Female senators want more women allowed in U.S.

A group of female senators is planning to introduce a proposal Thursday that would ensure that more women would be admitted to the United States under a comprehensive immigration bill, representing an early attempt at leverage by the Senate’s emerging bloc of women.

The lawmakers say pending immigration legislation is unfairly weighted toward male workers because it rewards applicants who are better educated and have more technical skills.

Under their amendment, the female senators propose reserving 30,000 residency cards each year for fields in which women hold most of the jobs, such as nannies, home health-care workers and early childhood educators.

At least 12 women have signed on to co-sponsor the amendment, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), whom Democrats hope will play a key role in winning more GOP support, aides said. The Senate has a record contingent of 20 women this session, 16 of whom are Democrats.

“For this immigration bill to institutionalize and set in concrete the unequal opportunities women have in other countries is not the way to go,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), who developed the amendment with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), said in an interview.

The amendment is one of dozens the Senate will consider as the immigration bill progresses through a second week of debate on the chamber floor. Proponents are trying to keep intact a bipartisan coalition championing the most far-reaching overhaul of immigration law in nearly three decades.

On Wednesday, the Senate voted on 10 amendments, defeating a border security measure sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that would have required Congress to assess progress on border security operations annually before a new group of illegal immigrants could earn work visas.

Chamber leaders also delayed a key vote on a strict border security proposal from Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) that Democrats oppose. Other Republicans are working on several border control amendments that are expected to be controversial but could help win GOP support for the bill.

Comprising 20 percent of the chamber, female senators have made inroads into leadership ranks by chairing nine committees, including Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) on the Appropriations Committee and Murray on the Budget Committee.

Murray said female senators have influenced other high-profile policy debates, including the Violence Against Women Act, in which the four female Republicans joined Democrats in voting to reauthorize the law.

“We’re finding that as more women come here and move into positions of leadership, we may see a problem that all-male panels don’t and we bring it to the forefront,” Murray said.

On immigration, Hirono and Murray said they are intent on fixing a problem that is being created by the shift, under the Senate legislation, away from extended family members of U.S. citizens in favor of immigrants with higher levels of education and more technical skills.

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