The White House is circulating a draft immigration bill that would create a new visa for undocumented immigrants living in the United States and allow them to become legal permanent residents within eight years, according to a report published online Saturday by USA Today. President Barack Obama's bill would create a "Lawful Prospective Immigrant" visa for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. The bill includes more security funding and requires business owners to adopt a system for verifying the immigration status of new hires within four years, the newspaper said. USA Today reported that the bill would require that immigrants pass a criminal background check, submit biometric information and pay fees to qualify for the new visa. Immigrants who served more than a year in prison for a criminal conviction or were convicted of three or more crimes and were sentenced to a total of 90 days in jail would not be eligible. Crimes committed in other countries that would bar immigrants from legally entering the country would also be ineligible. Those immigrants facing deportation would be eligible to apply for the visa, the newspaper reported. Immigrants would be eligible to apply for a green card within eight years, if they learn English and U.S. history and government, and they would later be eligible to become U.S. citizens. Last month a bipartisan group of senators announced they had agreed on the general outline of an immigration plan. For his part, Obama has said he would not submit his own legislation to Congress so long as law makers acted "in a timely manner." If they failed, he said, "I will send up a bill based on my proposal and insist that they vote on it right away." Clark Stevens, a White House spokesman, said Saturday that Obama still supports a bipartisan effort to craft a comprehensive immigration bill. "While the president has made clear he will move forward if Congress fails to act, progress continues to be made and the administration has not prepared a final bill to submit," he said in a statement. Read more http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/16/obama-immigration-reform_n_2704025.html
Marco Rubio Rejects Obama Immigration Reform Plan Hours after USA Today obtained the first draft of President Obama's immigration reform plan, the office of Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) put out a press release signaling the lawmaker's strong opposition. Specifically, Rubio's statement criticizes the Obama bill for not being tough enough on border security and for failing to reward "those who chose to do things the right way and come here legally" over "those who broke our immigration laws." The president's plan would allow undocumented immigrants to obtain legal permanent residency within eight years, among other provisions. Read more http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/16/rubio-immigration-reform_n_2703722.html
