January 5, 2010
On December 15, 2009, Representative Gutierrez (D-IL) introduced the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity (CIR ASAP) Act in the United States House of Representatives. This bill contains many provisions that would bring much needed reform to the immigration system --- particularly in the areas of detention, asylum, removal and protection for immigrant workers. It also attempts to provide fixes for the long green card backlogs, such as exempting spouses and children of lawful permanent residents from the family based quota, exempting certain categories of highly skilled workers from the employment based quota and providing other backlog relief.
This bill would create a legalization program to allow persons present in the U.S. to become conditional residents for six years and then acquire lawful permanent resident status. In exchange, it mandates that employers use an E-verify system and provides new penalties for employers who hire unauthorized workers. And, in addition, the bill provides for new restrictions on H and L visas, including requiring that employers recruit and attempt to hire U.S. workers before filing an H-1B petition.
This bill is the very first step in what is likely to be a long and protracted political process to fashion a new comprehensive immigration law in the United States. Whether there will be a new law at all and what the provisions of that new law will be is far from certain.
