May 18, 2007

Senate Reaches Agreement on Immigration Reform

After months of news of back-room negotiations and wrangling, Senators finally announced that they have reached a bipartisan agreement on a comprehensive immigration reform bill. We know that many Senators who strongly support comprehensive immigration reform, such as Senators Kennedy (D-MA), Salazar (D-CO), Menendez (D-NJ) and Feinstein (D-CA), were engaged in tough and thorny negotiations with enforcement only or anti-reform colleagues. The outcome is a bill that is a mixed bag - some good elements, many others raise red flags. On the positive side, this bill is just the starting point - there will be several key opportunities for improvement in the coming weeks and months, so we need to stay on our toes!

Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) has scheduled a vote to proceed with the debate for Monday, May 21. If the Senate votes to move forward, Senators will then start the amendment process. The House is expected to take up comprehensive immigration reform after the Senate. Once the Senate and House have each passed a bill, a conference committee will be formed to reconcile the differences in the two bills. Unlike last year, this year's conference committee will be controlled by more reform-friendly Democratic leadership.

Although we have yet to see the actual language, we understand that this compromise bill contains the following components:

• Opportunity for legalization for many of the 12 million undocumented currently residing in the United States. After paying hefty fines and passing a security check, undocumented immigrants would be eligible to receive a four-year, renewable "Z" nonimmigrant visa that would allow them to work and travel. After several years and fulfillment of additional requirements, such as learning English and having the head of household "touch base" and return to their home country to fill out an application, these Z visa holders could apply for legal permanent residency (aka "green card"). However, Z visa holders would not immediately be reunited with spouses and children currently living outside the United States, but instead would need to wait several years until the Z visa holder became a legal permanent resident.
  
• Substantial increases of border enforcement, including the deployment of 18,000 Border Patrol agents, 370 miles of border fencing, and 200 miles of vehicle barriers. At this time, we do not know if any effective oversight mechanisms to support community security, accountability and rights on the border have been included in this bill.
  
• Merit-based visa system. A point system would be used to determine who receives a visa and who does not. Points would be given for education, job skills, English-language proficiency, as well as ties to family members in the United States. This is a significant departure from our current system that focuses on family ties and specific employment. Many families would be divided by these drastic cuts in family reunification visas, as well as provisions to do away with the ability of U.S. citizens to sponsor their brothers, sisters and adult children.
  
• Substantial family-based immigration backlog reduction, but some family members who applied after May 2005 would be required to re-apply through the new merit-based visa system.
  
• Temporary worker program with no path to permanent residence, creating a group of second class non-citizens. Workers will be limited to three two-year terms and be required to return home for a one year period between each term. Temporary workers will only be allowed to bring their family members if they can show that their wages were 150 percent of the poverty level and have proof of medical insurance.

Read the American Immigration Lawyer's Association (AILA) summary for a more detailed overview of the compromise bill.

As the Senate gears up for a week of debate on comprehensive immigration reform, it is especially important that your Senators hear from you! Urge your Senators to oppose measures that undermine family unity and create a group of second class non-citizens by denying guest workers a pathway to legal permanent residence. Let your Senator know that you want her/him to support reforms in our immigration laws that promote family unity, include robust protections for all workers, and incorporate effective oversight mechanisms to support community security, accountability and rights on the border.

To find your senators' phone numbers, log onto the Senate website at www.senate.gov (see the "Find your Senators" in the upper right hand corner) or call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202)224-3121 and ask to be transferred to your senators' offices.