The current Senate proposal for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) passed the Senate by a vote of 68-32. After months of compromise among the Gang of Eight and weeks of amendment hearings, the bill has finally passed the Senate with an overwhelming majority in favor. This final Senate bill contains the so called “Corker Amendment” which requires increased spending, manpower, and infrastructure to be deployed to the southern border of the United States as well as the original goal of a pathway to citizenship for qualifying undocumented aliens in the country currently. Other immigrant and nonimmigrant legal changes contained in the bill, such as the proposed Merit-based visa system, are also contained in the final version of the Senate bill.

The large number of votes to pass the bill falls just short of the 70-vote threshold desired by proponents of the bill. While the CIR bill only required enough votes to ensure that a filibuster would not occur, some leaders in the Senate hoped that a 70 vote passing of the bill would put added pressure on the House or Representatives to take up the Senate’s version for CIR. Regardless of the final vote count, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) has consistently maintained that the House of Representatives will continue its work to present its own bill and will not take up any immigration bill that does not have the support of the majority or Republicans in the House. If, as seems likely, Rep. Boehner continues his opposition to the Senate bill, there will still be many steps to take before a CIR bill is presented to the President for signing into law. With one CIR bill passing from the Senate, a separate House bill would first have to pass that chamber and then the two bills would have to be made compatible and combined in a joint Senate and House conference in order to form one single bill.

While the House will not be likely to vote on the Senate’s version of CIR -thus prolonging the time needed to sign it into law- the final version of the legislation has gained support from prominent House Republicans such as Rep. Ryan (R-WI) who hope that the compromise in the Senate can be duplicated in the House. If such a compromise is possible, it would greatly reduce the amount of time required to make the two separate bills eventually compatible in a Congressional conference. Many of the more stringent conservative amendments that failed to gain traction in the Senate, such as not allowing any unauthorized immigration to obtain legal status until after the border has been deemed secure, are likely to appear in any House legislation. Despite the delay that negotiating such a House bill would pose, President Obama and CIR supporters have hoped to have a final bill presented to him by the end of the summer, before Congress’ annual August recess.

This is an exciting milestone in the push for comprehensive immigration reform in the United States, but it is arguably the easiest. Conservative objections to legalizing undocumented workers and fears over lax border security measurements will make a compromise bill in the House even more contentious than the one that arose in the Senate. And, in the event that such a House bill passes, the joint committee that would be required to form a single bill would be harder still as even Republicans in the Senate and House do not entirely see eye-to-eye on the strengths of CIR.

For an overview of the bill, please click here.

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Founded in 1996, Zhang & Associates, P.C. offers legal services to clients nationwide in all aspects of U.S immigration law. We have successfully handled thousands of immigration cases.

At Zhang & Associates, P.C., our attorneys and supporting professionals are committed to providing high-quality immigration and non-immigration visa services. We specialize in NIW, EB-1, PERM, and I-485 cases. In the past seventeen years, we have successfully helped thousands of clients get green cards. If you plan to apply for a green card, please send your CV to Attorney Jerry Zhang (info@hooyou.com) for a free evaluation.

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(06/27/2013)