Joint Bill Would Revamp Immigrant Worker Rules

Describing America’s immigration system as broken, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation Thursday to set up a temporary worker program that could lead to permanent resident status and would allow undocumented foreigners already here to work legally after paying sizable fines and undergoing background checks.

“This is a comprehensive bill that doesn’t try to solve the hemorrhaging immigration problem with a Band-Aid -- this bill is major surgery,” said Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), one of the measure’s sponsors in the House. “We must recognize reality and implement a tightly structured guest worker program to securely, and legally, fill jobs that no American is available [for] or wants to do.”

President Bush has pledged to overhaul immigration laws as part of his second-term agenda, and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Thursday that the new legislation, known as the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005, reflected the principles that Bush had outlined -- protecting domestic security, serving the U.S. economy, providing a willing worker for a willing employer where no American wants the job, and opposing amnesty.

“I’m confident we can work with the White House,” said McCain, who wrote the Senate bill with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).

The chances that the proposal will make it to Bush’s desk for his signature are uncertain. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who as chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on immigration will have considerable influence on such legislation, said in an interview Thursday that he could not envision Congress enacting a bill that included what he called a “work and stay” provision.

“I have grave doubts about whether anything with that could pass, particularly in the House,” said Cornyn, who is drafting a competing immigration bill.

A vocal minority among House Republicans has called for a crackdown on immigration, both illegal and legal, saying that any sort of guest worker program would amount to amnesty for lawbreakers. In addition, the Senate last month blocked consideration of a more limited immigration bill that would have legalized the presence in the United States of half a million farmworkers and their families.

Cornyn, adding that he welcomed “the continuing contribution” from McCain and Kennedy, said he hoped the issue would reach the Senate floor this year.

The idea behind the new legislation, its sponsors said Thursday, is to acknowledge that the American economy relies on illegal immigrants -- estimated at 10 million to 12 million -- to do low-paying jobs unpalatable to Americans, such as washing dishes, harvesting crops and providing child care, and to allow businesses, which can now get visas for 5,000 workers a year, to function legally.

“We have entire industries working with a workforce that is here illegally,” said Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), another Senate sponsor.

The bill would create two new categories of visas: one for foreigners who want to come to the United States as temporary workers and one for individuals already here illegally.

Jobs would be posted on an Internet-based electronic database, America’s Job Bank; foreign workers who found jobs through that database would go to a U.S. consulate, where the offer would be verified and a biometric, machine-readable, tamper-proof visa issued. The new temporary workers would pay a $500 processing fee. Their visas would be valid for three years and could be renewed for three more. They could apply for permanent resident status after four years, and their employer could seek a green card for them at any time.

By contrast, workers already here illegally would be required to come forward and register with the U.S. government. In order to participate in the temporary worker program, they would have to pay $2,000 in fines and work for six more years before seeking permanent residency. In addition, they would have to prove that they were learning English and undergo stringent criminal background checks.

Addressing concerns that a guest worker program would allow people already here illegally to “jump the line” in seeking permanent residency, Kennedy said: “This does not provide a free pass to anyone.”

The sponsors said the legislation also would result in better border security and fewer fatalities among people making the dangerous crossing from Mexico through the desert. In addition, they said, businesses that hire illegal workers would face strict new enforcement penalties.

The measure, said Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.), an author of the House bill, would take illegal immigration “out of the shadows and bring it into the light of day.”

Businesses that rely on illegal immigrants as employees largely embraced the proposal. The National Restaurant Assn. called it “a realistic and balanced approach to addressing the security and economic shortcomings of our immigration system.”

A coalition of conservatives and business leaders, led by Tamar Jacoby of the Manhattan Institute and Jeff Bell of the Capital City Partners, praised the legislators for crafting “a solution that will permit us to retake control of our borders and reestablish the rule of law.”

The Service Employees International Union praised the “earned path to legal status for hard-working, tax-paying immigrants.” And the National Immigration Forum, a Washington advocacy group for immigrants, said the bill “gets the combination of admissions and enforcement just about right. In contrast to the status quo, it will mean honest admissions policies, tightly enforced.”

But the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington group that supports lower immigration limits and better controls on borders, said the bill “perpetuates the continued dependence on foreign workers that is helping undermine economic opportunities for hard-working Americans.”

The group’s president, Dan Stein, said in an interview that the bill “is really an amnesty. It doesn’t fix anything that needs to be fixed, and it rewards those people who come illegally.”