Congress Gets Its Immigration Reform On... Or Not

The Senate moderates try fail to get a bill signed soon as the right-wingers bitch about 'amnesty'-

AP: Congress Unites for Illegal-Immigrant Deal

Putting aside party differences, Senate Republicans and Democrats coalesced Thursday around compromise legislation that holds out the hope of citizenship to many of the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the United States unlawfully...

What are the proposed Senate bill's provisions? Well here we go-

• Illegal immigrants who have been in the country for at least five years could receive legal status after meeting several conditions, including payment of a $2,000 fines and any back taxes, clearing a background check and learning English. After six more years, they could apply for permanent residency without leaving the United States. They could seek citizenship five years later.

• Illegal immigrants in the country for between two and five years could obtain a temporary work visa after reporting to a border point of entry. Aides referred to this as "touch base and return," since people covered would know in advance they would be readmitted to the United States.

• Officials said it could take as long as 13 to 14 years for some illegal immigrants to gain citizenship. It part, that stems from an annual limit of 450,000 on green cards, which confer legal permanent residency and are a precursor to citizenship status.

• Illegal immigrants in the United States for less than two years would be required to leave the country and apply for re-entry alongside anyone else seeking to emigrate.

Separately, the legislation provides a new program for 1.5 million temporary agriculture industry workers over five years.

It also includes provisions for employers to verify the legal status of workers they hire, but it was not clear what sanctions, if any, would apply to violators.

To secure the border, the bill calls for a virtual fence — as opposed to the literal barrier contained in House legislation — consisting of surveillance cameras, sensors and other monitoring equipment along the long, porous border with Mexico.

Sounds much saner than what the House proposed. No fence = good. It provides a path to citizenship, which is the most important thing. I'm still not too keen on any 'guest worker' programs (do our work and then get out!) unless said workers can be put on the same path to citizenship as everyone else. Still, it seems effort was made to find compromise here. As long as common sense prevails over the irrational (and racist) hysteria that the far-right Malkin types have been screeching about, we're on the right track.

Wonkette has a good analysis: The Immigration Bill: What the Hell?

Will the House approve of this new, revised bill? I'll guess... no.

And so this election year xenophobic saga will continue, especially since reports indicate this bill will not pass muster with the right. Perhaps the best we can hope for at this point is that this will all continue to stall until after November when electoral politics won't get in the way.



[PS- While there's still work to be done (as I noted, the revised ain't perfect), it's important to note that none of this compromising would've happened had it not been the 500,000+ who took to the streets in protest over the GOP's insane planned legislation. Let this stand as a testament to the power of protest. If enough people stand up on an issue, Congress will act. If only we could get 500,000 people in the streets over the Iraq war or wiretapping or torture or the Gulf Coast or...]