From Deseret News archives:

Details of compromise on illegal immigrants

Published: Thursday, April 6, 2006 9:34 p.m. MDT
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Details of a tentative compromise in the Senate on immigration and border security:

• Would allow illegal immigrants in the country five years or more to remain and continue working. The immigrants could apply for legal permanent residency after working six more years. They would have to pay fines and back taxes, learn English and clear a background check. After five years of legal permanent residency, they could apply for U.S. citizenship.

• Says Illegal immigrants in the country for two to five years have three years to gather material to qualify for a change in status. They would then have to go to a border port of entry and return as temporary workers. In the fourth year as legal temporary workers they could apply for permanent residency.

• Requires illegal immigrants who have been in the United States for less than two years to leave. They could apply for temporary worker visas or legal permanent residency from their home countries.

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• Would create a special guest-worker program for an estimated 1.5 million immigrant farm workers, who could also earn legal permanent residency. Illegal immigrants who could show they've worked seasonally in U.S. agriculture for three to five years could apply for this program, as could foreigners who have never worked in the United States.

• Would provide 325,000 temporary visas for future workers.

• Would increase the number of employer-based green cards, those available for workers whose employers file petitions on their behalf, from 290,000 to 450,000 per year. Formerly illegal immigrants could compete for those green cards but they could not jump ahead of people already in line for them.

• Would add up to 14,000 new Border Patrol agents by 2011 to the current force of 11,300 agents, for a potential total of 25,300.

• Authorizes unmanned vehicles, cameras and sensors to monitor the U.S.-Mexican border.

• Authorizes additional detention facilities for apprehended illegal immigrants.

• Allows states to charge in-state tuition to illegal immigrant students with high school diplomas or GEDs and no criminal records. They also would have to meet other criteria.

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