Gang of Eight Releases Immigration Bill
Posted on Apr 17, 2013 5:36pm PDT
The Senate bill that has been in process for months now was released by the Gang of Eight, a bipartisan group, on Wednesday. Within the bill are four main premises which all need to be completed in order to make a pathway to citizenship. The bill starts with the importance of securing the border. The Department of Homeland Security has been told to create and implement a plant to monitor 100% of the southwest border.
This request comes only two days after four of the senators on the bipartisan group watched a woman cross the border in Mexico while they were having a meeting. The senators say that the Department of Homeland Security will need to apprehend at least 90% of all the people who cross the border. If the DHS is not able to accomplish this feat, then the senators say that they will create a new border commission to take over the job.
The second part of the new immigration bill will have to do with a path to citizenship for the immigrants already in the United States. The bill declares that those who were immigrants in the United States before December 31st, 2911 will have the right to apply for temporary legal status. After 10 years, those individuals will have the right to apply for a green card. Three years later, the eligible immigrants can apply to be United States citizens. The immigrants will need to pay $2,000 in fines in order to receive a green card and will need to pay back taxes and fees as well.
The third part of the immigrant bill regards interior enforcement. The United States business owners will need to use a program that checks the immigration status of all new employees within five years to make sure that they are not hiring unauthorized immigrants. Those who are not authorized and have not been granted temporary legal status will not be able to get a job within the United States. The Department of Homeland Security would also be required to create a plan on how they could track all immigrants every single time they enter or exit the country. This would limit the amount of visa overstay cases and would also make sure that immigrants don't smuggle their loved ones into the country after they leave.
Lastly, the senators plan to assist in immigration overhaul. This means that they want to overhaul the immigration system by reducing some visas for relatives of U.S. citizens and expending the number of visas for immigrants who specialize in certain skill sets. Immigrants who are particularly skilled in science, technology, math, or engineering are going to become especially valuable and will have an easier time entering the country.
With all of these provisions in place, the Senate is one step closer to passing a bill which will allow 11 million immigrants presently in the United States to become citizens within the next 13 years. The bill was 844 pages long, and the bipartisan group believes that it is a tough but humane way to handle the immigration problem that has become such a serious concern in recent days.
If you want more information about immigration and how this new bill may affect your case, then you need to talk to an attorney at the firm today. With the right immigration lawyer there to assist you, you may be able to achieve the documents that you want and end any cases or immigration trials against you. Chances are that if this bills goes through it will heavily affect many pending immigration trials so make sure to get an attorney on your side immediately.