Thread: Plan offers a path to legality

Plan offers a path to legality
The bill would give millions in the U.S. a shot at lawful status. Future immigrants would be subject to a guest-worker plan.
By Anne C. Mulkern
Denver Post Staff Writer
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated:05/18/2007 10:15:47 AM MDT

Washington - Key senators and the White House forged agreement Thursday to dramatically rewrite immigration laws, granting legal status to 12 million illegal immigrants while buttressing the border with agents and barricades.

A group that included Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., set forth the details of the bill following weeks of negotiations. In a compromise central to keeping the deal together, Republicans and Democrats agreed that undocumented immigrants could remain in the country legally while pursuing a path to permanent residency.

Permanent residents could eventually become citizens.

In exchange, the bill would create a guest-worker plan with requirements that foreign laborers return home. It blocks that guest-worker program from starting until border security measures have been completed.

"What we do in this legislation is move forward with a pathway for the 12 million people who are undocumented here in this country, to move from the shadows of society into the sunlight of society," Salazar said. "This is a tough, fair and practical solution to one of the most important national-security issues that faces our nation today."

The bill, expected to be several hundred pages, would create a new system for employers to verify legal status.

It also would shift who has the best chance at gaining residency in the future. The compromise calls for a point system that values education, job skills and the ability to speak English in addition to family ties. Relationships are currently the primary consideration in visa applications.

President Bush praised the legislation. Immigration reform is seen as perhaps his last chance for a significant domestic policy victory.

"The agreement reached today is one that will help enforce our borders, but equally importantly, it will treat people with respect," Bush said. "This is a bill where people who live here in our country will be treated without amnesty but without animosity."

He said he was "anxious to sign a comprehensive immigration bill as soon as I possibly can."

Republican and Democratic senators predicted they'd have at least the 60 votes needed to start debate on it next week.

But support for the compromise bill seemed ready to fall apart as soon as it was announced. Salazar and Sens. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Dianne Feinstein of California were the only Democrats at the news conference held to discuss the bill. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., participated in the negotiations but ultimately didn't endorse the compromise.

Limitations on families

Some Republicans called the legislation amnesty, and some Democrats said that it hurts families. In the guest-worker program, laborers could stay for only two years, then must leave for a year. They could renew twice, for a total of six years of work. But those who wanted to bring their family could come only for a single two-year period.

The bill also would eliminate immigration visas given to parents, adult children and other extended family members of U.S. citizens and residents.

"I have serious concerns about some aspects of this proposal, including the structure of the temporary-worker program and undue limitations on family immigration," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said. "We need to improve the bill as it moves through the legislative process."

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., said the plan, "like its predecessor proposals, would provide instant amnesty for millions of illegal aliens and a pathway to citizenship."

Under the bill, illegal immigrants who come forward must pay a fine and submit to a background check. Heads of households must return to their home country once within eight years. After that eight-year period, families and individuals could apply to stay in the U.S. permanently.

Once granted permanent status, they could pursue citizenship but would have to wait behind others already in line.

Salazar said the bill wasn't perfect and that "changes may be made as we go through the process." Many people spoke of changing the bill either on the Senate floor, in the House or in a conference committee to merge Senate and House legislation.

As one of the lead Democrats involved in the negotiations, Salazar insisted that the illegal immigrants already in the country have a chance for legal status, according to an aide to Sen. Kennedy. While Salazar was unhappy with the limitations on family migrations, the aide said, Salazar ultimately conceded.

"He was willing to give up provisions that would help immigrants in the future to help those most needy people right now," said the aide, who could not be identified because she is not authorized to talk about the negotiations.

Sticking points

Salazar and the others who put together the bill met for several hours a day over the past few weeks.

Talks collapsed at 5 a.m. Thursday when senators couldn't agree on two provisions, according to a Democratic aide involved in the talks.

Democrats wanted to assure illegal immigrants that coming forward won't make them vulnerable to deportation if reform measures stall. Republicans wanted information on a person's lack of legal status to be usable, for example, if that person someday committed a crime.

In a compromise struck after the group reconvened Thursday, senators agreed that the information would be protected for eight years. During that period, the illegal immigrant would be in a newly created "Z" visa status, waiting to apply for residency.

Another provision that threatened to sink the compromise was whether illegal immigrants who are not granted "Z" status should have the right to appeal. The compromise allowed them to appeal with limits.

The bill contains special provisions for agricultural workers, which Salazar said he fought to keep. Agricultural jobs are critical to Colorado, he said, adding that much of Colorado's agricultural community has been in "such dire need of labor."


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Major provisions of the legislation
CURRENT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

They could come forward immediately and receive probationary legal status.

Bill creates a four-year, renewable "Z" visa for those in the U.S. unlawfully before Jan. 1, 2007.

Undocumented immigrants may adjust status to lawful permanent residence once they pay $5,000 in fees and fines and their head of household returns to their home country.

People under 30 who were brought to the U.S. as minors could receive their green cards after three years, rather than eight.

Undocumented farmworkers who can demonstrate they worked 150 hours or three years in agriculture can apply for green cards.

No green cards for "Z" visa holders can be processed until "triggers" for border security and workplace enforcement have been met, estimated to take 18 months. Processing of green cards for holders of "Z" visas would begin after clearing an existing backlog, which is expected to take eight years.

BORDER SECURITY

Hire 18,000 new Border Patrol agents.

Erect 200 miles of vehicle barriers and 370 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Erect 70 ground-based radar and camera towers along the southern border.

Deploy four unmanned aerial vehicles and supporting systems.

End the program in which illegal immigrants are released upon apprehension.

Provide for detaining up to 27,500 illegal immigrants per day on an annual basis.

WORKPLACE ENFORCEMENT

Require employers to electronically verify new employees to prove identity and work eligibility.

Increase penalties for unlawful hiring, employment and record-keeping violations.

GUEST WORKERS

(requires border security measures to be in place first)

Create a new temporary guest- worker program with two-year "Y" visas, initially capped at 400,000 per year with annual adjustments based on market fluctuations. Workers could renew the "Y" visa up to three times but would be required to return home for a year in between each time. Those bringing dependents could obtain only one nonrenewable two-year visa.

Families could accompany guest workers only if they could show proof of medical insurance and demonstrate that their wages were 150 percent of the poverty level.

FUTURE IMMIGRANTS

Spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens and permanent residents would be eligible for green cards based purely on their family connections, but other relatives such as adult children and siblings would not be.

Some 380,000 visas a year would be awarded based on a point system, with about 50 percent based on employment criteria, 25 percent based on education, 15 percent on English proficiency and 10 percent on family connections.

Apply new limits to U.S. citizens seeking to bring foreign-born parents into the country.

Visas for parents of U.S. citizens would be capped annually at 40,000 and those for spouses and children at 87,000.


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Changes for visas
How visas are currently allocated and what the allocations would become under the proposed legislation:

CURRENT LAW

980,000 family visas yearly for spouses, minor children and extended family.

140,000 employment visas available yearly.

FIRST EIGHT YEARS UNDER PROPOSAL

1.1 million family visas yearly for spouses, minor children and extended family.

140,000 "point system" visas yearly; distributed according to points that favor skills and education.

AFTER EIGHT YEARS

550,000 family visas yearly for spouses and minor children only.

380,000 "point system" visas yearly; distributed according to points that favor skills and education but also give limited credit for extended family ties.


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