Trump envisions immigration bill granting legal status for immigrants (not citizenship)

That sounds fair to me. I'm all for compromise.

 

It sounds to me that he doesn't know what the hell he is going to do. He keeps changing what he says he is and isn't going to do as far as immigration is concerned.

 

The Senate already passed a bipartisan immigration bill in 2013. The House refused to look at it and said they'd come up with their own - and then did nothing. Most people agreed that if the House had allowed a vote on it, it would have passed, and Obama would have signed it. So comprehensive immigration reform is not that far-fetched, in theory at least. Just rehash the previous bill and allow it to come to a vote.

 

Mexico no doubt laid the wood to Tillerson with all the ways Mexico can screw with the US economy so now Trump has seen how complex the immigration question is, who knew, and now he wants to compromise.

Trump is that guy that says **** you, sue me in every dispute. Then you sue him and when Trump figures he's going to lose then he wants to settle. It's all drama all the time.

 

The one posted above is talking points, not a bill. Here's the 2013 bill, built on over a year of negotiations between the two parties, covering everything from border security to legal status:

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/immigration-bill-summary-093557

A look at major provisions of the Senate immigration bill:

BORDER SECURITY

—The bill sets out a series of requirements that must be achieved over 10 years before anyone here illegally can obtain a permanent resident green card. These include:

(1) Roughly doubling the number of Border Patrol agents stationed along the U.S.-Mexico border, to at least 38,405.

(2) Completing 700 miles of pedestrian fencing along the border, which would require approximately 350 new miles of fencing.

(3) Installing a host of new security measures and technologies in specified locations along the border, including specific numbers of surveillance towers, camera systems, ground sensors, radiation detectors, mobile surveillance systems, drones, helicopters, airborne radar systems, planes and ships.

(4) Implementing a system for all employers to verify electronically their workers' legal status.

(5) Setting up a new electronic system to track people leaving the nation's airports and seaports.

—The border security improvements are designed to achieve 100 percent surveillance of the border with Mexico and ensure that 90 percent of would-be crossers are caught or turned back.

—If the goals of a 90 percent effectiveness rate and continuous surveillance on the border are not met within five years, a Southern Border Security Commission made up of border-state governors and others would determine how to achieve them.

—Border security spending in the bill totals around $46 billion.

___

PATH TO CITIZENSHIP

—The estimated 11 million people living in the U.S. illegally could obtain "registered provisional immigrant status" six months after enactment of the bill as long as:

(1) The Homeland Security Department has developed border security and fencing plans, per the specifications set out in the bill.

(2) They arrived in the U.S. prior to Dec. 31, 2011, and maintained continuous physical presence since then.

(3) They do not have a felony conviction or three or more misdemeanors.

(4) They pay a $500 fine.

—People in provisional legal status could work and travel in the U.S. but would not be eligible for most federal benefits, including health care and welfare.

—The provisional legal status lasts six years and is renewable for another six years for $500.

—People deported for noncriminal reasons can apply to re-enter in provisional status if they have a spouse or child who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, or if they had been brought to the U.S. as a child.

—After 10 years in provisional status, immigrants can seek a green card and lawful permanent resident status if they are current on their taxes and pay a $1,000 fine, have maintained continuous physical presence in the U.S., meet work requirements and learn English. Also the border triggers must have been met, and all people waiting to immigrate through the legal system as of the date of enactment of the legislation must have been dealt with.

—People brought to the country as youths would be able to get green cards in five years, and citizenship immediately thereafter.

___

HIGH-SKILLED WORKERS

—The cap on the H-1B visa program for high-skilled workers would be immediately raised from 65,000 a year to 110,000 a year, with 25,000 more set aside for people with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering or math from a U.S. school. The cap could go as high as 180,000 a year depending on demand.

—New protections would crack down on companies that use H-1B visas to train workers in the U.S. only to ship them back overseas.

—Immigrants with certain extraordinary abilities, such as professors, researchers, multinational executives and athletes, would be exempted from existing green-card limits. So would graduates of U.S. universities with job offers and degrees in science, technology, engineering or math.

—A startup visa would be made available to foreign entrepreneurs seeking to come to the U.S. to start a company.

—A new merit visa, for a maximum of 250,000 people a year, would award points to prospective immigrants based on their education, employment, length of residence in the U.S. and other considerations. Those with the most points would earn the visas.

—The bill would eliminate the government's Diversity Visa Lottery Program, which randomly awards 55,000 visas to immigrants from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States, so that more visas can be awarded for employment and merit ties.

___

LOW-SKILLED WORKERS

—A new W visa would allow up to 200,000 low-skilled workers a year into the country for jobs in construction, long-term care, hospitality and other industries.

—A new agriculture worker visa program would be established to replace the existing program. Agriculture workers already here illegally, who've worked in the industry at least two years, could qualify in another five years for green cards if they stay in the industry.

___

FAMILY IMMIGRATION

—Under current law, U.S. citizens can sponsor spouses, children and siblings to come to the U.S., with limits on some categories. The bill would bar citizens from sponsoring their siblings and would allow them to sponsor married sons and daughters only if those children are under age 31.

—Legal permanent residents can currently sponsor spouses and children, but the numbers are limited. The bill eliminates that limit.

___

EMPLOYMENT VERIFICATION

—Within four years, all employers must implement E-Verify, a program to verify electronically their workers' legal status. As part of that, noncitizens would be required to show photo ID that must match with a photo in the E-Verify system.

 

I can't trust anything Trump says until it happens. Where was this months ago? I tend to agree with those that feel Trump changes his mind quite often.

 

Are we seeing deals being made? Seems like a great way to curb illegal immigrants while still enjoying legal immigration.

 

If (big if) I understand the details of the 2013 bill, I prefer that one.
I worry that, without a path to citizenship, you create a literal 2nd caste in the country.
Here, you can build our houses and clean our bathrooms and stuff, but you won't be full citizens or anything.

Even if it's a difficult path, I think there needs to be a path. I say that as the great grandson of an illegal Irish immigrant, a stowaway who fled the potato famine.

 

No, we are not.

 

It's creating a caste system. Literal second class citizens.

Yet, it's a step forward. I don't want that to be the final solution though.

 

Trump appears to be trying to straddle both sides... within the republican party. Conservatives will be unhappy, calling it amnesty (ala Reagan). And more moderate republicans, let alone Democrats will be looking at the details to make sure its just not fluff. It would be interesting if this is a reflection of the negotiations been Ivanka/Jared and Bannon/Pence.

 

Maybe he's just trying to 'unscare' all the immigrants and wants to encourage them to go out and continue living life while focusing on the bad dudes.

Or maybe he's actually sincere and wants to legalize them all, knowing if he's out on the hunt for immigrants, it'll drastically affect the economy and the billions they provide. Let's not forget all the productivity they provide in the labor workforce.

 

I don't agree, since their offspring can still become citizens. This seems quite reasonable to me. What am I missing?

 

They are second class citizens today already, at least it will help them become legal.

 

I disagree. I was under my father's H-1 Visa through high school, was a green card holder through college, and became a naturalized citizen six years ago. I never felt like a "second class citizen" through the whole process. If you entered the country illegally, and they allow you to become legal, that should be good enough.

 

I think if they offered a path to citizenship I would be supportive of it.

 

So you would be cool with being stuck as a non-citizen, paying taxes and not receiving benefits, indefinitely?