By Alexander Bolton | The Hill
The Senate’s Gang of Eight on Tuesday released the details of a broad agreement to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws.
The legislation would give provisional legal status to an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants and put them on a pathway to citizenship but only after a list of criteria for securing the U.S.-Mexico border are achieved.
It sets goals of persistent surveillance in high-risk areas along the Southern border — sectors where more than 30,000 individuals are apprehended trying to enter the country illegally per year — and a 90-percent effectiveness rate for apprehensions in high-risk sectors.
It would provide funding for 3,500 additional customs agents nationwide and authorize the deployment of the National Guard to the Southwest border to construct fencing and augment surveillance systems.
Illegal immigrants could not receive provisional legal status until Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano submits to Congress a “notice of commencement” testifying to the completion of the bill’s border-security goals.
Before immigrants with provisional status could achieve permanent lawful status, the secretary of Homeland Security in consultation with the comptroller general of the U.S. would have to certify a number of border-security provisions have been met.
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Napolitano: Bill could spark new wave of illegal immigrants
If you’d like to discuss immigration matters, Brian Bergin, bbergin@roselawgroup.com
