Senate nearing immigration bill

Nicole Gaouette of the LA Times (here) reports that a bipartisan group in the Senate is moving toward an immigration reform plan that would give legal status to 12 million illegal immigrants.  Senators negotiating a bipartisan immigration reform bill have settled on the details of a plan that would immediately grant legal status to all illegal immigrants currently in the United States. The deal on “Z visas” for illegal immigrants is one of several issues where Democrats and Republicans have reached broad agreement. But as senators emerged from what they had hoped would be a final round of negotiations Tuesday, they indicated that painstakingly slow progress would keep them from meeting the deadline set by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to begin debate on a bill today. Late Tuesday, Reid agreed to push that deadline to Monday.

Unresolved issues include the terms of a guest worker program for future immigrants. Republicans are adamant that any program that imports labor should be temporary and not allow participants to become citizens.

KJ