What We Got with Immigration Deal Today
The AP has provided a round up of provisions in today's illegal immigration legislation deal. I wouldn't be shocked to hear much more in the following days, though. The AP is known to slant the news just a little.
CURRENT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
_They could come forward immediately and receive probationary legal status.
_Bill creates a new four-year, renewable "Z" nonimmigrant visa for those present within the U.S. before Jan. 1, 2007.
_Nonimmigrants 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 age 30 who were brought to the U.S. as minors could receive their green cards after three years, rather than eight.
_Nonimmigrant farmworkers who can demonstrate they have worked 150 hours or three years in agriculture can apply for green cards.
_No green cards for nonimmigrants can be processed until "triggers" for border security and workplace enforcement have been met, estimated to take 18 months. Processing of green cards for nonimmigrants will begin after clearing the visa backlog, which takes eight years.
At least the AP calls the ILLEGAL here. That's a start.
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 aliens per day on an annual basis.
_Use secure and effective identification tools to prevent unauthorized work.
Only 200 miles? Last year the House and Senate passed a bill that required over 700 miles. Why the change?
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.
Does it not bother anyone that the one piece to the mass puzzle we call illegal immigration rests squarely on the shoulders of business, and yet they have the least responsibility here? It bothers me a lot.
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 above the poverty level.
Requires border security first? This is never going to get solved. As I asked in my previous post about this: Who is going to oversee this entire program (joke)?
And finally:
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.
_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.
I'm not up to doing the math right now, but someone else will. How many people will be able to enter America, formerly known as illegals, soon to legal here? Point system? I think we have a problem already.
This is a shame. Americans have been stomped on yet again by our own elected leaders. Jobs are at stake and this legislation only makes the vast numbers of American citizens about to become unemployed, totally legal. I can't believe Congress is serious with this.
UPDATE: Rick Moran is on top of this. To put it all mildly:
For in truth, this “comprehensive reform” is hardly comprehensive and reforms nothing. Instead, it validates lawbreaking, rewards separateness, spits in the face of those who have followed the rules and come here legally, and endangers the cohesiveness and unity of the country. It also opens wide the borders and invites another two or three generations of immigration scofflaws to enjoy our hospitality, awaiting their turn on the amnesty-go-round willingly supplied by politicians who refuse to do the right thing in favor of being able to preen, primp, and posture in front of the voters, touting their credentials as compassionate lawmakers concerned about the “plight” of illegal aliens.
And Rick has links to blogs with numbers we should all be aware of.
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