Bipartisan House Group Reaches Preliminary Immigration Deal

bigdreamer2010 · 05-17-2013, 11:06 AM

Finally

Quote:

A bipartisan group in the House working on an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws reached a deal in principle Thursday evening, aides said. The group plans to introduce its bill in June.

Details of the compromise were not released, but, much like a bill introduced in the Senate, the House legislation will include a path to legalization for the 11 million undocumented workers already in the country, as well as increased border security measures. The House version, though, is expected to be more conservative in its approach to granting illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, among a number of central issues.

It will most likely include a 15-year path to citizenship, rather than the 13-year path offered in the Senate proposal, as well as requiring illegal immigrants to sign an admission that they had violated United States immigration laws, aides said.

The House group had been meeting and working on a nearly parallel track with a similar bipartisan group in the Senate, which has already introduced legislation that is now before the Senate Judiciary Committee. But until Thursday, the House group had yet to reach an agreement, and earlier this week the Republican members had threatened to walk away and introduce legislation of their own if a compromise could not be reached.

The two-hour meeting Thursday evening, a last-ditch effort to save the legislation, finally produced the agreement in principle.

Speaker John A. Boehner had talked to the Republican members of the group last week and urged them to produce a bill.

“I am concerned that the bipartisan group has been unable to wrap up their work,” he said at a news conference Thursday. “And I know that there are some very difficult issues that have come up. But I continue to believe that the House needs to deal with this and the House needs to work its will.”

One final issue that was resolved Thursday night, aides said, was how immigrants, who are not initially eligible for federal benefits, would pay for their health insurance costs — something Democrats and Republicans agreed would be a requirement for legal status. Exactly how the compromise resolved this issue was unclear.

“The politics of health care had gotten into the bipartisanship of immigration,” said an aide who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Republicans had wanted an electronic employment verification system fully operational and mandatory within five years as a condition for unauthorized immigrants continuing to move toward legal status. If the verification system wasn’t up and running by the end of five years, the legalization program would end, throwing into question the status of many of the immigrants.

Democrats in the group had argued that such a trigger could harm immigrants through no fault of their own. But they ultimately agreed to the Republican plan after gaining concessions that reassured them the five-year deadline would be achievable.

The bipartisan group’s talks had also stalled over the question of a guest worker program, known as a W-Visa program, for low-skilled, year-round temporary workers. Democrats had expected to use the agreement reached by the nation’s leading business and labor organizations — the same deal that the Senate bill adopted. But Republicans in the group felt the Senate deal was too favorable to labor and tried to raise the number of available W-Visas for temporary workers, which is capped at 200,000 a year in the current Senate version.

On Thursday night, the group agreed to disagree. They will leave room in their legislation for a guest worker program, but Democrats and Republicans will introduce their own, competing versions. However, some aides and lawmakers said they remained optimistic that they might reach a bipartisan solution, though they didn’t want to delay the entire agreement.

Mr. Boehner and members of the House group were especially eager to produce legislation. But as the negotiations dragged on, some Senate Democrats and immigration advocates began to press the Democratic House members privately to slow down their efforts, arguing that introducing something more conservative than the Senate bill would simply drag the final legislation to the right.

However, by early this week, the Senate Democrats and the pro-immigration groups had largely reconciled themselves to the fact that, unless talks totally deteriorated in the House, the bipartisan group would most likely introduce a proposal of its own before the Senate had completed its work. Some advocates even said they welcomed any progress on the House side as good news.

“If the takeaway is that you’ve got a bipartisan process in the House of Representatives that legalizes 11 million people, that’s a huge momentum-giver,” said Angela Kelley, the vice president of immigration policy at the Center for American Progress. “It adds more than it takes away. That’s what people will remember.”

youngunner · 05-17-2013, 11:14 AM

I wonder how the DREAMers are going to get treated compared to the Senate bill

2Face · 05-17-2013, 11:19 AM

We should take anything as long as they provide travel authorization for everyone and special expedited treatment for Dreamers. I feel very secure knowing Luis Gutierrez is a part of these negotiations. Luis knows what's best for us for sure.

Happyman0607 · 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2Face

We should take anything as long as they provide travel authorization for everyone and special expedited treatment for Dreamers. I feel very secure knowing Luis Gutierrez is a part of these negotiations. Luis knows what's best for us for sure.

We shouldn't take everything cause something's aren't worth it. For example signing that you broke immigration laws could prevent you from never being able to be legalized from other means such as marriage or kids petitioning for you and lock you in a 20 year contract of having to make minimum money requirments along with other unreasonable demands.. The bill has to be fair and these damn republicans need to stop being so arrogant.. This country was built on immigrants hard working backs and without immigrants of any form legal and illegal this country wouldn't even be close to what it is now and we need to stop getting such shity treatments.. Bill Clinton even said this, they have to stop being so damn arrogant.. We are essential to the economy. Lets have a week without immigrants doing what they do and tell me what happens to restaurants and how much crops go unfarmed and how many lawns go uncut and how many parents don't go to work because they can't find a nany.. Yes our parents broke the law but it doesn't mean these politicians can throw anything at us like someone would throw a bone at a dog and we'll shake our tails happy as can be.. Legalize us, in a fair but tougher way than legal immigrants. But don't lock us in a 20 year contract that 90% of their family's wouldn't qualify themselves for.

EditorInChief · 05-17-2013, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Happyman0607

We shouldn't take everything cause something's aren't worth it. For example signing that you broke immigration laws could prevent you from never being able to be legalized from other means such as marriage or kids petitioning for you and lock you in a 20 year contract of having to make minimum money requirments along with other unreasonable demands.. The bill has to be fair and these damn republicans need to stop being so arrogant.. This country was built on immigrants hard working backs and without immigrants of any form legal and illegal this country wouldn't even be close to what it is now and we need to stop getting such shity treatments.. Bill Clinton even said this, they have to stop being so damn arrogant.. We are essential to the economy. Lets have a week without immigrants doing what they do and tell me what happens to restaurants and how much crops go unfarmed and how many lawns go uncut and how many parents don't go to work because they can't find a nany.. Yes our parents broke the law but it doesn't mean these politicians can throw anything at us like someone would throw a bone at a dog and we'll shake our tails happy as can be.. Legalize us, in a fair but tougher way than legal immigrants. But don't lock us in a 20 year contract that 90% of their family's wouldn't qualify themselves for.

20 years? From where did you get that number?

EditorInChief · 05-17-2013, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Happyman0607

We shouldn't take everything cause something's aren't worth it. For example signing that you broke immigration laws could prevent you from never being able to be legalized from other means such as marriage or kids petitioning for you and lock you in a 20 year contract of having to make minimum money requirments along with other unreasonable demands.. The bill has to be fair and these damn republicans need to stop being so arrogant.. This country was built on immigrants hard working backs and without immigrants of any form legal and illegal this country wouldn't even be close to what it is now and we need to stop getting such shity treatments.. Bill Clinton even said this, they have to stop being so damn arrogant.. We are essential to the economy. Lets have a week without immigrants doing what they do and tell me what happens to restaurants and how much crops go unfarmed and how many lawns go uncut and how many parents don't go to work because they can't find a nany.. Yes our parents broke the law but it doesn't mean these politicians can throw anything at us like someone would throw a bone at a dog and we'll shake our tails happy as can be.. Legalize us, in a fair but tougher way than legal immigrants. But don't lock us in a 20 year contract that 90% of their family's wouldn't qualify themselves for.

Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. Incidents like the Boston bombing can happen again. Anything like that may derail the CIR effort.

Something is better than nothing. I do not think the Republicans are being arrogant. Almost all previous CIR efforts were made by the Republicans and at least successful in one of the two Chambers. The 1986 CIR was signed into law by a Republican president.

As for the Democrats, they pretend to support CIR. All the time, PRETENDING to support CIR. When it comes to the CIR, they will try everything they can to derail it (say the LGBT provision) so that they can continue to blame the Republicans.

I do not know if it is the Republicans that are being arrogant. Somebody is being arrogant for sure.

RabbitsFoot · 05-17-2013, 01:04 PM

do we have a more concrete explanation of the guilty plead on the federal court yet? is it a permanent criminal record that would bar us from many jobs in the future? do we need to register in town and live under a bridge because of it? we are talking about adding 11 millions of people to the FBI database, 11 millions of victims who I daresay will never commit any big profile crime.

bigdreamer2010 · 05-17-2013, 01:11 PM

^true. Especially in regards to dreamers.

EditorInChief · 05-17-2013, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RabbitsFoot

do we have a more concrete explanation of the guilty plead on the federal court yet? is it a permanent criminal record that would bar us from many jobs in the future? do we need to register in town and live under a bridge because of it? we are talking about adding 11 millions of people to the FBI database, 11 millions of victims who I daresay will never commit any big profile crime.

Nobody knows what it is like. Will have to wait until the bill is introduced.

Happyman0607 · 05-17-2013, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RabbitsFoot

do we have a more concrete explanation of the guilty plead on the federal court yet? is it a permanent criminal record that would bar us from many jobs in the future? do we need to register in town and live under a bridge because of it? we are talking about adding 11 millions of people to the FBI database, 11 millions of victims who I daresay will never commit any big profile crime.

Exactly, you could literally sign your life away by signing that you broke immigration laws, no thank you I'll adjust through marriage if that's the case. I'll be sure to vote democrat every single election as well.

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Bipartisan House Group Reaches Preliminary Immigration Deal