Lawmakers, interest groups already calling for changes to immigration bill

The law also stiffens penalties for gang violence, passport, visa, and immigration fraud – including marriage fraud – features that were in the immigration bill that passed the Senate in May 2006 by a vote of 63-36.

The proposed legislation also aims to clear in eight years a backlog in visas for family unification that will help an estimated 4 million families. After the backlog is cleared, the current employment-based green card system will be replaced by a merit-based points system that will favor skilled workers who speak English.

"The package is generous for those who are already here and those who have waited patiently to come legally. How the deal treats immigrant families and workers coming in the future is where the biggest problems lie," says Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, a pro-immigrant advocacy group in Washington. Mr. Sharry adds that activists will work to improve the bill on the Senate and House floors. "We are encouraged that the senators' negotiations have born fruit, but the fruit is not ripe," he says.

The most controversial element of the proposed law is the renewable "Z" nonimmigrant visa, which offers a path to legal status for some 12 million undocumented people now living in the country. The law anticipates three categories of Z visa: Z-1 for employed workers, Z-2 for the spouse or elderly parent of that worker, and Z-3 for the minor children of that worker. To be eligible for this visa, applicants must have been "illegally present within the US before January 1, 2007," Applicants must also pass a background check, remain employed, maintain a clean criminal record, pay a $5,000 fine and receive a counterfeit-proof biometric card to apply for a work visa. [Editor's note:The original version misstated the amount of the fine.]

Critics on both sides of the aisle call the new immigration plan amnesty. The proposed Senate bill "means compromising our nation's respect for the rule of law and embracing illegal aliens with open arms," says Rep. Walter Jones (R) of North Carolina. Sen. Robert Byrd (D) of West Virginia, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, calls the plan "a slap in the face to every immigrant who had to wait abroad to come to American shores, and to every immigrant who had to struggle and work to become a US citizen."

But senators involved in the negotiations say that the bill has been carefully crafted to pull support across the political spectrum, and that the deal can withstand a tough floor flght.

"Politics is the art of the possible, and the agreement we just reached is the best possible chance we will have in years to secure our borders, bring millions of people out of the shadows and into the sunshine of America," said Sen. Edward Kennedy (D) of Massachusetts, who led negotiations for the Democrats.

Page: 1 | 2