Immigration reform may be one of the most important, most mentioned and least executed policy ideas that Washington has kicked around for decades. It fact, the idea has languished in a bin of burned proposals for at least 26 years since the last successful stab at reform rolled out of the Capitol. But thanks to the defeat of so many Republicans last November, a new reform bill with legs has miraculously arisen.
The bipartisan bill introduced by the dedicated Gang of Eight senators last week, though subsumed by news coverage of the tragic ending of the Boston Marathon, appears to be the real deal. It encompasses the myriad hot-button obstacles and objections that critics might raise, and nails down realistic, detailed formulas, trigger points and conditions to meet each concern.
Take the scorching issue of how to handle the 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the United States. The proposal mandates completion of hugely expensive, step-by-step strategies to further improve border security and prevent a new rush of undocumented immigrants across the border, all as a pre-condition for allowing currently undocumented immigrants to even begin to qualify for, and then apply for, a permanent visa. And only then could they begin the equally arduous, multi-stage, condition-laden, 13-year path to citizenship.
Critics contend that is too long and too hard a process for handling undocumented immigrants. Yet it would allow current undocumented immigrants with a good background to receive interim legal “Resident Provisional Immigrant Status,” which would allow them to remain in the U.S. without the threat of deportation hanging over their heads while they begin seeking enough qualification “points” (for education and work skills) under the new system to ultimately earn citizenship.
Similarly, the bill would allow a two-tier guest-worker program, one for farm workers and another for low-wage employees, who would be allowed to go back-and-forth across the border. It also would expand the current annual cap (from 65,000 to 110,000, and eventually to 180,000) on H-1B special-skills employees. Employers, however, would have to comply with a new federal photo-ID program, to be installed within five years, to verify the legal status of all employees.