The bill looks pretty centrist...Much more conservative then last year bill...I really don't have a problem with it...It will be attack by anti-immigrants and pro-immigrants group because they just don't believe in compromising on anything...The anti-immigrants groups wanted nothing less then mass deportation of the 12 million illegal immigrants while the pro-immigrants group wanted future  temporary guest workers to also have a clean path to citizenship along with the current 12-20 million illegal immigrants that would get that.

This bill also demand illegal immigrants to take a trip back home and wait for their paperwork to clear before coming in, and they didn't like that...I also don't like it, but hey,sometimes you have to make a deal...A trip back home shouldn't be that horrible.

I would have been happier if it were Democrats pushing for tougher punishment on employers.  I would have also liked a provision that allowed illegal workers to come forward with information on who employed them for a reduced fine or other incentives. I hope they don't offer amnesty to businesses who rat out the illegal workers they hired.  

A good deal for immigrants currently in the states.

As far as I can tell, conservative Republicans traded a long fence that won't work for a short fence that won't work and accepted passage, while Democrats gave up a path to citizenship for guest workers. The mass deportations just weren't going to happen.

If guest workers are allowed to apply for green cards, then it's not a bad deal. Employers will have lots of leverage over guest workers, but they would have had that over any "path to citizenship" scenario. If they can apply for green cards it's roughly the same thing, just with lots of extra steps.

This chamber of commerce wet dream is not only dripping with amnesty, but it rigs the labor markets to benefit business interests.

If enacted, this policy (or anything similar) will create an oversupply of middle-class and working-class workers, effectively creating a race to bottom of the wage and salary barrel for everyone who earns an income.

Here's what I think needs to be done to strengthen our immigration laws.

From the left... the issue is:

1) Temporary work visas basically create an underclass to be exploited who have few if any workers rights.  I thought we abolished slavery in 1865.

2) A part of capitalism is the right to sell your labor for a higher price.  Its not true Americans are "unwilling" to do these jobs- they are unwilling at the prices employers would like to pay-- this will continue a downward cycle of wages and does no favors to organized labor.

3) Amnesty is fine, but the moral issue is:  why are we making people die in the desert and in the backs of trucks?  Shit or get off the pot- either open the border and stop the b.s. or close it and make it clear.

4) Where are the provisions to prosecute employers who knowingly and continually employ illegal workers.  They better be targeting people once these new visas are available.

From a policy standpoint, you have to start from a realistic premise: as long as the richest nation on the planet is right next to a continent of economic basket cases, people are going to keep coming here to work -- it doesn't have matter how many fences they build and how much they militarize the border. Globalization has freed capital and tries to pen in labor. Doesn't work.

This seems to have the seeds of a No Child Left Behind Act situation in it: by saying that all the wall building boondoggle has to be done first, it sets up the likelihood that the more practical parts never get implemented. We've seen a lot of that.

Whether it is a chamber of commerce wet dream will tend to be decided in the details of how much they've tinkered with the "family reunification" standards for legal immigration. If they make the immigration standard skill and job based, they are using immigration policy as a global hiring hall for brain draining corporations. The laboring classes get screwed in such a deal.

It will take awhile to see how this plays out for Democrats if it is passed. Latino voters are greatly moved by family loyalty. If the Dems colude in reducing the preference for family reunification in immigration law, Latinos MAY punish them. The punishment would likely be passive though -- not voting. We can trust the Republicans to continue to give a home to racist nativists who want to throw 'em all out. That will keep most Latinos away from them.

I can't understand what the purpose of having a 'z' visa holder leave the country in order to apply for permanent resident visa (green card)?  Surely this will be abused - the workers family will remain in the US and the green card may not be forthcoming for some or no reason.  Why can't the green card application be submitted within the US?

This looks to me either as a needless impediment or a disguised attempt to punish the z visa holder somehow.  Will the worker be able to keep his US job if he has to leave the US, and for long if 'delays' occur? Is it reasonable to expect a worker to leave his family behind in an indeterminant status - particularly if the children were born in the US with automatic US citizenship (per the Constitution).

And what is the purpose of having the temporary workers having to leave the US and stay out for a year before being able to apply again for temp. worker permit?  Once again, what about his US family?

I smell hidden agendas in these provisions.  And I don't see any way that a temp. worker in the future can move into green card status - even if his children are US citizens.

And of course the 'longer fence' is just ridiculous on its face.  The geographic features of long portions of the border suggest that a fence can't or won't be built, and as long as some areas are unfenced, the migration will move there.  

The Amnesty part seems like a pretty good compromise, although the $5000 dollar fine is pretty ridiculous.

I'm definitely not a fan of the guest worker program, however, they tend to create an underclass of people similar to the ones found in Europe which have for the most part completely failed.

One of the biggest problems with the bill is the fundamental changes to future immigration policy that it makes, shifting from a family-based policy (where people with family members here get preference) to a guest-worker based policy (where highly skilled English-speaking workers get preference).

The Democrats have to keep fighting this aspect of the legislation, or they could very well get saddled with the failure in the 08 elections, right along with Republicans.