The first to come up is expected to be the "Dream Act"

Today Could be the Day

If you are near a tv with cable, check it out on C-SPAN Live



_____
Congress quietly returns to immigration

A broad overhaul failed this summer, but an array of smaller measures is under discussion, including ways to legalize certain workers.
By Nicole Gaouette, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 17, 2007


WASHINGTON — Three months after Congress failed to pass a broad immigration overhaul, lawmakers are quietly returning to the hot-button issue, discussing narrower measures that address illegal immigrants and low-skilled laborers.

Already, critics are promising fireworks.

As early as this week, Democratic senators are set to introduce an amendment that would give conditional legal status to young illegal immigrants.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) hopes to bring up a visa program that eventually would allow farmhands to gain citizenship, whereas Republican senators are discussing a short-term guest worker program for low-skilled laborers.

Republicans also are considering a bill that would overhaul visas for high-skilled foreigners.

In the House, Republicans have been steadily introducing initiatives aimed at ensuring that illegal immigrants could not gain access to federal benefits.

"We may be heading for another immigration battle," Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said of the measures headed for the Senate floor.

"Hopefully it can be avoided."

...Some of the measures now in the works don't have much bipartisan support, limiting their chances of success. And some lawmakers express doubts that it is possible to restructure the immigration system through separate bills rather than sweeping legislation.

"I'm personally very skeptical of a piecemeal approach," said Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), a member of the bipartisan coalition that tried to pass the overhaul earlier this year. "The hardest thing to do . . . is take care of" the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. "The minute we start doing the easy things, like taking care of agribusiness interests because they need the workers, . . . then we're leaving the hard things" unaddressed.

The central conflict that tripped up the comprehensive bill remains the question of whether illegal immigrants should be given the chance to earn legal status. That question will be an issue in at least two of the measures headed for the Senate.

The first to come up is expected to be the "Dream Act," a bill championed by Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) that would give conditional legal status to immigrants brought to the U.S. at a young age.

To qualify under it, they must have been in the country for at least five years, have a high school diploma and meet other requirements. Over the next six years, they would have to spend two years in college or the military, after which they could become legal permanent residents, a step toward citizenship.

Durbin plans to attach the bill as an amendment to a defense funding measure scheduled to come before the Senate today, his staff said.

The bill has broad support, prompting immigration restrictionist groups to send alerts warning that the Senate was planning "to pass an amnesty act by hiding language in the defense authorization bill."