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发帖数: 7139 | 1 Bipartisan Framework for Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Senators Schumer, McCain, Durbin, Graham, Menendez, Rubio, Bennet, and Flake
Introduction
We recognize that our immigration system is broken. And while border
security has improved significantly over the last two Administrations, we
still don't have a functioning immigration system. This has created a
situation where up to 11 million undocumented immigrants are living in the
shadows. Our legislation acknowledges these realities by finally committing
the resources needed to secure the border, modernize and streamline our
current legal immigration system,while creating a tough but fair
legalization program for individuals who are currently here. We will ensure
that this is a successful permanent reform to our immigration system that
will not need to be revisited.
Four Basic Legislative Pillars:
o Create a tough but fair path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants
currently
living in the United States that is contingent upon securing our borders and
tracking whether legal immigrants have left the country when required;
o Reform our legal immigration system to better recognize the importance of
characteristics that will help build the American economy and strengthen
American families;
o Create an effective employment verification system that will prevent
identity theft
and end the hiring of future unauthorized workers; and,
o
I.
Establish an improved process for admitting future workers to serve our
nation's
workforce needs, while simultaneously protecting all workers.
Creating a Path to Citizenship for Unauthorized Immigrants Already Here
that is Contingent Upon Securing the Border and Combating Visa Overstays
Our legislation will provide a tough, fair, and practical roadmap to address
the status of unauthorized immigrants in the United States that is
contingent upon our success in securing our borders and addressing visa
overstays.
To fulfill the basic governmental function of securing our borders, we will
continue the increased efforts of the Border Patrol by providing them with
the latest technology, infrastructure, and personnel needed to prevent,
detect, and apprehend every unauthorized entrant.
Additionally, our legislation will increase the number of unmanned aerial
vehicles and
surveillance equipment, improve radio interoperability and increase the
number of agents at and between ports of entry. The purpose is to
substantially lower the number of successful illegal border crossings while
continuing to facilitate commerce.
We will strengthen prohibitions against racial profiling and inappropriate
use of force,enhance the training of border patrol agents, increase
oversight, and create a mechanism to ensure a meaningful opportunity for
border communities to share input, including critiques.
Our legislation will require the completion of an entry-exit system that
tracks whether all persons entering the United States on temporary visas via
airports and seaports have left the country as required by law.
We recognize that Americans living along the Southwest border are key to
recognizing and understanding when the border is truly secure. Our
legislation will create a commission comprised of governors, attorneys
general, and community leaders living along the Southwest border to monitor
the progress of securing our border and to make a
recommendation regarding when the bill's security measures outlined in the
legislation are completed.
While these security measures are being put into place, we will
simultaneously require those who came or remained in the United States
without our permission to register with the government. This will include
passing a background check and settling their debt to society by paying a
fine and back taxes, in order to earn probationary legal status, which will
allow them to live and work legally in the United States. Individuals with a
serious criminal background or others who pose a threat to our national
security will be ineligible for legal status and subject to deportation.
Illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes face immediate
deportation.
We will demonstrate our commitment to securing our borders and combating
visa overstays
by requiring our proposed enforcement measures be complete before any
immigrant on
probationary status can earn a green card
Current restrictions preventing non-immigrants from accessing federal public
benefits will also apply to lawful probationary immigrants.
Once the enforcement measures have been completed, individuals with
probationary legal
status will be required to go to the back of the line of prospective
immigrants, pass an additional background check, pay taxes, learn English
and civics, demonstrate a history of work in the United States, and current
employment, among other requirements, in order to earn the opportunity to
apply for lawful permanent residency. Those individuals who successfully
complete these requirements can eventually earn a green card.
Individuals who are present without lawful status - not including people
within the two
categories identified below - will only receive a green card after every
individual who is already waiting in line for a green card, at the time this
legislation is enacted, has received their green card. Our purpose is to
ensure that no one who has violated America's immigration laws will receive
preferential treatment as they relate to those individuals who have complied
with the law.
Our legislation also recognizes that the circumstances and the conduct of
people withoutlawful status are not the same, and cannot be addressed
identically.
o For instance, individuals who entered the United States as minor children
did not
knowingly choose to violate any immigration laws. Consequently, under our
proposal these individuals will not face the same requirements as other
individuals in order to earn a path to citizenship.
o Similarly, individuals who have been working without legal status in the
United
States agricultural industry have been performing very important and
difficult work to maintain America's food supply while earning subsistence
wages. Due to the utmost importance in our nation maintaining the safety of
its food supply, agricultural workers who commit to the long term stability
of our nation's agricultural industries will be treated differently than the
rest of the undocumented population because of the role they play in
ensuring that Americans have safe and secure agricultural products to sell
and consume. These individuals will earn a path to citizenship through a
different process under our new agricultural worker program.
II.
Improving our Legal Immigration System and Attracting the World's Best and
Brightest
The development of a rational legal immigration system is essential to
ensuring America's future economic prosperity. Our failure to act is
perpetuating a broken system which sadly discourages the world's best and
brightest citizens from coming to the United States and remaining in our
country to contribute to our economy. This failure makes a legal path to
entry in the United States insurmountably difficult for well-meaning
mmigrants. This unarguably discourages innovation and economic growth. It
has also created substantial visa backlogs which force families to live
apart, which incentivizes illegal immigration.
Our new immigration system must be more focused on recognizing the important
characteristics which will help build the American economy and strengthen
American
families. Additionally, we must reduce backlogs in the family and employment
visa
categories so that future immigrants view our future legal immigration
system as the
exclusive means for entry into the United States.
The United States must do a better job of attracting and keeping the world's
best and
brightest. As such, our immigration proposal will award a green card to
immigrants who
have received a PhD or Master's degree in science, technology, engineering,
or math from an American university. It makes no sense to educate the world'
s future innovators and entrepreneurs only to ultimately force them to leave
our country at the moment they are most able to contribute to our economy.
III.
Strong Employment Verification
We recognize that undocumented immigrants come to the United States almost
exclusively
for jobs. As such, dramatically reducing future illegal immigration can only
be achieved by developing a tough, fair, effective and mandatory employment
verification system. An employment verification system must hold employers
accountable for knowingly hiring undocumented workers and make it more
difficult for unauthorized immigrants to falsify documents to obtain
employment. Employers who knowingly hire unauthorized workers must face
stiff fines and criminal penalties for egregious offenses.
We believe the federal government must provide U.S. employers with a fast
and reliable
method to confirm whether new hires are legally authorized to work in the
United States. This is essential to ensure the effective enforcement of
immigration laws.
Our proposal will create an effective employment verification system which
prevents identity theft and ends the hiring of future unauthorized workers.
We believe requiring prospective workers to demonstrate both legal status
and identity, through non-forgeable electronic means prior to obtaining
employment, is essential to an employee verification system; and,
The employee verification system in our proposal will be crafted with
procedural safeguards to protect American workers, prevent identity theft,
and provide due process protections.
IV.
Admitting New Workers and Protecting Workers' Rights
The overwhelming majority of the 327,000 illegal entrants apprehended by CBP
in FY2011
were seeking employment in the United States. We recognize that to prevent
future waves of illegal immigration a humane and effective system needs to
be created for these immigrant workers to enter the country and find
employment without seeking the aid of human traffickers or drug cartels.
Our proposal will provide businesses with the ability to hire lower-skilled
workers in a timely manner when Americans are unavailable or unwilling to
fill those jobs.
o Protect workers by ensuring strong labor protections; and,
Permit workers who have succeeded in the workplace and contributed to their
communities over many years to earn green cards. |
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