By Perla Trevizo | Arizona Daily Star
Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., together with Filemon Vela of Texas, introduced a comprehensive immigration reform bill on Friday to serve as an alternative to what the Senate passed in June and something supporters can rally around.
The Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2013 closely mirrors a 2009 version that had more than 100 co-sponsors but failed to advance.
The bill focuses on the ports of entry, requiring the Department of Homeland Security to add at least 5,000 customs officers. The Senate bill would add 3,500 officers but also double the number of Border Patrol agents to nearly 40,000.
Both bills offer a path to citizenship that is more than a decade long and require people to pay a fine and pass background checks. But instead of limiting eligibility to those who entered the country before Dec. 31, 2011, as the Senate’s reform does, Grijalva and Vela’s bill extends it to the day the bill is introduced.
