DREAM Act Portal Forum - Patrick Leahy: Immigration markup begins with ‘trigger’

It's going to be a very busy few weeks concerning the mark-up process which it seems will be every Tuesday and Thursday until the bill is ready for the Senate floor.Considering the amount amendments,especially by Republicans,it shouldn't surprising that there will be more effort on defining the triggers in addition to the Border security aspect which is meant I think to gain enough Republican support for passage.

Quote:

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said his panel will begin Thursday’s opening session on a comprehensive immigration package with consideration of a “trigger” that must be met before any undocumented immigrants can seek legal status, to be followed by debate over proposals to improve border security.

The Vermont Democrat has already scheduled two more markups on the immigration bill for next week, and plans to continue holding sessions on the package every Tuesday and Thursday until the bill is finished.

“We’ll start with the trigger, which is the first thing,” Leahy said on Wednesday in an interview with POLITICO. “Then we’ll go to Title I, which is border security. And we’ll take it title-by-title.”

Leahy acknowledges that the trigger provision — a series of border security benchmarks that must be met before the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants can apply for legal status — is likely to be one the most contentious issues in the whole immigration fight.

The trigger would include: an operational border security plan; substantial completion of new border fences; the “E-Verify” system to allow employers to check an employee’s citizenship status must be up and running; and a “biographic entry-exit system” for airports and seaports has to be in place.

Additional sections of the legislation bill cover immigrant visas, enforcement and changes to non-immigrant visa programs.

Leahy said controversy alone should not derail the 800-plus page bill, potentially the biggest rewrite of U.S. immigration laws in decades.

“The irony is none of these issues — while they’re serious — have to be contentious,” Leahy said. “If people really want an immigration bill, they’ll come up with serious amendments intended to improve the bill and then vote ‘em up or down. If people don’t want any immigration bill, they”ll just bring up a lot of amendments to try to stall it.”

More than 300 amendments to the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act have already been filed, Judiciary Committee aides said.