The Senate returned to Washington on Monday, June 5 and began debating the immigration bill. Coming up are a number of bad and good amendments to the bill.
Amendments Relating to Family Menendez-Hagel amendment 1194 The Senate bill would provide visas to eliminate the backlog in family-based visas. However, anyone for whom a relative petition was filed after May 1, 2005 would have their petition voided, and they would have to apply through the new point system that the bill sets up. The amendment would move that cutoff date to January 2007, so that backlog reduction visas will be made available to persons for whom a petition was filed between May 1,2005 and January 2007. The amendment also brings existing family-based petitions more in line with the Senate bill's treatment of existing employment-based visa applications, which are grandfathered in to date of enactment. Clinton-Hagel-Menendez Amendment 1183 This amendment would amend the "immediate relative" category for family-visa petitions to include minor children and spouses of legal pennanent residents (LPRs). This amendment would ensure that LPRs can be more quickly reunited with their family members; without this amendment, LPRs will continue to face long waits of five years or more to be reunited with their loved ones. Obama-Menendez Amendment 1202 This amendment would sunset the merit-based point system after five years. Underscoring our substantive concerns regarding the allocation of points within the system itself are more fundamental concerns brought on by such an extreme departure from the guiding principles of immigration law. An amendment that would implement this new system on a probationary basis, with the ability to dismantle it if unworkable, would provide a valuable safety net for the millions of immigrants waiting to reunite with their families. Dodd Amendment 1148 This amendment would increase the parent visitor cap to 90,000 to ensure that sufficient numbers of green cards are available for parents to come to the United States, extend the parent visa to 180 days and make it renewable and valid for three years, and strikes language that unfairly collectively punishes those who have not violated the law. Amendments Relating to Legalization Cornyn amendment 1184 The amendment would further limit a judge's discretion in deportation cases, and would allow USCIS to deny citizenship to legal permanent residents based on secret evidence. It also would make undocumented immigrants ineligible for legalization if they used false documents to work and are convicted of a crime for doing so, or if they were present without documents for over a year and left and re-entered the country illegally. Amendments Relating to Immigrant Integration Inhofe Amendment 1151 This amendment is an "English-only" amendment to the immigration reform bill currently under consideration in the Senate. The Inhofe Amendment, which states English is the national language of the United States, is an overbroad proposal that could restrict the ability of the federal government to communicate effectively with citizens, newcomers, and visitors. In the process, the Inhofe Amendment severely jeopardizes the health and safety of all Americans and impairs national security. Sessions amendment 1234 and Sessions amendment 1235 These amendments would deny the Earned Income Tax Credit-available for certain low-wage workers-to legalized immigrants who would obtain Z visas and Y visa for future workers (amendment 1234). Amendment 1235 would deny the Earned Income Tax Credit to Legal Permanent Residents for the first five years after they obtain a green card.