Senate Passes Immigration Reform Bill

On May 25, the U.S. Senate voted 62 to 36 to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

The bill includes enforcement measures, a pathway to legal status for undocumented immigrants and a guest-worker program. It also includes provisions of the AgJOBS bill, which specifically addresses the labor needs of the agriculture industry.

On the enforcement side, the bill would add thousands of border patrol agents during the next five years, would build extra detention facilities and authorize the construction of 370 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. Employers would have to start using an electronic verification system within 18 months to ensure that all new hires are legal. Companies that hired illegal workers would be fined up to $20,000, and repeat offenders could face prison terms, according to news reports.

The bill, according to news reports, would create a three-tiered system to determine the future status of illegal immigrants:

1. Those who arrived in the United States in the last two years would be required to leave.

2. Those in the country more than two years but less than five years would have to leave the country and get a work visa before re-entering, after which they could work toward legal status.

3. Those in the country longer than five years could stay and eventually apply for permanent legal status – in other words, citizenship – as long as they paid back taxes and fines, continued working and learned English and U.S. civics.

The bill also would provide 200,000 new temporary guest-worker visas a year, while creating a separate guest-worker program for immigrant farm laborers, according to news reports.

The Senate bill will have to be reconciled with a bill passed by the House of Representatives last December, a bill focused on enforcement and border security. The prospect of both chambers of Congress working out a compromise is uncertain.

President George Bush has urged the House and Senate to work out the differences and pass a comprehensive immigration bill for him to sign. On May 15, he announced his plan to send up to 6,000 National Guard troops to help secure the Mexican border. He also said he supports the creation of a guest-worker program and an eventual path to citizenship for illegal immigrants residing in the United States, but he does not support amnesty.