The contentious bipartisan effort to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws achieved a decisive victory Thursday when the Senate approved legislation that would allow millions of illegal immigrants the chance to live legally in the United States and to eventually become U.S. citizens.
The 1,200-page bill, which now faces a stern test in the Republican-controlled House, carries a $50 billion price tag. It would double the number of U.S. Border Patrol agents along the southern border and require the construction of 700 miles of fencing there. It also would place new burdens on employers, who would be required to check the legal status of all job applicants using the government’s E-Verify system.
Senators approved the plan 68 to 32, capping more than six months ofnegotiations that began behind closed doors and concluded with almost a month of debate on the Senate floor. Fourteen Republicans voted with every member of the Senate Democratic caucus to approve the bill — an impressive bipartisan margin in a chamber that has become sharply partisan.
If the Senate legislation were to be signed into law, it would set millions of eligible immigrants on a 13-year course toward achieving permanent residency status or U.S. citizenship, but it would also require them to pay thousands of dollars in fines and back taxes.
Before those things could happen, however, the federal government would be required to spend tens of billions of dollars fortifying the U.S. border with Mexico with thousands of new federal agents as well as radar and unmanned aerial drones to track illegal border crossings. The Department of Homeland Security also would have to establish a biometric tracking system at the nation’s 30 largest airports
Things went through the Senate without horrible acrimony. That will not happen with the House of Representatives where sides are already gearing up for a battle royal. Comprehensive immigation laws are long overdue. Our laws are archaic.
From the Washington Post:
What happens next with the immigration bill?
The Senate passed the immigration bill, 68 to 32, which will now be sent to the House. The Senate’s version is likely dead on arrival, because House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) has vowed not to hold votes on it. Read related article.
Here are some of the actions the House might take:
OPTION 1
Strike down the Senate’s bill, then draft one exactly like it.
OPTION 2
Introduce its own comprehensive bill.
OPTION 3
Consider separate immigration bills that would then be combined into one package.
If the House passes a bill that differs from the Senate bill, a conference committee of senators and House members could meet to draft a compromise bill.
This is why our nation is in a reduced state. The Senate just passed a massive and important bill, that was cobbled together quickly, without taking time to read or consider it. Luckily it’s DOA in the House. Hopefully during the coming months the House will get the point across to the American people that this issue can and should be attacked piecemeal, and we don’t really have to wait for “comprehensive” legislation.
Geez, what more do you want from a bill?
Should companies keep moving to Canada when they need highly skilled workers from other countries?
@Moon-howler
What more do we want from a bill?
We want LESS. No one read it, except for the pork that they inserted.
They need to stop with these “gang” bills and have an open debate and amendment process, like we are supposed to. They need to read the bills. The bill is an ObamaCare repeat in that
“we have to pass it to find out what’s in it.”
Companies moving to Canada? This bill isn’t going to stop that. This bill protects UNSKILLED workers flooding our markets.
If they want immigration reform, then they should reform LEGAL immigration laws. The laws for illegal immigration are simple. Its illegal for them to be here. Send them home.
How much fence do we need? How high, how wide, how deep? Perhaps more personnel will help but I am not convinced that people who are desperate to come won’t will be prevented from coming. None of the people writing on here have ever been in the situation that many of those who come here have been in and are still in. From what I have read in the past, our unskilled workers won’t take the jobs offered them so how can anyone say they need protecting. Protecting from what? People who want to work? Am not sure why we need another federal law to make it wrong to be here illegally–what purpose does it serve?
The bill mandates that employers use E-Verify and doubles the number of border guards. It also would build more fences. I would think conservatives would support these measures.
They certainly have bellowed for those very things. Why do I think nothing will ever be good enough?
27 years of lies and unfulfilled border security promises from politicos of both parties since the 1986 amnesty. And the Hill wants us to believe them now?
Unless we live like East Germany, there will always be a porous border north and south. Even so, East Germans got out.
Not nearly as many as before the Wall went up.
Simple thing here, I would say. When you have a water leak in the basement, you turn off the water main BEFORE you start the clean up. These politicians don’t give a rat’s ass about anything but their own future power. The current immigration reform measures represent nothing but the two parties having a bidding contest for a future bloc of ethnic votes , like they were all in an auction house and the rest of us are on the outside looking in through the knotholes.
Unless you can accept the American economy continuing at 1.8% GDP growth and 6-8% unemployment (much higher for immigrants and Blacks) for a long, long time, you can look forward with any kind of amnesty and genuine economic/jobs improvement to a bye-bye to the current statistical stalemate on illegal entries. First turn off the spigot and then talk about how to take care of what we already have in place in a fair and beneficial manner for all.
That sounds like nativist 101 talk to me.
The border cannot be used as a reason to not fix the antequated immigration policy. The border (and we really do mean southern border, not the northern one where terrorists come across) can never be sealed, any more than the oceans can be sealed.
This immigration package delays citizenship by 13 years. That gives both parties 13 years to offer an attraction to immigrants.
If there are no job opportunities for immigrants, then it would be self defeating come here in the first place, it would seem.
We shouldnt have to take care of any immigrants.
Additionally, this package contains solutions for highly skilled immigrants which we can’t get where needed. Why? Because our immigration laws are nearly 30 years old and certainly do not reflect our current labor needs.
The leak already as been plugged, man. Time to deal with the issue of folks already here.
@Moon-howler
“The border cannot be used as a reason to not fix the antequated immigration policy.”
Sure we can.
There should be NO citizenship…not a delay of 13 years. If you break the rules, you don’t get rewarded. Period.
Too many legal immigrants have spent MORE than 13 years trying to become Americans. Why should they be cheated?
This package is nothing but pork for the politicians.
Why is it taking so long? The requirement, if I am not mistaken, is to be here 5 years and keep your nose clean. Why would some have to wait longer than others?
What I do know is that the husband of a friend of mine cannot get legal status and they have been married for over 10 years.
That is just screwed up. Why should he have to live with deportaton hanging over him? They have children.
Chief of the Border Patrol Michael Fisher told the Senate in April that border apprehensions had increased by 13% so far this year. He attributed some of that to the talk in Congress about legalization. How many have actually made it in compared to apprehensions? The BP and Homeland Security were just starting to work with some new yardsticks and metrics to more accurately estimate the likely escape rate.
And that is in an economy which is still spinning many of its wheels. If/when the economy takes off again, I for one do not doubt that illegal immigration will also take off again if the borders and the immigration system as a whole are not fixed in a functionally integrated manner. But if we make the needed changes, we can take care of the rest of the problems, including guest workers, dream acts, and even eventual citizenship for a basically finite group currently in the US. So, get the ethnic politics out of this and fix the damned things already!!!
It is not I who have the ethnic politics in it. I feel certain that if the Koreans or Nigerians or whoever all voted Democratic it would be the same issue. The difference is numbers.
There are 2 separate issues here. Status and citizenship. Many people live in the United States for years who do not apply for citizenship. Some never do.
Political finger pointing at work.
Neither side wants to fix the issue. Republicans want to answer to big business and Dems want to answer to demographic groups. E-Verify – both sides gin up their base to fight it. Doing nothing is what we have, and it is not working. Many employers find that hiring these undocumented workers is to employers benefit, as they can pay them low wages, get away with labor abuses and avoid paying taxes. Many Americans do not want to work for those employers.
“Geez, what more do you want from a bill?”
I want LESS in a bill. Detangle the issues of border security and maintaining sovereignty from the issues of how to deal with people here and how to enable labor for jobs such as ag workers.
And detangle identity fraud, and deal with it now.
Stop holding the whole issue hostage to political concerns. Make arguments about what’s best for the American people, not what’s politically viable for the group of crooked elitists who run government. Hoild them accountable to do what’s right – and to uphold laws they’re sworn to uphold. Don’t get invested in their political games and self-interest.
The way this issue is and has been “dealth with” is symptomatic of exactly what’s wrong with America. Our government does what’s best for themselves, and we accept it as the way our government works.
@Pat.Herve
EXACTLY.
@Rick Bentley
THIS too.