US lawmakers want a “merit-based“ immigration

A bipartisan deal on immigration to the US was announced on Thursday May 17 2007 in Washington.
The package offers a quick legalization of 12 million undocumented immigrants but at the same time promotes the idea of a “merit-based immigration”
Under the terms of the deal, immigration of family relatives of people living in the US will be curtailed and be replaced by a point system, whose goal is to promote immigration of skilled workers.

New York. The couple was odd. Jon Kyl, a conservative Senator from Arizona, and Edward Kennedy, a progressive Senator from Massachusetts, rarely find common ground. But both men led a bipartisan group of key senators who reached a deal to make sweeping changes to U.S. immigration law (Photo: Illegal immigrants arrested in Naco. © Tim McKulka). The agreement announced on May 17 2007 offers legalization of the about 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the US while promoting radical changes to the system. The Senate bill would make it harder for immigrants living legally in America to bring their relatives. Instead, admission to the US would be based on merit.

If the bill is accepted, the Congress would create would a point system similar to those already used in Canada and Great Britain. This trade-off would give both Democrats and Republicans something they have been asking for a long time. Democrats have long advocated the legalization of the people living illegally in the US. Republicans want a merit-based immigration to try to meet the national economic interests.

For the illegal workers, legalization would have a price. They would have to pay a $5,000 fine, return to their home country to apply for a visa, and wait eight to 13 years to gain permanent status. The bill would also create something president George Bush has long been calling for: a temporary-worker program. Some 400,000 foreigners would be eligible for that program each year. But they could only work a total of six years, in periods of two years at a time, with long breaks in between. And they would have to leave their families behind.

The bill goes before the full Senate on May 21 2007. The House of Representatives will take on the immigration reform in July. President Bush has made the overhaul of the current immigration policy one of the main goals of his second term and has been waiting for a breakthrough on that issue for months. On Saturday May 19, he again praised the senators who reached the deal. “I appreciate the effort of senators who came together to craft this important legislation,” he said in his weekly radio address. “This bill brings us closer to an immigration system that enforces our laws and upholds the great American tradition of welcoming those who share our values and our love of freedom.”

The proposed bill faces opposition from both sides in Congress. Conservatives reject what they describe as an “amnesty” for illegal immigrants. Liberals and some immigration advocates see the package as unfair to families. On May 18, Hoy, a free hispanic daily paper in NYC called the deal “unacceptable” on its front page. Some immigrant groups like the New York Immigration Coalition denounced what they describe as “ backroom bargaining”. They criticize the reordering of immigration priorities announced by the bipartisan group of lawmakers. For these groups, moving the system from one based on family to one based on merit and economic priorities is “unacceptable”.

Jean-Cosme Delaloye

A French version of this story was published on May 19 2007 in 24heures and Tribune de Genève in Switzerland.

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