By Daniel Gonzalez
April 21, 2013
Register with the government. Submit fingerprints. Pass background checks. Pay fines, application fees and taxes. Remain employed. Wait 10 years to apply for a green card. Learn English.
Those are among the major hurdles immigrants currently in the country illegally would have to clear to eventually become citizens under the sweeping immigration-reform bill introduced last week by a bipartisan group of eight U.S. senators, including Arizona Republicans John McCain and Jeff Flake.
The pathway to citizenship is expected to be the most contentious and scrutinized section of the proposed legislation as the debate in Congress and among the public unfolds over the coming weeks. The 844-page bill also calls for billions of extra dollars in border-security spending to prevent illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexican border. And it calls for overhauling the U.S. immigration system to make it more responsive to economic growth and labor needs at both the high and low ends of the labor market.
The pathway portion of the bill was crafted carefully in an attempt to draw support from both parties.
“It’s critically important,” said Louis DeSipio, a political-science professor at the University of California-Irvine. “If we are going to see any major — or, for that matter, even minor — immigration legislation this year, there has to be some legalization in order to ensure its passage in the House and Senate.”
Most Democrats will not support a reform bill that offers legalization but stops short of providing a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants because they don’t want to create a permanent class of second-class residents with no hope of becoming citizens. They also want to maintain support from politically important Latino voters.
The bill also creates an opportunity for people previously deported for non-criminal reasons to return to the country if they have a U.S. citizen or permanent-resident spouse or child.
But in a concession to Republicans, the bill makes legalization of undocumented immigrants contingent on border security and requires them to go through a long process before becoming eligible for citizenship. That’s an effort to convince conservatives that the bill is not a repeat of the 1986 immigration law that granted amnesty to nearly 3 million undocumented immigrants. In another concession to Republicans, the bill requires undocumented immigrants to go to the “back of the line” for green cards to prevent them from getting permanent residency before those who followed the legal process.
“I think they designed a bill that they could market, that they could sell as creating very high barriers to unauthorized immigrants so in a sense (immigrants) are paying for the illegality of their migration,” DeSipio said. “It also meets the rhetorical challenge that nobody who is legalizing will be able to jump to the head of the line.”
A long path to citizenship is also intended to ease concerns from Republicans that the bill will create millions of new Democratic voters because the majority of undocumented immigrants are Latinos and Latinos tend to vote Democratic, DeSipio said.
Under the proposed legislation, most undocumented immigrants would need at least 13 years to become citizens. They first would have to apply for provisional legal status, a sort of probationary period during which they would be required to remain employed and stay out of trouble with the law. They then would have to wait a minimum of 10 years before becoming eligible to apply for green cards, as permanent-residency visas are known, and then three more years before becoming eligible to apply for citizenship.
“It’s a very long and difficult path,” said Randy Capps, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research center in Washington, D.C.
The proposal, introduced Wednesday, is already drawing criticism from both sides of the debate. Many immigrant advocates say the pathway is too long; many opponents of illegal immigration, who played a major role in derailing immigration-reform attempts in 2006 and 2007, remain opposed to any legalization program, no matter how long or difficult.
Angelica Salas, a spokeswoman for the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, a national coalition of immigrant advocacy groups that favor immigration reform, said the inclusion of a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants instead of just the opportunity to gain legal status was an “incredible victory.”
But she said the pathway is too long. In the coming weeks, the 40 groups in 33 states that make up the coalition plan to push senators to shorten the time requirement.
“The reality is that the legalization component as it exists is not an immediate access to legal permanent residency, which is the ultimate goal. That is the coveted green card,” said Salas, who is executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. “And so there is disappointment that the length to get to the (legal permanent residency) status, which eventually gives you access to citizenship, is so long. And it definitely is a very tough path, ... and that is something that we are going to be working on.”
Many undocumented immigrants, however, are thrilled to have an opportunity to legalize their status, even if the pathway to citizenship is long.
“It sounds great,” Cristal Ceja, 30, said after hearing a summary of the pathway to citizenship outlined in the bill.
Ceja, a Phoenix resident, was brought to the United States illegally when she was 16 and has been living here since. Her husband, Francisco, 32, is also an immigrant from Mexico living in this country without legal status. They have three children who were all born in the United States, making the children U.S. citizens.
Ceja said she is more concerned about being able to work legally in the U.S. rather than gaining citizenship. Her husband supports their family by cutting lawns and other landscaping jobs, but the work is not steady and he makes only about $230 a week. With legal status, he would be able to get a better-paying job, she said.
Immigration-control groups, however, are vehemently opposed to a pathway to citizenship, which they see as providing amnesty to immigrants who broke the law. These organizations generally define amnesty as allowing undocumented immigrants to gain any form of legal status. They would prefer to see more effort on enforcing immigration laws to deport undocumented immigrants or pressure them to leave on their own.
“It’s amnesty flat out,” said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington, D.C.-based group.
Mehlman criticized the pathway to citizenship outlined in the bill for allowing most of the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally to gain legal provisional status within six months.
“It’s going to take some time for them to get green cards and citizenship, but they are going to get irrevocable amnesty almost from day one,” he said.
Mehlman also blasted the bill for giving people previously deported the opportunity to return to the U.S. He said it sends the message that “We are really sorry we had immigration laws and we are really, really sorry that we enforced them, so please come back and apply for amnesty.”
Since the bill was introduced, however, the senators known as the “Gang of Eight” have tried to convince the public that the pathway to citizenship is not amnesty. They acknowledged at Thursday’s press conference that undocumented immigrants broke the law but emphasized that most contribute to the economy, doing jobs that many Americans won’t take, and that it is unrealistic to try to deport them all.
“Amnesty is an unconditional pardon for a breach of law,” Flake told The Arizona Republic. “This is hardly that.
“It’s a 10-year probationary period before they have the opportunity to apply for a green card,” Flake added, noting the bill’s citizenship pathway requires undocumented immigrants to clear several hurdles before they are eligible for green cards, including remaining employed and paying taxes and fines. “So that is not amnesty.”
The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 calls for a pathway to citizenship that would allow immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally to legalize their status temporarily by applying for a provisional visa, and then to seek permanent residency after a minimum of 10 years of residency. Those who receive permanent residency would be eligible to apply for citizenship after three years, so the total pathway to citizenship would be about 13 years.
Registered provisional immigrant status
The bill would create a provisional visa for people in the country illegally. To receive the visa, undocumented immigrants would have to register with the government, submit fingerprints and other biometric information, and pass background checks. The provisional visa would allow immigrants to work legally in the U.S. and travel outside the country on short trips. Undocumented immigrants convicted of felonies, three or more misdemeanors, or who voted illegally would be barred from legalizing their status unless they received a waiver. The provisional visa would have to be renewed every six years.
People in deportation proceedings also would be able to apply for provisional status. So would people previously deported for non-criminal reasons if they are married to a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident or have a child who is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident.
Cutoff
Only undocumented immigrants who entered the country before Dec. 31, 2011, could apply to legalize their status.
Triggers
The pathway to citizenship included in the bill is contingent on several triggers.
Undocumented immigrants wouldn’t be able to apply for provisional status until the secretary of Homeland Security submits to Congress two “strategies” for beefing up border security and constructing more fencing to achieve the goals of having 100 percent of the southern border under surveillance and stopping 90 percent of people who enter illegally in high-traffic areas, including the Tucson Sector.
Those given provisional status couldn’t apply for permanent residency until:
Plans for beefing up border security were “substantially operational” and the border-fencing strategy was “substantially completed.”
A mandatory electronic employment-verification system for all employers was in place.
An electronic exit system was established at air and sea ports to track when people who entered the country on visas leave.
Benefits
Undocumented immigrants granted provisional status would not be eligible for public benefits and would not qualify for health-care benefits under the health-care reform law.
Penalties, taxes and fees
Undocumented immigrants would be assessed $2,000 in fines before they could become permanent residents, paid in installments of $500 when applying for provisional status the first time, $500 when renewing their provisional status and $1,000 when applying for permanent residency. They would also have to pay fees to cover the cost of processing applications and any assessed federal taxes.
Military service
Undocumented immigrants would be eligible to join the military as soon as they receive provisional status.
Back of the line
Undocumented immigrants granted provisional status would have to wait at the “back of the line” for permanent-residency until all legal immigrants, currently about 4.3 million, have received their green cards, as permanent residency visas are called. The government would have to clear those backlogs within seven years.
Other requirements
To apply for green cards, immigrants with provisional status would have to show they worked continuously, except for short breaks, or they were full-time students. They would also have to pass an English test or be enrolled in an English course.
Undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as minors before age 16 would have a shorter path to citizenship. After receiving provisional status, they could apply for permanent residency after five years, instead of 10, as long as they graduated from high school, attended college for two years or served four years in the military. They would be eligible to apply for citizenship immediately after receiving permanent residency instead of having to wait three years.
Agricultural workers
Undocumented immigrants who can show they have worked at least 100 days doing farm work would be eligible for an Agriculture Card giving them legal status. Those granted Agriculture Cards would be eligible for permanent residency in three years if they continued to do farm work for 150 days a year for three years, or 100 days a year for five years. They would also have to pay a $400 fine, be up to date on their taxes, and have no serious criminal record.
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