Side-by-Side Comparison of Immigration Proposals

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Are you having trouble keeping up with the immigration reform bills currently making their way through the House and Senate? Jennifer and Peter Wipf have summed them all up for you:

We are all pretty clear on the fact that there's a great immigration debate going on among lawmakers. Most of us, however, don't realize that several bills are involved, amounting to over 1,000 pages of legalese that Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives all have to somehow reach a compromise on ... [E]ach bill has meticulous provisions, all with their own ramifications to the United States and to the foreign-born.

Two hot, mainstream topics that have been the most controversial include 1) Earned residency for undocumented workers, and 2) A guest worker program for aliens who currently reside outside the United States. A third point of major contention is border and workplace enforcement.

The bills also focus on family reunification, namely increases in the number of visas available to family members of certain visa holders.

You'll be hearing a lot about these bills in the weeks ahead, so it pays to know what's still under discussion and what isn't. Earlier today, Bush relieved many in the immigrant and pro-immigrant communities when he said plainly that he does not support a policy of mass deportation. This runs counter to the aggressive platform of many conservatives in the House of Representatives, and their allies in the anti-immigrant movement.

See also:

• Immigration Still Deadlocked: Fate of Undocumented Workers Yet to Be Decided
• Bush Says "No Way" to Mass Deportation
• 75% of Californians Support Citizenship for Undocumented Immigrants