Features of the bipartisan plan range from more drones along the Rio Grande to a path to citizenship for some 11 million people in the country illegally. But the fight is all about the details.
From left to right, Sens. Richard Durbin (D) of Illinois, Charles Schumer (D) of New York, and John McCain (R) of Arizona listen to a question at a news conference on comprehensive immigration reform at the US Capitol in Washington Monday.
Gary Cameron/Reuters
EnlargeOn Monday a bipartisan group of eight senators unveiled a proposed overhaul of the US immigration system. The plan includes both increased border enforcement and an eventual path to citizenship for many of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country. Yet some important details of the effort remain undefined. According to what we know now, how would the immigration overhaul work?
Skip to next paragraph Peter GrierWashington Editor
Peter Grier is The Christian Science Monitor's Washington editor. In this capacity, he helps direct coverage for the paper on most news events in the nation's capital.
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We?ll give you a stripped-down, ?Immigration 101? version of the plan so you can follow debate on the issue in days and weeks ahead.
First, the senatorial plan calls for devoting increased resources to what it calls ?the basic governmental function of securing our borders." Specifically, it calls for increasing the use of drones and other electronic surveillance equipment, improving radio interoperability, and in general upping the number of agents at and between US border crossings.
?The purpose is to substantially lower the number of successful illegal border crossings while continuing to facilitate commerce," says the proposal.
Second, the plan calls for completion of a system capable of tracking whether people who enter the US via temporary visas have left the country when their visa has expired. Most surveys find that overstays range from 31 to 57 percent of those in the country illegally, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Third, it would establish a commission of Southwestern governors, attorneys general, and community leaders ?to monitor the progress of securing our border and to make a recommendation regarding when the bill?s security measures outlined in the legislation are completed."
The actual importance of this commission is unclear, as we?ll see in a moment.
Fourth, this approach to the problem would require persons who are currently here illegally to register with the government while the security measures are being put in place. Those who pass a background check designed to weed out actual criminals, and who pay a fine and settle all back taxes, would earn a probationary legal status.?
Again, this would occur simultaneously with the all the more-drones-along-the-Rio-Grande stuff. There?s been some confusion about that.
Fifth, citizenship! After the enforcement measures have been completed, those on probationary legal status could stand in the back of the line to get a green card and eventual citizenship. They would not earn these coveted items until everyone who has played by the rules and is already legally waiting has been taken care of.
?Our purpose is to ensure that no one who has violated America?s immigration laws will receive preferential treatment as they relate to those individuals who have complied with the law,? states the proposal.
(Hmm. Haven?t they already received preferential treatment via the probationary legal status thing? What?s the difference between that and a green card? Isn?t legal status, probationary or not, what most illegal immigrants really want? Those are questions the plan?s proponents have yet to address.)
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