Anyone watching the news or listening to the radio, has been hearing the term “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” mentioned in one context or another for several years. Usually Comprehensive Immigration Reform is mentioned in news reports within the context of one of four major political agendas listed below, not in order of importance or frequency, but in an order I find most logical to explain for Platinum Immigration readers.
- Streamlining existing immigration processes
- Creating a “Guest Worker Program”
- Gaining control of US Borders (Primarily the Southern border)
- Creating and implementing a legal and practical way to deal with persons currently in the illegally, or who have overstayed after legal entry to the USA
We almost always hear or read about “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” as if the term itself is code for “Amnesty” on one side or “Compassionate treatment of, or “Path to Citizenship” for “Undocumented Immigrants”, but there is far more to the kinds of Comprehensive Immigration Reform that have been proposed before the US Congress. Most recently, in April 2013, the US Senate introduced, “The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration and Modernization Act,” written by the so called “Gang of Eight”, which included four Democrats and Four Republicans from the US Senate. The act did not become law but serves as an example of one bipartisan attempt to address the four general politically charged issues I’ve listed above.
It seems logical to me that sometime during the next few years, a similar Congressional Act, will become law, that will address each of these major issue groups in one way or another. Certainly not everybody concerned will be happy with the overall solution, which will deal with far more than the code/buzz-words, “Amnesty” and “Path to Citizenship”. So, I’ll use my knowledge of the actual immigration issues to explain the four primary areas that will have to be addressed in order to achieve what the various Political Agenda or Interest Groups seek, as Comprehensive Immigration Reform.
- Streamlining existing immigration processes
Existing US Immigration processes consist primarily of laws and processes in place for foreign citizens to legally “immigrate” to the USA, by first obtaining an immigrant visa to enter the USA, become a “Lawful Permanent Resident” and optionally, eventually become a US Citizen through the Naturalization process. The current USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Service), now a part of Department of Homeland Security, was formerly the INS, (Immigration and Naturalization Service). It is important to note, that USCIS has a part in all immigration to the USA, but they DO NOT issue visas of any kind, whether for “immigrants” or “visitors” to the USA.
Visitors, who need visas to visit the USA, apply for and obtain their visas by applying through the Non-Immigrant Visa Units housed in US Consulates or Embassies in their country of citizenship or lawful residence.
Intending immigrants, follow a more complicated process that starts with action from a US Citizen, usually a close or immediate family member (spouse, son, daughter, parent etc.) filing a petition with USCIS, which when approved, opens the door for the foreign relative to apply for a visa that can only be issued by an “Immigrant Visa Unit”, at a US Consulate or Embassy abroad. One does not obtain a visa to enter the USA, from inside the USA, or from any other US Government agency besides the Department of State.
Note: Visa expiration dates do not represent the length of time foreigners are allowed to be in the USA. They represent the last date the visa can be used to enter the USA. A stamp on the passport page near the visa, will indicate the date on which the authorized stay ends.
Methods of streamlining these processes are usually discussed or proposed in terms of shortening the processing time, or increasing the quotas for non-immediate family members, like adult children, brothers and sisters of US Citizens or Lawful Permanent Residents, so that their immigration process takes less time.
Note that most proposals that include buzzwords like “back of the line” refer, to getting in line behind all those applying to immigrate to the USA including the relatives of Citizens or Lawful Permanent Residents who have been waiting for their turn based on quotas. Increasing quotas makes the processes shorter for those involved in current legal immigration processes, which would also make the “back of the line” closer.
- Creating a “Guest Worker Program”
This really is as simple as it sounds. New laws would create a different visa category for guest workers, that would allow “migrants” to whom the visas are granted, to temporarily enter the USA, to work. Just which occupations would be authorized and how long the “guest worker” would be allowed to stay and work in the authorized occupations, is a subject of debate, each time Comprehensive Immigration Reform is seriously considered by either house of Congress.
- Gaining Control of US Borders (Primarily the southern border)
In addition to fences, walls and increasing Border Control personnel, gaining control of the borders can involve several kinds of actions to increase control of who is allowed to obtain a visa to enter the USA. Recent items of discussion include to bar or subject to increased vetting, all US visa holders or those presenting themselves for entry through the Visa Waiver Program (sometimes referred to as ESTA), if they have traveled to any of a list of countries known to spawn or train terrorists, those with dual citizenship in one of those countries, or even possibly those whose familial roots are in one of those countries.
- Creating and implementing a legal and practical way to deal with persons currently in the illegally, or who have overstayed after legal entry to the USA
Proposed solutions to this complicated problem have ranged from simply giving all these people who do not have a “serious criminal record” (definitions vary on this) full amnesty and allowing them to “register” to be Lawful Permanent Residents, as was done in the 80’s, to the other extreme of rounding them all up and deporting them.
I’ve seen no evidence either of these extremes is likely to be seriously considered by Congress, but because all recent proposals have fallen short of mass deportation, politicians and pundits alike have made amnesty quite the dirty buzz-word, so much so that the “no amnesty” rhetoric, seems to drown out reporting of the other elements of Comprehensive Immigration Reform, from those with access to broadcast or print who are zealous to avoid another mass amnesty for those to whom they refer as “Illegal Aliens”.
From the other side, those with similar media access who are equally zealous about finding and implementing a practical but “compassionate” way to deal with the same group to whom they refer as “Undocumented Immigrants” tend to drown out, for their readers and listeners all discussion of any of the rest of the reforms that would necessarily come with any attempt at Comprehensive Immigration Reform.
The recent “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act,” of 2013 proposed reforms to deal with each of the four “agendas” discussed above and more. Specifically, the Act , had it become law, would have set up eligibility criteria for a new category of “legal status” for the current “Undocumented Immigrant” or “Illegal Alien”, as you will. This would be accomplished by the proposed “Registered Provisional Immigrant” program. (RPI)
In short, the RPI program would be available to those without significant criminal records, who would pay any taxes due, an application fee (most likely a few hundred dollars) and a $1,000 “penalty”, that under this particular act, could have been paid in installments, but only after certain border security measures were implemented. RPI’s would not be eligible for “means tested benefits”. For all intents and purposes this refers to welfare and Medicaid, etc. that are government benefits awarded to low income citizens, based on a “means test”. (Income Standard based on household size)
Under the 2013 proposed ACT, an RPI’s path to US Citizenship would take a minimum of thirteen years from the time they were granted RPI status. Specifically, they would be required to maintain RPI status for ten years before applying for Lawful Permanent Resident Status. After holding LPR Status for three years, they would be eligible to apply for Naturalization. (US Citizenship)
In comparison, legal immigrants to the USA are eligible to apply for Naturalization after five years of LPR status or three years, if their LPR status was obtained as a result of marriage to a US Citizen. So, the “undocumented” or “illegal” has a thirteen year path to Citizenship, while the legal immigrant has a path of either three or five years.
Is this “Amnesty”? The reader is welcome to make that judgment for themselves, hopefully with more to go on than, what they might hear or read from agenda driven politicians and media pundits.