FOIA Reveals TPP Has Immigration Chapter

The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement has a chapter on immigration, a Freedom of Information Act request reveals.

Breitbart.com reports that the chapter is 10 pages long and would require changes in U.S. immigration law as it relates to foreign worker visas.

The trade deal has not been made public, but Knowledge Ecology International filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get the titles of the chapters in June. One of those chapters is titled, "Temporary Entry for Business Persons," according to a copy of the FOIA response on TechDirt.com.

The Obama administration, which pushed the deal, has repeatedly denied the TPP has an immigration clause. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, one of the Republicans who favored the deal, also denied immigration was included.

But Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions has maintained it did. Members of Congress who voted on the bill were allowed only to enter a room to read a draft of the agreement and could not take it out. A list of members who read the draft also is not being made public.

The TPP involves 12 nations from North and South America and Asia and would give the American president fast-track authority.

Related Stories:

• Pacific Rim Free Trade Talks Fall Short of Deal
• US Bends on Patent Data as Dairy Vexes Pacific Trade Talks