New Immigration Reform

[Tress]

Spoiler

Senators’ ‘tough but fair’ immigration blueprint would make people wait for citizenship


By Liz Goodwin, Yahoo! News | The Ticket

A new immigration reform proposal crafted by a bipartisan group of senators would allow for a gradual path to legalization for most of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants currently living in the country. The senators will announce more details of the plan—which they describe as "tough but fair"—on Monday afternoon in a press conference.


The senators' path to citizenship for illegal immigrants is less direct and could take longer than the one proposed by President Barack Obama in his immigration reform blueprint. The president will announce his push for immigration reform in more detail Tuesday in Las Vegas.

The senators' plan puts forward several hurdles before undocumented immigrants can obtain permanent residence visas, called green cards, which is the first step towards citizenship. First, immigrants would apply for temporary legal status by registering with the government, completing a background check and paying a fine. Before any immigrant can obtain a green card, "a commission comprised of governors, attorneys general, and community leaders living along the Southwest border" must declare that the government has taken enough steps to beef up border security and has also implemented a system that tracks when temporary visitors have left the country. It's unclear how long that would take, especially since border state governors are divided on how secure the border is now and ideally should be in the future.

The plan also says that no undocumented immigrant will receive a green card until every legal immigrant who is currently waiting for a green card has already received it. Wait times for green cards can be as long as 20 years in extreme cases, depending on whether the applicant is being sponsored by an employer or a family member. Family-based immigration, especially when a U.S. citizen is attempting to sponsor his or her sibling, can have especially long wait times.

The blueprint says the senators want to eliminate these wait times and drastically increase legal, high-skilled immigration, so it's possible that the bill could expedite the process. If not, illegal immigrants seeking a green card could be waiting for years.

The plan also excludes the children of illegal immigrants, commonly referred to as "Dreamers," as well as agricultural workers from the long wait for a green card.

Obama's blueprint asks for a wait time of eight years before illegal immigrants can get green cards, during which time they can live and work legally in the country. After five years with a green card, immigrants can apply to become citizens. Immigration advocates, who generally favor a fast path to citizenship for the country's illegal immigrants, mostly praised the senators for adding to the "momentum" of reform, but did not comment on the specifics of the plan. "Creating a 21st century immigration process won't be easy, but the framework the senators are proposing is a powerful and practical start to the legislative process, and it will make the peaks and valleys ahead much easier to traverse," said Ali Noorani, executive director of the the National Immigration Forum, in a statement. But Chris Rickerd, policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, said his organization has "concerns" that the lengthy time frame and fine may discourage people from applying to legalize. Rickerd also noted that some people may be excluded from legalization because they were prosecuted for immigration-related crimes in their states. For example in Arizona, illegal immigrants can be charged with "self smuggling," which is a felony that does not exist in other states. Groups that favor less immigration, meanwhile, have blasted the plan as "amnesty." "Like previous amnesty proposals, this most recent iteration creates a 'path to citizenship' for nearly all illegal aliens and offers empty promises of enforcement without providing any concrete details," said the Federation of American Immigration Reform in a statement.

The eight senators who hammered out the deal are Republicans John McCain, Marco Rubio, Jeff Flake and Lindsey Graham, and Democrats Chuck Schumer, Michael Bennet, Dick Durbin and Robert Menendez.

TL;DR version: A bi-partisan group of Senators are proposing legislation to help fix immigration. The proposals include allowing for temporary legal status while the government runs background checks, then allowing illegal immigrants to apply for green cards after all have been screened. They also recommend cutting down on wait times and making the whole citizenship process smoother. Also, officials from the southern border states have to give their support only after they feel the federal government has done enough to secure the southern border.

Thoughts?

 

[GasBandit]

Border security is important, but it's less to do with immigration and more to do with drug trafficking at the moment. I'm a firm believer that when it comes to discouraging illegal immigration, the proper path is to sour the milk - invoke harsh, even draconian penalties on workplaces that are found to employ illegal aliens and conduct surprise audits. Then watch the illegals self-deport when the jobs dry up.

That said, it should be much faster and easier to become a citizen.. as close to open door as we can get with proper security checks - though any non-trivial violation of the law (misdemeanor or higher, not traffic court) would most often mean instant deportation.

 

[Gilgamesh]

Then watch the illegals self-deport when the jobs dry up.

 

[Eriol]

For the top, where's the "make it easier to get work visas for permanent residence" as opposed to the norm these days of "temporary workers" or other such BS? Such is happening in Canada as well as the USA. Or make it "if you're willing to work, you're in (with background check)" visa process, then leading to citizenship later. There's seriously fucked up stuff with the usa system, where it's easier to get in the USA from a 3rd-world shithole with no qualifications (meaning you'll do menial labour) then when I was a recent graduate with an engineering degree. Like pulling f'n teeth to even get considered (I ultimately found good employment in Canada).

That said, it should be much faster and easier to become a citizen.. as close to open door as we can get with proper security checks - though any non-trivial violation of the law (misdemeanor or higher, not traffic court) would most often mean instant deportation.

People who are already there legally with visas are not your guys' problem, and IMO is a separate debate from the people going through your sieve of a southern border with no papers, etc.

 

[Bowielee]

1) Destroy Mexico's farming economy with NAFTA
2) Remove the ability to get legit work visas
3) Bitch about them illegally immigrating to feed their families back home
4)???
5) Profit?

 

[Terrik]

A lot of my friends who have gotten married to Chinese nationals find it absolutely infuriating to deal with US immigration to even get their spouse on US soil. After all the money spent and time wasted, one starts to realize why people don't bother and just jump over the damn fence.