A Report from www.ilw.com on the Progress of Immigration Reform

Immigration Reform Bill Update

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s immigration reform bill (300 pps.) is due for consideration on the Senate floor where the debate is about to begin at press time. This bill contains a number of amendments to the original Specter bill:

++AgJobs has been included
++DREAM has been included
++there is a provision to limit guest workers to occupations with less than 11% unemployment in a MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area).
++there is a provision to delay implementation of all sections of the bill for at least 90 days to determine if errors need to be corrected
++there is a provision to exempt nurses and physical therapists from green card caps for 7 years

Apart from the above, most of the new provisions of the reported bill are taken straight from McCain Kennedy. For a helpful summary by Gregory Siskind, see : http://www.visalaw.com/06mar4/

We note that although Senate Majority Leader Frist withdrew his cloture motion yesterday, and press reports suggest that Rep.Hastert and Rep. Boehner are open to compromise, we stand by our opinion that comprehensive immigration reform will die in
conference in 2006.

KJ