By April Drew

THE House version of the Kennedy/McCain immigration bill is to be introduced on Thursday, March 22 by Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D-Illinois) and Congressman Floyd Flake (R-Arizona).

The bill calls for legalization of the undocumented who pay a fine and pass extensive background checks. They would be eligible for conditional legalization for six years, after which they could seek to adjust their status to that of a permanent resident.

In order to become permanent residents they would have to stay employed, learn English where applicable and civics, pay taxes and leave the country and re-enter.

In addition, the new bill calls for a temporary worker program which would allow low skilled workers to come to the U.S. when a U.S. worker cannot be found for a job. The immigrant worker would have the same wages and protections as U.S. workers, the ability to change jobs and eventually get a path to citizenship. The worker visa would be valid for three years and renewable once.

In addition there would be a significant overhaul of the family-based and employment -based immigration system to reduce the backlogs. It would provide more opportunities for high skilled workers to come and remain in the US and address the needs in occupations such as nurses where there are major shortages.

The bill also calls for strict enforcement of employment verifications and would create a new system of how to identify whether new workers are eligible to work. It would also increase penalties against employers who do not comply.

There would also be increased security at the border and more federal-state-local coordination to prevent undocumented coming across.