House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte also offers clemency for illegals.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: The higher-ups within the Republican Party have revealed their modified version of the comprehensive immigration legislation passed by the Senate last summer, introducing amendments that would allow green cards for millions of immigrants already residing within the US, undocumented and otherwise.
The amendments, announced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte during Monday’s Congressional session, would allow for up to 600,000 green cards to be given to spouses of legal citizens and residents in the US. Goodlatte also encouraged Congress to grant immediate citizenship and expedited green card procedures for persons already here through family and employment-based sponsorship programs.
However, the majority of Goodlatte’s changes were focused on those who are in the country illegally.
Already being called the “amnesty bill” in some corners, the GOP’s version of immigration reform would also provide clemency for the roughly 12 million undocumented immigrant workers currently residing within the US. The proposal would provide temporary legality for undocumented aliens in the US, thus allowing them to work toward permanent residency and obtain green cards. Goodlatte’s proposal says that between 3.1 and 4.4 million illegal immigrants could earn green cards through his proposed changes, which don’t deviate substantially from what was passed by the Senate last year.
The bill would crack down greatly on border security, making it even harder for illegal aliens to enter the country. It comes on the heels of the Child Tax Credit Law proposal, which requires immigrants in the US illegally to file their tax returns for the credit with a Social Security number, thereby preventing them for using the program. According to numbers from the Pew Hispanic Research Center, roughly 4.5 million children in the 2010 were US citizens that had at least one parent who was undocumented.
Their legislation, however, would have to reconcile itself with the bill passed by the Democrat-controlled Senate in 2013, which allowed work permits to increase to around 13 million guest workers already in the country. It also called for increasing the number of green cards given out over the next decade to 33 million. That number would drastically decrease the legal immigration backlog that is currently afflicting millions of workers, particularly high-tech ones, here in the US.
Goodlatte acknowledged that persuading the entire Republican establishment to support the bill is a tall order, but believes that several key party members are already on board, and that getting a majority is tough but reasonably plausible. Several key Republicans, including House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), have said that they’re willing to work with Democrats to get the comprehensive bill passed in 2014.
Several lawmakers and political pundits have said that immigration reform needs to be passed in the first quarter of the year if it’s to have any hope, otherwise the midterm elections will swallow up everyone’s time and attention. Now that the House is announcing where it stands on the bill, the Congressional back-and-forth must commence until a finalized version is agreed upon.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com