Bipartisan group of senators unveils immigration reform plan

Source: Washington Post

A bipartisan group of senators outlined a sweeping proposal Monday to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws, saying that the time has come to fix “our broken immigration system.”

At a joint news conference, five of the eight senators who signed on to a detailed statement of principles to guide the effort portrayed it as a way to resolve the plight of millions of undocumented immigrants living illegally in society’s shadows and to modernize and streamline the legal immigration system.

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The group outlined the key balance in its proposed framework: Legalization would be afforded almost immediately to the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants, provided they pay back taxes and a fine. But the opportunity to pursue full citizenship would not become available until the border was secured and new systems were in place for employers to verify workers’ immigration status and for the government to ensure that legal immigrants cannot overstay their visas.

The document also calls for tying flows of legal immigration to the nation’s unemployment rate but generally expanding visa programs to discourage people from crossing the border without permission.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-embraces-principles-of-senate-immigration-reform-plan/2013/01/28/a539c44a-6974-11e2-ada3-d86a4806d5ee_story.html