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Immigration reform bill: Top 8 changes GOP senators want

More than 300 amendments were submitted for possible inclusion in a sweeping immigration reform package – at least 100 of them from two Republicans, Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Jeff Sessions of Alabama. Here are eight notable changes GOP lawmakers want to see in bill, as the Senate Judiciary Committee takes up amendments between now and Memorial Day. 

8. Echoes of the Boston bombing

Julia Malakie/The Lowell Sun/AP/File
The story of Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev (shown here in 2010) has led to one proposed amendment to the immigration reform bill.

  • By David Grant Staff writer

Refugees or people who have asylum in the US may get their visas canceled if they travel to the country from which they fled – as did one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing case.

This amendment, offered by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) of South Carolina, grants such authority to the secretary of Homeland Security. The senator crafted it amid revelations that bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev had traveled back to the restive Russian region that his parents had fled a decade earlier. The amendment, however, would let those holding refugee or asylum status apply for a waiver from the rule before taking the return trip.

In a separate amendment related to the bombing, Graham would have the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security more thoroughly screen potential immigrants coming from nations or regions where groups that represent a threat to the US are known to operate.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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