THIS WEEK’S IMMIGRATION NEWS: 

Senate Unable To Reach Agreement On Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill

The Senate was unable to reach agreement on immigration reform legislation before the two-week spring recess. The immigration debate may be back on the agenda when the Senate returns on April 24th, so please make plans to meet with your Senators in their district offices over the next two weeks and urge them to support a bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform bill. Once the Senate does pass it’s version of the comprehensive immigration reform Bill (hopefully by the end of April), it will be a good start, but a long way from being a LAW! The next step is for the Senate sponsors of the Senate Bill and the House sponsors of the terrible anti-immigration House Bill, which the House passed in December 2005 to get together in conference committee and “fight it out”. Hopefully, the compromise Bill will be pro-immigration and provide at least some of the benefits which this Senate version provides. However, there is no way to know for sure - it is all politics!

The jost important thing for immigrants to understand right now is - KEEP YOUR MONEY IN

YOUR POCKETS!!!! Don’t go rushing down to your local immigration service or attorney offering to pay for this new law. THERE IS NO NEW LAW!!! Times like these are always a windfall for unscrupulous immigration attorneys and services that use these announcements in the news to milk money out of innocent, desperate immigrants. Please tell all your friends, announce it at your church; try to get the word out to save people money and frustration. Now is the time to just sit back and be patient - wait for the real law to pass. It could take a month or two more. I will let you know once the House and Senate start getting close to really passing a Bill, which the President will sign into law. Even after the President finally signs the Bill into law, there is still a 30 to 60 day period or MORE, where actual regulations must be created to detail the procedures for applying the new law - which will not be an easy task. Finally, the regulations will be released with an application date announced. At this point it would be wise to begin contacting an immigration attorney or doing research yourself to fully understand under which provision you qualify, what the exact procedures are, what documents you need to provide to demonstrate eligibility, the filing fees and other costs and timing of the visa. Immigration is not mysterious. Every case that you do yourself or have professionals prepare for you has exact steps and procedures which can be easily explained. Never, ever give your money blindly to anyone who does not provide you with clear instructions and advice about the type of immigration work that is being done for you, the procedures, timing and steps along the way.

With all this said, I would like to give you a short run-down on the main provisions which have been under discussion for those in illegal status, since that is the main concern for us all. While the provisions of the proposed Bill could change drastically once it hits the Senate floor for debate after Easter, immigration experts say that it may divide the current undocumented population into the following three categories, based on their period of residence in the United States:

1) Category 1 - Working In The U.S. For Five Years: Those individuals who have been here and working for more than 5 years would be eligible to embark immediately on a path to earned permanent residence and ultimately citizenship. That path would involve a 6-8 year prospective work requirement, a clean record, English language study, and the payment of significant fines and back taxes;

2) Category 2 - Working Less Than Five Years - But arrived before 1/7/04: The second category of undocumented individuals would be those who arrived less than 5 years ago but before January 7, 2004. This group would be required to pay significant fines and, within three years, would be required to leave the country and reenter in a temporary status. Upon reentry, these individuals would have full job portability and could apply for permanent resident status after the first category of undocumented workers completed their processing.

3) Category 3- Working In The U.S. For Five Years: The final group of undocumented workers, those who arrived after January 7, 2004, would be required to leave the country, but they would be permitted to apply for the new temporary worker program subject to the numerical limitations.

Again, we are not sure that these provisions will make it in the final Bill and do not know how the actual legal regulations would even be applied to the above to process applicants. We will know much more as the debate goes on. I’ll keep you posted.