Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee began conducting hearings over the near-850-page bill drafted by a bipartisan group of eight senators designed to overhaul the immigration system.
The most important element of the bill that we want to see the Senate embrace is a systematic approach of providing immigrants a pathway to citizenship. The new bill includes implementing new border security measures and a national government program that verifies the legal status of new workers.
While this nation should institute a policy that enables immigrants to become citizens and fully functional members of society, there should also be scrupulous attention to our borders.
One of the aspects of the bill's proposal to provide a pathway to citizenship is by imposing a penalty of $500 and making immigrants pay any back taxes, along with a host of additional taxes and fines during a period of 10 years or more. The benefit of this is that it accumulates a high amount of federal revenue.
This increased amount of money coming into the federal government can help pay for the costs of tightening security and instilling new surveillance technology and more border agents.
The process incorporated into the bill encompasses much of what the Dream Act proposed. There could be a quicker way for immigrants to earn citizenship who have been here since before they were 16.
We also believe that children of immigrants and students should have access to federal benefits and programs dealing with education and health care. We think it is time for the federal government to embrace a group of people who can contribute to our society.
Immigrants can contribute greatly to the economy. That is why we think it is essential to repair a broken system.
This bill provides many opportunities for immigrants in this country to begin the process of gaining citizenship and living out the lives they desire. While it will need to go through the Senate, there are many elements of it that deserve to be incorporated into the bill that the House will have to eventually reconcile with.
The main points we stress are: a transparent and simplified way for immigrants to become citizens, heightened and improved security, federal benefits and opportunities and sufficient background checks on all eligible citizens.
The plan set forth in the bill holds that anyone who has committed a felony or three or more misdemeanors will not be eligible for the program. We were initially concerned that some of the eligibility requirements might be too stringent, but these requirements are fair.
It is absolutely necessary to have background checks and requirements for all people requesting visas or any immigration benefits.
What matters most is improving and simplifying the program that grants access to citizenship based on a host of fair but necessary requirements.
The United States has a responsibility to immigrants - plain and simple. John F. Kennedy declared this country, "a nation of immigrants," and it is important that we embrace that and recognize it.
At its heart, this is a human rights issue, and it is written in our Constitution and nation's principles that all men are created equal.
We need an immigration system that acknowledges this and celebrates it.
This most recent bill begins to further our founders' vision.
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