Senate Stalls on Immigration Reform Legislation

News Date April 10, 2006

       Before leaving for the Easter Recess, the U.S. Senate left immigration reform legislation unresolved on the Senate floor. The latest breakthrough was a compromise amendment to S. 2454 from the Senate Judiciary Committee. The new amendment was forged by Senators Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), and John McCain (R-Ariz.).
       The Senate could not muster the necessary 60 votes on two cloture votes in order to proceed with the immigration reform bill. The amendment creates an earned adjustment program for long-term undocumented immigrants and provides an opportunity for illegal aliens and their families to become invested stakeholders in the country if they can demonstrate that they have met all of the following requirements. Those include:
       * Passed national security and criminal background checks;
       * Resided in the U.S. for at least 5 years ( since April 5, 2001);
       * Worked a minimum of three years in the U.S. preceding the date of introduction, and six years after the date of enactment;
       * Paid all federal and state taxes;
       * Registered for Military Selective Service;
       * Demonstrated knowledge of English language and American civics requirements;
       * Paid a $2,000 fine, in addition to required application fees. No line jumping in front of current immigrant visa backlog.
       Some report that the legislation could be brought up again when the Senate returns but the timing of that remains uncertain. Other news articles also report that the Senate has the "60 votes" to approve this legislation.
       The compromise amendment also provided for a "Deferred Mandatory Departure." Under these provisions, aliens who cannot prove the five-year residency or three-year pre-introduction work requirements and who have been in the U.S. since before January 7, 2004, (approximately 2.9 million people) would be given "deferred mandatory departure status." This status would authorize them to stay and work in the U.S. for 3 years, but would require them to return to a port of entry to apply for a visa through a temporary program. This provision seeks to distinguish between immigrants who have long-term ties to the U.S. and those who are recent arrivals.
       The bill reported out by the Senate Judiciary Committee included the agricultural labor reforms known as "AgJOBS" that are bipartisan, comprehensive, and broadly supported. Efforts to include AgJOBS legislation in the immigration reform legislation have been led by Senators Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).
       AgJOBS restructures and reforms the current H-2A temporary agricultural worker program. This is accomplished by (1) substantially streamlining the program's administrative procedures, including eliminating the labor certification process, (2) reforming the requirements for H-2A employers, including an immediate reduction and gradual elimination of the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, (3) streamlining the process for admission of H-2A aliens, and (4) eliminating, on a one-time basis, the statutory bar preventing aliens not currently in the program from acquiring H-2A status. With the exception of the new provision allowing for extended visas for sheepherder, goat herder and dairy workers, the H-2A reform provisions of the AgJOBS bill reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee are the same as S. 359 introduced by Craig this Congress.
       NASDA has participated with the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform co-chaired by the American Nursery and Landscape Association and the National Council of Agricultural Employers regarding legislative reforms in agricultural labor and AgJOBS. (Contact: Jennifer Yezak)