Immigration: What's in the New Bill?

By NICK TIMIRAOS

Senate Republicans and Democrats reached a delicate compromise on an ambitious bill to overhaul the nation's immigration policy.

The deal would provide legal status to some 12 million immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally and offer an eventual path to citizenship. It aims to staunch the flow of future illegal immigrants by boosting border security and creating a guest-worker program. It would also recalibrate a longstanding policy that gives preference to immigrants with family in the U.S. by giving added weight to immigrants with job skills, including education and English proficiency.

The bill, which President Bush wants to sign by the end of summer, is likely his last chance at reaching a "grand bargain" to cement a legacy issue for his administration. A similar accord last year collapsed in the House under Republican divisions. And a compromise, filled with political risks, will become more difficult to reach as the 2008 elections draw closer.

Here's a closer look:

POINTS OF VIEW

"The agreement reached today is one that will help enforce our borders, but equally importantly, it will treat people with respect."

-- President George W. Bush

"This rewards people who broke the law with permanent legal status, and puts them ahead of millions of law-abiding immigrants waiting to come to America."

-- Sen. JimDeMint (R.,S.C.)

Illegal Immigrants: The biggest question centers on what to do with the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. The proposal would create a new "Z visa" and immediate work authorization for illegal immigrants who had entered the country before Jan. 1, 2007. Z visa applicants would have to pass a background check, pay as much as $5,000 in fines and fees and pass an English proficiency test. Visas would be renewable every four years for $500. The Department of Homeland Security estimates that 15% to 20% of immigrants would be ineligible because of their criminal record.

Visa holders would eventually be able to apply for a green card, which provides legal permanent resident status and is a step to citizenship, but they would have to return to their home country to apply. Applications wouldn't be considered until the current backlog of green cards is cleared, which will take about eight years. Altogether, it would take between eight and 13 years to receive a green card.

More than 1.26 million people obtained green cards last year, up from 1.1 million in 2005 and 950,000 in 2004, and about 65% of those recipients already lived in the U.S., either on a temporary visa or without documentation.

Guest Workers: The bill creates a new, temporary "Y visa" for as many as 400,000 guest workers, roughly equal to the number of illegal immigrants who enter the U.S. every year. Workers could come to the U.S. for two years at a time and the visa could be renewed twice, for a total of six years. But workers would have to return home for a year in between each stay. Only 10,000 guest workers could become permanent residents.

A separate program would provide temporary legal status to as many as 1.5 million undocumented agricultural workers in a five-year pilot project that would allow those who continued to work on farms to apply for a green card.

Border Security: The bill wouldn't allow the government to issue any visas until it meets certain "triggers," including the addition of 6,000 new border-security officers, 370 miles of new border fence, 200 miles of vehicle barriers and 70 surveillance towers. Most estimates say it would take about 18 months to meet those triggers. Employers also would have to verify whether job applicants were eligible to work in the country using a new electronic worker registry.

Economic Preference: The bill would restructure U.S. immigration policy that, since 1965, has given preference to applicants with relatives in the U.S. The new policy would limit family visas to just young children and spouses of immigrants while substantially increasing the number of immigrants admitted on economic merits using an as-yet-undetermined point system.

Such a system would reward workers with English proficiency, experience living in the U.S., an employer's endorsement and higher levels of education, especially in science, math and technology. It would favor workers with skills for jobs that the Bureau of Labor Statistics sees as the fastest growing, including software engineers and nurses. But many of those jobs are low-skilled: Slightly less than half of the 30 fastest-growing jobs require a bachelor's degree.

Last year, 800,000 green cards, about two-thirds of the total issued, were sponsored by families of citizens or legal residents, compared with the 160,000, or 13%, that were employer-sponsored. The proposed legislation would award 550,000 family-based visas and 380,000 merit-based visas after the current backlog has been cleared.

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• Voters in the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch, Texas, overwhelmingly approved an ordinance last weekend banning landlords from renting to most illegal immigrants. The law, the first such crackdown passed by voters, takes effect Tuesday but faces legal challenges.

• About 58% of all green-card recipients are married.

• In 1986, about 2.7 million illegal immigrants were given legal status under the Immigration Reform and Control Act, and 37% eventually chose citizenship.

• The Permanent Resident Card is referred to as a "green card" but isn't actually green. Its predecessor, the Alien Registration Receipt Card, was printed on green paper from 1951 until 1964.

• The current green-card backlog includes applicants who face a 22-year wait time.

• India had the greatest number of visas approved for temporary workers and their dependents in 2005, followed by Mexico, Great Britain, Japan and Canada.

• The U.S. made 716 criminal worksite enforcement arrests and charges in 2006, an increase from 25 in 2002.

• Nearly two-thirds of all new green cards last year were issued to people living in six states: California, New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey and Illinois.

• According to an April NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll⁶, 44% of respondents favored a proposal to allow illegal immigrants already in the U.S. to apply for temporary-worker status, compared to 51% who were opposed.