Posted on 03/29/2007 5:12:09 PM PDT by Dubya
A White House plan devised in weeks of closed-door meetings with Republican senators would grant work visas to undocumented immigrants but require them to return home and pay hefty fines to become legal U.S. residents.
The draft immigration legislation is the first stab by the White House and Republican senators to address the presence of 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants living and working in the country and the reliance by employers on illegal workers.
The White House draft plan was circulating Thursday around Capitol Hill and among groups with an interest in immigration legislation after elements of it were leaked late Wednesday.
Under the plan, undocumented workers could apply for three-year work visas, which the plan dubs "Z" visas. They would be renewable indefinitely but renewal would cost $3,500 each time.
The undocumented workers would have legal status with the visas, but to get a green card, making them legal permanent residents, they'd have to return to their home country, apply at a U.S. embassy or consulate to re-enter legally and pay a $10,000 fine.
The plan also tries to make border security a priority by requiring 18,300 Border Patrol agents and 370 miles of physical fencing be in place, as well as electronic monitoring of the southern border ongoing before a temporary worker program could start.
The plan is far more conservative than the one the Senate approved last year with bipartisan backing and support from President Bush. That plan, whose principal architects were Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., allowed illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S., work and apply to become legal residents after learning English, paying fines and back taxes and clearing a background check.
Critics dismissed that bill as an amnesty.
Supporters of immigration reform say the draft plan shows the White House is serious about getting a bill completed this year. But immigration advocates were disappointed with the product and see it as a step backward.
"For us it's a no go," said Angela Kelley, deputy director of the advocacy group National Immigration Forum.
A plan to make more green cards available to skilled workers by limiting visas for parents, children and siblings of U.S. citizens and one that would prohibit temporary workers from bringing family members is one of the plan's more controversial provisions.
"President Bush said family values don't stop at the Rio Grande. Evidently they do," said Kevin Appleby, director of Migration and Refugee Policy for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Kennedy appeared at a news conference in support of immigration reform with evangelical leaders, including Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty. The leaders said they plan to exhort their congregations to push lawmakers and take other steps to get an immigration reform bill passed.
Family unification, said Kennedy, "has been an essential aspect of immigration policy since the history of this country" and letting immigrants work their way toward legalization is a framework for previous immigration bills that has received substantial support.
"You don't compromise on the morality of these issues," Kennedy said. "We're not going to."
But Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he favored gearing immigration toward the higher skilled and educated who he said would help the country.
The immigration plan is the result of about a month of meetings among White House officials, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Republican senators.
Democrats recognize they need Republican support to get an immigration bill passed this year and have been counting on Bush to deliver Republican votes.
A House bill introduced last week by Reps. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., also attempts to appeal to conservatives.
It provides six-year work visas to undocumented immigrants and requires them at some point during that period to exit the country and re-enter using their work visa.
Even the token enforcement we're getting now will stop as soon as amnesty passes. They'll tell everyone to give the new law a chance until 10 years and 20 million illegals later the same characters in the Senate like Kennedy, who'll be around till eternity it seems will again be saying we need more "comprehensive immigration reform" to solve the problem once and for all.
Lol. To think that the same s.o.b. that gave us the 1965 Immigration Act is still around, hellbent on "diversifying" us into oblivion, boggles the mind.
If you DO believe laws will be enforced, then you must begin from that position in evaluating anything new that is proposed.
You can't have this both ways. Either you believe laws will be enforced, or you don't. There is no middle ground here.
Those three sentence has got to be the biggest bamboozling bunch of Bull Sh-- I have ever read.
That is because on line 5,476, sub paragraph G, in the addendum here to attached in the left hand margin on page 98, tenth sentence and hereby made a part of this etc, etc, it states unless waved by acting and sub acting undersecretary of the fourth floor latrine. :) lol
I know. What I don't know is why? This country/Americans have been good to both of them. It just doesn't make any sense for them to work so hard to destroy it.
I agree! I didn't believe him then, and I don't believe him now. Those people who believed he would build the fence are the same ones who believe that this President is really cracking down on illegals now. What a joke. They can't see through the smoke screen. As soon as they get amnesty, there will be no more raids. And, the flow of illegals will keep right on coming.
Seems there's always an outcry of 'brutality' if ICE does a raid. (Remember Kennedy and Kerry in MA? And tne NYT printing a story of a baby with pneumonia?)
Recently they confiscated $600,000 from an employer that used illegal immigrants. That should get someones notice.
Then 5-6 years from now all the left wing white guys, and the reconquistas will get 30 million illegal peasants drunk, and a civil war will be started....by THEM, not us!
Exactly....Prdro will probably just say screw you. Why should he pay $3500 for a work visa when he is in here for free anyway!
Ping!
Pong!
(Let me check here, did I miss one?)
Anything less is a half measure, at best.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
As angry as Americans are, do you really think it's going to take 5-6 years for that to happen? I'd be willing to bet that there's going to be some big problems IF/WHEN, they pass amnesty! I might just be the one to start it. LOL!
"As angry as Americans are, do you really think it's going to take 5-6 years for that to happen?"
No, 1-2 years, if it includes "repatriation" of illegal families.
Lock N Load!
It's still amnesty.
From everything I've heard they will allow the families to come to America and become citizens/welfare mommies and they will suck the American taxpayer dry!
Lock N Load!
You know it. I'm investing in some ammo. I think I might have enough to be considered a terrorist. LOL You know what I mean. You live in a border state too, and you fled the state that has literally been taken over by them, and they HATE us "Europeans." ;o)
Anglos are personna non grata to the "new" America. I am armed to the gills too!
LOL!
I'll tell you one thing. I can go into a corner pub in Scottsdale, have a beer, and speak openly about my conservatism, without fear of retribution. I am now a happy man.
Well, I'm very happy to hear that. Perhaps you can be a good neighbor and take care of the problem before it gets this far. LOL!
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