Thread: US senators unveil immigration bill

April 16, 2013 8:34 am

US senators unveil immigration bill
By Anna Fifield in Washington

A bipartisan group of senators on Tuesday released the details of a sweeping overhaul of the US immigration system, which shifts its focus towards skilled workers who will help boost the economy by setting up a new points-based “merit” system for awarding visas.
The draft bill creates “triggers” that require improvements in border security to be under way before the 11m undocumented immigrants in the US can begin the process of becoming legal residents – a key Republican demand.
Also proposed is an increase in the number of visas for highly-skilled workers from 65,000 to 110,000, in response to business complaints they cannot hire the engineers they need, according to an outline obtained by the Financial Times.
But it also increases the number of visas available for low-skilled jobs such as landscaping, housekeeping and agriculture, which are increasingly carried out by illegal immigrants from central American countries.
Chris Krueger, an analyst at Guggenheim Partners, the asset manager, said he thought there was a better than 50 per cent chance that Congress would overhaul the immigration system this year, and that the odds would improve as this bill passed through the Senate.
“We believe that enactment of comprehensive immigration reform will be a broad positive for the economy in the long term,” Mr Krueger wrote in a research note on Tuesday morning.
“Sectors where immigration reform is likely to have a larger incremental positive impact include high-tech, retail, professional services (accounting), housing, hospitals, and labs/pharma/pharmacies.”
The Senate bill has been months in the making but its release has been delayed by disagreements over visas for temporary and seasonal workers. Immigration reform remains a highly emotive issue in the US, and the “gang of eight” of senators has been working to formulate a compromise deal.
The bill will be introduced into the Senate later on Tuesday, although a press conference to launch it was postponed because of the deadly explosions at the Boston marathon the previous afternoon.
The leaders of the “gang of eight” – Chuck Schumer, the Democrat from New York, and Arizona Republican John McCain – are scheduled to brief President Barack Obama on the bill at the White House on Tuesday. The Senate’s judiciary committee will hold hearings on the bill on Friday and Monday.

Key provisions of proposed immigration bill

Border security To control high-risk border sectors along the southern border, where the Obama administration has been using drones to monitor movements. There will be “persistent surveillance” and 90 per cent of border-crossers must be caught and turned back. The bill will allocate $3bn to secure the border, for drones developed by the department of defence and other surveillance measures, and for additional border patrol agents. It will also appropriate $1.5bn for high-tech fencing along the southern border. Legalisation of undocumented immigrants Undocumented immigrants can apply for “registered provisional immigrant” (RPI) legal status 180 days after the bill is enacted, as long as the secretary for homeland security has submitted a strategy for securing the borders to Congress. People who came to the US without documentation before December 31 2011 and have lived in the country since then will be able to apply for RPI status, but they must pay a $500 penalty fee, back-taxes and an application fee. Anyone convicted of a felony, or three or more misdemeanours, or who has voted illegally, will be ineligible, as will people deemed “inadmissible for criminal, national security, public health or other morality grounds”. Immigrants in RPI status can work for any employer and travel outside of the US. RPI status can be renewed after six years. After a decade in RPI status, a person can apply to adjust their status to “lawful permanent resident” through the same merit-based system everyone else must use to earn a green card. They must also have lived continuously in the US, paid all taxes owed, have worked regularly, and demonstrated knowledge of civics and English. Those who were in the US before the end of 2011 but were deported for non-criminal reasons can apply to re-enter the US in RPI status if they are the spouse, of or parent of a child who is, a US citizen or lawful permanent resident; or are a childhood arrival who is eligible for the Dream Act. This track does not apply to “Dreamers” – young people brought into the US illegally as children. They could get permanent residence “green cards” after five years. They would be eligible for citizenship immediately after getting green cards. Undocumented farm workers who have been working in the US for a substantial amount of time will be able to obtain legal status through an “agricultural card programme”, with similar restrictions to the RPI system. Legal immigration The bill sets up a merit-based system to eliminate the backlog for family and employment-based immigrants, some of whom have been waiting for green cards for a decade or more. An expanded “V” visa would allow approved family members of people living in the US to also live there and would allow certain other family members to visit the US for up to 60 days a year. The bill repeals the “diversity visa programme” – the green card lottery system. For employment visas, the bill increases the cap on H-1B visas for highly-skilled workers from the current 65,000 to 110,000, while raising the cap on visas for graduates of American universities with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics by 5,000 to 25,000. However, the caps can fluctuate up to 180,000 if there is high demand for highly-skilled workers. The bill also creates up to 200,000 new “W” visas each year for “guest workers” to come to the US on a temporary basis to work in retail, construction, hospitality and other such low-skilled jobs. Employment verification The “E-Verify” system will be upgraded and all employers will be required to use the system to check on potential employees’ immigration status. As part of the E-Verify system, every non-citizen will be required to show their “biometric work authorisation card,” or their “biometric green card”. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c735f57a-a662-11e2-bc0b-00144feabdc0.html

What !?!?!?!? I read they were going to wait till tomorrow to release this because of the Boston bombings.

Please verify to see if this article is correct or in error and notify me by private message right away please.

W

Senators unveil immigration reform bill





New U.S. citizens recite the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance during a naturalization ceremony for over 90 immigrants representing over 40 countries at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts March 21, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder



By Richard Cowan and Rachelle Younglai
WASHINGTON | Tue Apr 16, 2013 11:59am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of Democratic and Republican senators on Tuesday unveiled long-awaited landmark legislation to remove the threat of deportation for millions of illegal immigrants and give them an opportunity to eventually become U.S. citizens.

Under the proposal, undocumented immigrants who came to the United States before December 31, 2011, and had stayed in the country continuously could apply for "provisional" legal status as soon as six months after the bill is signed by the president.

But beyond that, they would have to wait a decade or more for full citizenship which would entitle them to federal benefits, while the government works on further securing U.S. borders and enforcing the new immigration law.

The bill's sponsors - four Democrats and four Republicans - felt such conditions were necessary to help their plan succeed where similar measures have failed, mostly because of opposition to what opponents see as "amnesty" for law-breakers.

Even with the many caveats, the proposal faces months of debate, scores of amendments and potentially significant opposition, particularly in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

"It's nothing but a starting point," Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa told reporters on Tuesday. He is the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee, the panel that will manage the immigration bill.

Two of the bill's sponsors, Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York and Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, were expected to meet with President Barack Obama on Tuesday to review their work and its prospects.

Indeed, much of the legislation was designed to make the bill palatable to Republicans.
Billions of dollars in new money would be funneled into additional border security to discourage people from avoiding detection as they crossed Mexico's border with the United States.

The measure would focus on tightening porous zones in "high-risk" areas like parts of Arizona where law enforcement has had less success in sealing the border, in part because of a more difficult terrain.

The bill sets a goal of stopping 90 percent of illegal crossings at the riskiest sections of the southern border with Mexico, either by catching people or forcing them to go back to their country.

MORE VISAS FOR SOME JOBS

The proposal would expand access to both low- and high-skilled labor for American businesses, attempting to keep organized labor happy with provisions designed to keep companies from hiring cheap foreign labor or filling jobs with immigrants when U.S. workers are available.

For the technology sector, it increases the number of visas available for educated workers filling specialized jobs, though it imposes new pay requirements designed to keep the hiring from depressing wages for U.S. technology workers.

Heavy lobbying, which could complicate passage, is already underway on the visa provisions, with the construction industry, for example, unhappy with a cap placed on the number of foreigners available for construction jobs.

Still, one immigration expert who had been briefed on details of the measure before the outline was provided to reporters called it "a very smart, strategic and forward-looking bill."

For all the bill's emphasis on border control and visas, the "pathway to citizenship" remained at its heart, even though the phrase was not used in the outline made available to reporters.

Within six months from enactment, during which time the Department of Homeland Security would set out its border security plan, the threat of deportation could end for most illegal immigrants. They would be allowed to work legally in the United States once they pay an initial $500 penalty and any back taxes, and if they can show they have not been convicted of a serious crime in the United States.

After 10 years the immigrants could apply for a "green card," or permanent resident status, through an expanded merit-based immigration system. Those applications could be processed whether or not the government achieved a 90 percent success rate in securing border hot spots.

The green card would not be automatic, although a Senate aide said the majority of the 11 million illegal immigrants would likely get it via the merit-based visa. The total amount of penalties paid would amount to $2,000.

After the 10-year wait for a green card, it could take an additional three years to win U.S. citizenship.

The bill was crafted by four Democratic senators: Schumer, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Michael Bennet of Colorado; and Republicans McCain, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida.

While Republican concerns have been muted somewhat by the clout demonstrated in the 2012 presidential election by Latino voters, the party is by no means united on immigration. Indeed, Rubio could jeopardize his popularity among the most conservative Republican Party activists, including those who would have a say in picking a presidential candidate.

Rubio, who had been a favorite of the conservative Tea Party movement, is weighing a 2016 run for the White House.

The citizenship provisions have long been a goal of Democrats in Congress as well as of Obama, who has said he will submit his own immigration reform proposal should he find sufficient fault with the work of Congress.

Prospects for immigration reform were boosted immediately following the November 6, 2012, presidential elections when Democrats held onto the White House and picked up seats in Congress.

Political analysts widely credited Hispanic Americans for some of the Democrats' success, delivering a wakeup call to Republicans who did not manage to even capture one-third of the Latino vote.

Nonetheless, plenty of Republicans will demand a tough review of the Senate bill, as well as a House bill that also is expected to be unveiled soon. Some Republicans are arguing for a piecemeal approach to immigration reform that Democrats have rejected.

　
　
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/16/us-usa-immigration-congress-idUSBRE93F05520130416

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