As someone who has read this bill and worked on this bill feel free to ask me some questions. There are a ton of misconceptions about this bill out there as witnessed on this thread.
I'll address a few quick ones that I have noticed in this thread. In regards to the "amnesty" the bill sets in place a ten-year path to citizenship that includes the illegal immigrants paying fines, back taxes, learning English and civics, and not being eligible for any gov't money (i.e. healthcare). These undocumented workers DO NOT jump the line, they are put at the back of the line behind all of the immigrants that have applied and are waiting lawfully to earn green cards and citizenship.
The a large percentage of the 12 million undocumented workers are not here after illegally crossing the border, but rather are visa overstays.
"Job thieves" is an outrageous claim that is only echoed by Jeff Sessions and a select few, farmers and low-skilled job providers throughout the country have attempted to offer jobs to american's and simply can't find any willing to do this work. Say what you want to say about what that shows about citizens and government handouts, etc...but the reality is these low-skilled immigrants are NOT taking jobs that uneducated citizens are trying to get, that is just reality. This bill provides a seasonal visa program, the problem with just seasonal is though that some industries (see dairy) need year around low skilled workers. A huge part of this bill is devoted and shaped around the AG industries desperate need for low-skilled labor, while also protecting the rights of the workers.
This bill also gets rid of diversity visas and country caps. As to the argument that we should only pick and choose the high-skilled immigrants, we NEED the low skilled immigrants for this country to run. On top to that, the low-skilled workers kids many times grow into huge contributors and entrepreneurs (see the majority of ceo's in silicon valley).
As to employment verification, this bill drastically increases the fines for employers who employ undocumented workers and phases in a e-verification that all businesses must use to verify that the worker they are hiring is here legally. I think the vast majority of people agree this is a good thing, as no one wants businesses undercutting wages and conditions while employing illegal workers.
Border Security - this bill increases spending on border security a ton. Border crossings are already at a 40 year low, and the bill offers even more funding for hot spots along the southwest border to deter, capture, and process all illegal border crossings. The bill also implements a entry/exit system to better control visa overstays. It also puts money towards tougher central enforcement.
In maybe the most basic way, as Gover Norquist argues, we simply need these people. We need more workers, low-skilled and high-skilled, and we need their tax dollars. We also need a faster and easier way to process the people who so desperately want to be in this country, while also making it faster and easier to stop people trying to get into this country or stay in this country for insidious reasons.
