Comprehensive Immigration Reform Effort Relaunched In Senate

WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats launched on Wednesday a new effort for comprehensive immigration reform, even though they so far have no Republican support for a bill that would allow some undocumented immigrants to gain legal status.

"Right now going down, figuratively, this long corridor of doors of the offices of Republican senators, and I'm trying every door to see if one door will open, and one senator will step forward and join us," said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).

Although Durbin, along with bill author Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and co-sponsor Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), acknowledged the tough odds of getting immigration reform through the Senate -- much less a Republican-controlled House -- they said it was important to offer a vehicle.

"We will never move forward if we do not have something to lay a foundation to have a debate," Menendez said. "The administration has highlighted the importance of this, but it needs a vehicle at the end of the day ... to galvanize around and have a debate on."

The bill combines border security and work-site enforcement with what Republicans have decried as "amnesty" -- paths to citizenship and legal status for some of the estimated 11 million undocumented men and women living in the United States.

Part of the bill will be the DREAM Act, which would allow some undocumented men and women who came to the United States as children to gain legal status with the aim of attending college or serving in the military.

The DREAM Act passed the House last year and gained a majority in the Senate, but fell just a few votes short of bypassing a Republican filibuster. Five Democrats also voted against the bill.

"Sounds like the last big one, which had bipartisan opposition as I recall," a GOP leadership aide said of the new legislation in an email. "Hard to tell what level of support this will have with Rs -- or Ds."

"I want the DREAM Act to be the catalyst for comprehensive immigration reform," said Durbin, the key legislator behind that bill. "Let's deal with the whole issue of immigration reform."

The comprehensive bill requires a mandatory employment verification that is meant as an alternative to E-Verify, a system already used by the government and federal contractors to screen for illegal workers. E-Verify, which would be made mandatory by a bill introduced last week by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), has been criticized for producing inaccurate results.

The Senate Democrats' proposed legislation would also create a standing commission to determine the number of employer-based visas, to help ensure employers can bring the people they want to the United States.

Menendez said the bill would help the economy by allowing more people to contribute taxes, earn good wages and support other workers.

"When I listen to my Republican colleagues, everything they talk about, they should be with us," Menendez said. "I don't want to prevent a set of circumstances in which millions of people who could more fully pay taxes and participate in helping to grow this economy."

In the meantime, though, Senate Democrats plan to continue to push for administrative relief for some undocumented people, particularly family members of citizens and DREAM Act-eligible young people. A number of Senate Democrats sent a letter to the White House in April asking him to stop deporting so-called DREAMers.

Menendez said they will continue to push for administrative action until comprehensive immigration reform is passed.

"As we are waiting to pass immigration reform ... there needs to be some administrative relief," he said. "It would certainly not solve our problem, but it would provide some relief that we believe the president has the power to do."

Source : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._n_882438.html

Great news DA User.. Thanks for the post..

E-verify is in there too and perhaps TPS.

Get ready guys...a storm is coming...

Hopefully will see DA/E-verify bill soon thas only bill is possible at this time unless obama jump in it. I liked bush the way he handle CIR and the way he suported in past. CIR would have been passed under bush if 9/11 didn't happen but our hard lucks always follow around. So let's just hope for DA/E-Verify for right now insted whole package of CIR.

I am not freakin waiting for santa -_-

I am little confused on the Menendez version of E-Verify. Will it be implemented five years after the hypothetical passage of CIR? If so, Menendez needs to quit being stubborn, with all due respect, and just give Republicans exactly what they want on border security and employment verification. If the GOP E-verifyultimately turns out to be defficient, improve it later.

Yes, Obama needs to jump on this like he has done on other issues--Republican controlled lower house or not. Like on the issue of Gov't Spending, Obama needs to call Reid and Boehner to his office until a compromise is reached on this issue. I want to see the determination that he has bragged about before.

Another thought, maybe the Republicans who voted no against the DA as a stand-alone bill in the senate will vote yea in favor of CIR. lol I want to see how McCain reacts to this.

Guys, did anyone see CNN in Spanish? Menendez was interviewed, and he said that he included the border security measures that Senator Kyl favors. I am wondering if Menendez added verbatim the McCain-Kyl border security bill. Maybe, all of you can find the video of the interview on CNN. The CNN show is called Directo desde USA.

Political gain or not, the Republicans who vote no on this measure are really going to look cynical--say bye bye to the Latino vote.