretary shall enter into such agreements not later than 3 months after the date of the enactment of this Act or as soon thereafter as is practicable.

   Inserted: (3) Elements of program.--A program established under paragraph (1) may provide for--

   Inserted: (A) the Secretary of State, in conjunction with the Secretary and the Secretary of Labor, to confer with appropriate officials of the foreign government to--

   Inserted: (i) establish and implement a program to assist temporary guest workers from the foreign country to obtain nonimmigrant status under section 101(a)(15)(H)(ii)(c) of such Act; and

   Inserted: (ii) establish programs to create economic incentives for aliens to return to their country of origin;

   Inserted: (B) the foreign government to--

   Inserted: (i) monitor the participation of its nationals in the temporary guest worker program, including departure from and return to their country of origin;

   Inserted: (ii) develop and promote a reintegration program available to such individuals upon their return from the United States; and

   Inserted: (iii) promote or facilitate travel of such individuals between their country of origin and the United States; and

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   Inserted: (C) any other matters that the Secretary of State and the appropriate officials of the foreign government consider appropriate to enable nationals of the foreign country who are participating in the temporary work program to maintain strong ties to their country of origin.

   Inserted: (b) Bilateral Efforts With Mexico to Reduce Migration Pressures and Costs.--

   Inserted: (1) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:

   Inserted: (A) Migration from Mexico to the United States is directly linked to the degree of economic opportunity and the standard of living in Mexico.

   Inserted: (B) Mexico comprises a prime source of migration to the United States.

   Inserted: (C) Remittances from Mexican citizens working in the United States reached a record high of nearly $17,000,000,000 in 2004.

   Inserted: (D) Migration patterns may be reduced from Mexico to the United States by addressing the degree of economic opportunity available to Mexican citizens.

   Inserted: (E) Many Mexican assets are held extra-legally and cannot be readily used as collateral for loans.

   Inserted: (F) A majority of Mexican businesses are small- or medium-sized with limited access to financial capital.

   Inserted: (G) These factors constitute a major impediment to broad-based economic growth in Mexico.

   Inserted: (H) Approximately 20 percent of the population of Mexico works in agriculture, with the majority of this population working on small farms rather than large commercial enterprises.

   Inserted: (I) The Partnership for Prosperity is a bilateral initiative launched jointly by the President of the United States and the President of Mexico in 2001, which aims to boost the social and economic standards of Mexican citizens, particularly in regions where economic growth has lagged and emigration has increased.

   Inserted: (J) The Presidents of Mexico and of the United States and the Prime Minister of Canada, at their trilateral summit on March 23, 2005, established the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America to promote economic growth, competitiveness, and quality of life throughout North America.

   Inserted: (2) Sense of congress regarding partnership for prosperity.--It is the sense of Congress that the United States and Mexico should accelerate the implementation of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America to help generate economic growth and improve the standard of living in Mexico, which will lead to reduced migration, by--

   Inserted: (A) increasing access for poor and under served populations in Mexico to the financial services sector, including credit unions;

   Inserted: (B) assisting Mexican efforts to formalize its extra-legal sector, including the issuance of formal land titles, to enable Mexican citizens to use their assets to procure capital;

   Inserted: (C) facilitating Mexican efforts to establish an effective rural lending system for small- and medium-sized farmers that will--

   Inserted: (i) provide long term credit to borrowers;

   Inserted: (ii) develop a viable network of regional and local intermediary lending institutions; and

   Inserted: (iii) extend financing for alternative rural economic activities beyond direct agricultural production;

   Inserted: (D) expanding efforts to reduce the transaction costs of remittance flows in order to increase the pool of savings available to help finance domestic investment in Mexico;

   Inserted: (E) encouraging Mexican corporations to adopt internationally recognized corporate governance practices, including anti-corruption and transparency principles;

   Inserted: (F) enhancing Mexican efforts to strengthen governance at all levels, including efforts to improve transparency and accountability, and to eliminate corruption, which is the single biggest obstacle to development;

   Inserted: (G) assisting the Government of Mexico in implementing all provisions of the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption (ratified by Mexico on May 27, 1997) and urging the Government of Mexico to participate fully in the Convention's formal implementation monitoring mechanism;

   Inserted: (H) helping the Government of Mexico to strengthen education and training opportunities throughout the country, with a particular emphasis on improving rural education; and

   Inserted: (I) encouraging the Government of Mexico to create incentives for persons who have migrated to the United States to return to Mexico.

   Inserted: (3) Sense of congress regarding bilateral partnership on health care.--It is the sense of Congress that the Government of the United States and the Government of Mexico should enter into a partnership to examine uncompensated and burdensome health care costs incurred by the United States due to legal and illegal immigration, including--

   Inserted: (A) increasing health care access for poor and under served populations in Mexico;

   Inserted: (B) assisting Mexico in increasing its emergency and trauma health care facilities along the border, with emphasis on expanding prenatal care in the region along the international border between the United States and Mexico;

   Inserted: (C) facilitating the return of stable, incapacitated workers temporarily employed in the United States to Mexico in order to receive extended, long-term care in their home country; and

   Inserted: (D) helping the Government of Mexico to establish a program with the private sector to cover the health care needs of Mexican nationals temporarily employed in the United States.

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   Original wording

   At the appropriate place, insert the following:

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As printed