US Senate committee takes up immigration bill

Lorena Tule-Romain, right, and Nicole Anonuevo, members of the North Texas Dream Team, react during an announcement on the new U.S. immigration policy at the offices of Domingo Garcia in Oak Cliff, Texas on Friday, June 15, 2012. AP FILE PHOTO

WASHINGTON—A bill to enact dramatic changes to the US immigration system and put some 11 million immigrants here illegally on a path to citizenship is facing its first congressional test.

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday was to begin considering proposed changes to the 844-page bill, with some 300 amendments pending on a wide range of issues that include border security and workplace enforcement, along with Democratic-authored measures to make the legislation more welcoming to immigrant families.

The bill aims to secure the border, provide new avenues for workers to come to the US legally, crack down on employers who would hire people here illegally, and provide eventual citizenship to millions already in the country.

Although the bill allows citizenship to go forward only after certain border security goals have been met, those “triggers” haven’t proven convincing enough for many Republican lawmakers. Early fights in the committee session are likely to center around that issue, according to the schedule laid out by Sen. Patrick Leahy, the committee’s chairman.

Even one of the bill’s authors, Florida Republican Marco Rubio, has said border measures need to be stronger, so some changes may be accepted. But measures offered by some Republican senators would dramatically change the bill’s delicately crafted compromises in a way its authors are unlikely to accept.

For example, Sen. Charles Grassley, the top committee Republican, has filed an amendment to prohibit anyone from obtaining legal status until the Homeland Security Department has maintained “effective control” of the border for six months — a potentially arduous standard to reach, depending upon how it is defined.

Such measures are “designed to undermine critical components of the bill,” Mary Giovagnoli, director of the Immigration Policy Center, which supports the legislation, told reporters on a conference call Wednesday.