As the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act introduced by “Gang of Eight”, details emerge about the full content of this legislation. The American Immigration Lawyers Association released the summary below. We encourage the public to only deal with AILA members Lawyers when seeking advice on this new Law.
Below are eight initial points of interest pulled from the bill’s provisions.
Just to barely scratch the surface, here are but a few things S.744 would do:
The bill proposed by the “Gang of Eight” in the Senate brings remarkable news to Dreamers seeking a chance to stay in the U.S. and become lawful permanent residents sooner. Under the bill being proposed in the Senate, there is no age cap for those who entered the U.S. as children. While the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy implemented under the Obama administration has a cap of 30 years old, this bill makes no mention of age.
The new gang of eight bill would allow undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. as children to attain lawful permanent resident status more quickly, with a wait time of five years rather than ten years required of others. Dreamers would be eligible if they entered the country under the age of 16, earned a high school diploma or GED here, and attended college for at least two years or served in the military for at least four years.
Under the legislation, Dreamers who have been deported could also apply to reenter the United States, so long as they were in the country prior to 2012 and were not deported for criminal reasons.
This just came out, Several news outlets have publicized this 17 page outline of the Senate’s Gang of Eight immigration bill titled: “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013.”
Many immigrants rallied all across the U.S. today in anticipation of the immigration bill to be unveiled by the Senate that is to deal with many immigration issues. At a rally in Washington, D.C. outside the U.S. Capitol, many thousands of immigrants and their supporters who gathered under a hot sun Wednesday to show support for proposals that would grant a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants.
Organizers of the Rally for Citizenship hope they can press Congress to help. The rally featured speeches from immigration rights advocates, labor leaders, faith organizations and members of Congress working on immigration legislation. Many other rallies were organized across the country. Among them:
• In Atlanta, more than 1,000 people gathered at the Georgia Capitol, calling for an end to deportation.
Recently, the House and Senate are coming closer to reaching a deal on the sticking issues that have held up comprehensive immigration reform. In particular, the Senate has finally reached an agreement on how to handle the issue regarding visas for low skill laborers. Senator Schumer, Democrat of New York, convened a conference call on Friday night with Thomas J. Donohue, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Richard L. Trumka, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the nation’s main federation of labor unions, in which they agreed in principle on a guest worker program for low-skilled, year-round temporary workers.
Pay for guest workers was the last major sticking point on a broad immigration package, and one that had stalled the eight senators just before the break. The eight senators still need to sign off on the agreement between the business and labor groups, the person with knowledge of the talks said.
The accord between the influential business and labor groups all but assured that the bipartisan group of senators would introduce their broad immigration legislation in the next few weeks. Their bill, which they have been meeting about several times a week since the November election, would provide a path to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country. It would also take steps to secure the nation’s borders
Recently, Congress has been dealing with numerous issues in reforming our immigration laws to meet some of the pressing societal matters, whether it be family members living here illegally, businesses wanting more qualified individuals to come work in the U.S. or trying to retain and keep those in hard sciences here with easier access to other work visas. One of the current debates within the immigration overhaul concern the needs of some businesses versus the major labor organizations in the U.S. There is some disagreement between these two groups on how to create availability of lesser skilled work visas for those who may not come in under other work visas that require substantially more education.
Right now, both sides agree to a common set of principles, including the creation of a new visa for lesser-skilled workers who come to the U.S. for year-round work. At present, no visa category provides for that type of immigrant worker. The only lesser-skilled worker visa category that exists is the H-2b visa, a seasonal worker visa that allows individuals to come to work during seasonal periods and usually within very specific fields.
With the Senate group approaching a self-imposed late-March deadline for a bill, there have been signs that negotiations between labor and business are strained. Both AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Republican John McCain (Ariz.), one of the senators working on the reform bill, have acknowledged that the two sides might not reach a deal on how to handle flows of lesser-skilled workers. However, despite the public doubts, negotiations are still very much alive, according to Randy Johnson, the senior vice president of labor, immigration, and employee benefits at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
“I think it’s a sign that it’s not all a bed of roses, but one could make the same argument about the various disagreements that I’m sure you’re seeing in the press over legalization versus citizenship,” Johnson said in an interview. “But all of these are just bumps in the road, and we hope to get through them and still come up with a deal.”
Ana Avendaño, a top immigration policy aide at AFL-CIO, said that unions believe they have an advantage in negotiations because of the reelection of President Barack Obama, whose immigration plan — which is being withheld while members of Congress craft their own bill — aligns closely with labor goals.
“This is the mandate that the president was elected with,” said Avendaño. “To actually fix the immigration system in a way that respects the democratic rights of the immigrant community. And so anything short of a path to citizenship just isn’t going to satisfy the people who elected the president.”
Labor isn’t just backing a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented currently living in the country. The new visa program for lesser-skilled workers should also contain an eventual path to citizenship, Avendaño said. The framework released last month by labor and business said that the new visa would “not keep all workers in a permanent temporary status,” but doesn’t spell out a specific roadmap to citizenship for those workers. Avendaño believes the balance of power is tipping in favor of worker rights.
There is real optimism that in 2013 immigration reform may become a reality. But until the United States Congress finally acts, and the President signs that bill into law, no one is sure exactly what form this new legislation will take.
While there is hope for comprehensive changes to U.S. immigration law, there is uncertainty about the details, including the all-important “path to citizenship” for undocumented or illegal immigrants already living in the U.S.
If you are one of the approximately 11 million people who may be affected by immigration reform, you are likely curious and anxious about what the future will bring for you. It may be many months before we know which proposed changes will be part of the final legislative package, but there are certain actions you can and should take immediately to give you the best chance of taking advantage of it.
What a great speech tonight at the State of the Union Address. The president continued his push for Congress to act on politically volatile issues such as immigration reform.
He said:
Our economy is stronger when we harness the talents and ingenuity of striving, hopeful immigrants. And right now, leaders from the business, labor, law enforcement, faith communities, they all agree that the time has come to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Now’s the time to do it.
Many immigrants have different skills from the native-born population, and complement the skills of the U.S. labor force. Immigrants make the economy more efficient by reducing bottlenecks caused by labor shortages, both in the high-skill and low-skill area.
That’s because the educational backgrounds of immigrants and native-born Americans are different. Statistically, the average skills of native-born American workers are distributed in a bell-shaped curve. Many Americans have high school diplomas and some college education, but relatively few adults lack high school diplomas and even fewer have Ph.D.s in math and science.
In contrast, immigrants’ skills are distributed in a U-shaped curve, with disproportionate shares of adults without high school diplomas who seek manual work and others with Ph.D.s in math and science. Among native-born Americans, 91% have a high school diploma or higher, whereas only 62% of noncitizens do. Foreign-born workers are about 16% of the labor force, according to the Labor Department, yet represent 49% of the labor force without a high school diploma, 25% of all doctorates, and 35% of doctorates in science, math, computer science and engineering.
Since immigrants have a smaller share of high school diplomas and B.A.s, which is where native workers tend to be concentrated, they do not compete directly with most native-born workers. Now think about the arguments some politicians are making about how immigrants take away jobs from Americans during this economy. If the distribution of labor shows that immigrants are entering areas of the labor force that native-born Americans choose not to work in, then those immigrants are filling a vital role in the economy.
Immigrants choose different jobs from native-born Americans. Low-skilled immigrants are disproportionately represented in the service, construction, and agricultural sectors, with occupations such as janitors, landscapers, tailors, plasterers, stucco masons, and farmworkers.
They come to be fruit pickers, as well as janitors and housekeepers, jobs native-born Americans typically do not choose as careers. However, immigrants are not found as crossing guards and funeral service workers, low-skill jobs preferred by Americans. Government, education, health, and social services, are sectors that employ few immigrants. Just looking at the fields of work that immigrants enter into compared to native-Americans, the fields that native-Americans enter compared to immigrants vary quite substantially in terms of how many occupy a given field.
After the November 2012 presidential election in the United States, lawmakers from both political parties have shown interest in making changes to U.S. immigration laws and started taking action.
Best Chance In Many Years for Immigration Overhaul
Democratic President Barack Obama campaigned on immigration reform. Democrats in the U.S. Congress have long favored immigration reform that would help the approximately 11 million undocumented persons already living in the U.S.
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