News Update - May 18, 2007Senate Negotiators Announce Agreement on Comprehensive Immigration Reform Legislation –White House ApprovesSenate negotiators reached a bipartisan agreement yesterday under which most of the 11-12 million undocumented workers in this country will be able to obtain legal status under a new "Z" visa category so long as they entered the U.S. prior to January 1, 2007, are currently employed, and pay fees and penalties totaling $5,000. The agreement has White House approval. The "Z" visa is to be valid for four years and renewable. The approximate time for a "Z" visa holder to obtain a green card will be between 8-13 years after the current immigrant backlogs are eliminated and the "Z" applicant meets the requirements under a new merit immigration quota system, applies for adjustment of status in his/her country of origin, and pays a $4,000 penalty. The DREAM Act and AgJobs are also part of this legislation. The DREAM Act would allow persons who entered the U.S. as minors and have met certain study requirements to eventually obtain permanent residence and AgJobs would allow farmworkers to do the same. Other provisions as stated in our previous news updates include heavy emphasis on border security for 18 months before most of the benefits can begin, elimination of four family categories and significant reduction of immigration for parents of U.S. citizens, movement to a point system for most future immigration, and creation of a new "Y" guest worker program. The action will now move to the floor of the Senate where debate
is set to begin on Monday. A number of groups on both the left and
the right are dissatisfied with different portions of the agreement
and debate is expected to be contentious although the bill is widely
expected to be passed in that chamber of Congress. Stay tuned. † The author is a 26+ year practitioner of immigration law based in New York City. He was awarded the Sidney A. Levine prize for best legal writing at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1977 and has written extensively on immigration over the past years for the ethnic newspapers, World Journal, Sing Tao, Pakistan Calling, Muhasha and OCS. He has testified as an expert on immigration in civil court proceedings and was recognized by the Taiwan government in 1985 for his work protecting human rights. His article, "The Bush Temporary Worker Proposal and Comparative Pending Legislation: an Analysis" was Interpreter Releases' cover display article at the American Immigration Lawyers Association annual conference in 2004, and his victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case of first impression nationwide, Firstland International v. INS, successfully challenged INS' policy of over 40 years of revoking approved immigrant visa petitions under a nebulous standard of proof. Its value as precedent, however, was short-lived as it was specifically targeted by the Administration in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004. ‡ This article © 2007 Alan Lee, Esq.
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Copyright © 2003-2012 Alan Lee,
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