Today’s Immigration Reform Recap: 300 Amendments, Mandatory Airport Biometrics, Attacks on American Workers and Couples Equal Protection – Now What?

Yesterday, May 21st, 2013 the immigration bill introduced by the “Gang of Eight” to the Senate has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee 13-5. Although this may seem like progress and a victory to finding out the destiny of the 11 million undocumented immigrants it is not the verdict.

As put in the now old school PSA “I’m Just A Bill” there are still other processes that the bill must go through in order to become a law and in some instances it does not even become a law, but I highly doubt it. The question is whether immigration advocates or immigration opponents will be content with the final outcome?

Back to today as stated in the ABC World News

The committee vote was met with cheers of, “Yes, we can,” by those in the room. It took the 18 senators five days for markups and they considered 300 amendments, with many of those that passed doing so in a bipartisan nature. Overall, 48 Republican amendments passed. “I don’t think there has been a markup on such a complex bill that has been this open,” Sen Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said during closing remarks.

“I appreciate the work of the Senate Judiciary Committee in taking the bill my colleagues and I introduced in April as a starting point for debate,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a member of the “Gang of Eight.” “We have a historic opportunity to end today’s de facto amnesty and modernize our immigration system to meet our 21st century needs. I remain optimistic that the Senate, by improving the bill through an open and deliberative floor debate, will seize this opportunity.

“There were few, if any, significant changes made to the original “Gang of Eight” bill. One major addition was the biometric entry/exit at the 10 U.S. airports with the highest volume of international air travel within two years of the bill’s passage. A deal struck between Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, today could triple the annual number of temporary visas for workers in highly skilled fields like engineering and technology, and was enough for Hatch to give the full bill his support to leave committee.


It will now head to the full Senate for more debate and a vote.
“Now the real work begins to see if we can reform this bill before we send it to the House,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said during closing remarks.

It is still unclear as to what the final bill will end up looking like, but one thing is sure it is moving forward and something is bound to happen.

The HuffingtonPost wrote

Democrats seemed equally pleased to vote the bill out of committee.
“The dysfunction in our current immigration system affects all of us and it is long past time for reform,” Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said before the bill’s passage. “I hope that our history, our values, and our decency can inspire us finally to take action. We need an immigration system that lives up to American values and helps write the next great chapter in American history by reinvigorating our economy and enriching our communities.”

Of 300 amendments offered to the gang of eight immigration bill, the committee debated more than 200.

The bill came out of months of work from the gang of eight, which in addition to Graham and Flake includes Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.). It includes a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, a streamlined legal immigration process, tougher interior enforcement and increased border security.

One of the final issues to settle was over high-skilled worker visas called H1-Bs. An amendment that simplifies the process for companies to bring in workers in science, technology, engineering and math eventually passed on a voice vote. Hatch and Schumer came to a compromise that led Hatch to agree to vote the full bill out of committee, although he did not commit to supporting its eventual passage.

It was a tough vote for Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who has previously been wary of expanding H1-B visas. He voted in favor, however, citing the need for compromise and to get the bill through.
“We’ve made concessions I never thought we’d have to make … but we’ve made those concessions to win your support,” Durbin said to Hatch. “We need your support, and we want to pass this bill.”

The amendment came under fire from the AFL-CIO labor federation, which said the measure would hurt American workers.
“There is no reason why this strong coalition should accept anti-worker amendments,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement. “And let’s be clear: Senator Orrin Hatch’s H-1B amendments are unambiguous attacks on American workers.”

Some measures praised highly by immigrant rights advocates never went to a vote. Leahy brought up his amendment to allow LGBT couples equal protection under immigration law, but withdrew it “with a heavy heart” when it became clear Democrats were willing to drop it so the bill would pass.

It appears that Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) attempted to amend the bill by stopping a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Nonetheless President Barack Obama applauded the committee for moving forward in “passing” the bill out of committee.

The bottom line is that after this process the destiny of the 11 million undocumented immigrants and future immigrants to the United States will be decided, but there is still a lengthy process. What do you think – After immigration “reform”, will there still be undocumented immigrants crossing the borders? If so, how can we address/solve that portion of this issue? Will we be having this conversation in 20 more years?

“Now that the bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, it has to go to the Senate floor, where gang of eight members are hopeful it will pass. Schumer and McCain – who is not on the Judiciary Committee, have said they would like to win over a majority of both parties — around 70 votes in total”.