Visa Lawyer Blog

As a lot of our readers inquired about the detailed provisions of the Immigration Reform bill, we have prepared summaries of the key provisions of the 844 page bill introduced on April 16, 2013 “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act” (S. 744).

We would like to remind our readers that the bill is not yet the law. It will become the law only if it passes the Senate and the House of Representatives and is signed by the President.

Please note that this summary is not intended as a comprehensive overview of all the provisions of the bill. Please consult the full text of the bill to review the proposed Act. Click Here for the Full Text of the Bill.

The first significant steps in the process that may lead to a comprehensive overhaul of the United States immigration system have been made by a bipartisan group of eight U.S. Senators.

Some ten weeks after this group announced broad goals and an outline for compromise legislation in the U.S., they revealed a more detailed plan on April 16, 2013.

Of course, this proposed deal must first win approval by a highly divided and partisan Congress. Even this fairly moderate compromise may not survive intact.

As the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act introduced by “Gang of Eight”, details emerge about the full content of this legislation. The American Immigration Lawyers Association released the summary below. We encourage the public to only deal with AILA members Lawyers when seeking advice on this new Law.

Below are eight initial points of interest pulled from the bill’s provisions.

Just to barely scratch the surface, here are but a few things S.744 would do:

The bill proposed by the “Gang of Eight” in the Senate brings remarkable news to Dreamers seeking a chance to stay in the U.S. and become lawful permanent residents sooner. Under the bill being proposed in the Senate, there is no age cap for those who entered the U.S. as children. While the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy implemented under the Obama administration has a cap of 30 years old, this bill makes no mention of age.

The new gang of eight bill would allow undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. as children to attain lawful permanent resident status more quickly, with a wait time of five years rather than ten years required of others. Dreamers would be eligible if they entered the country under the age of 16, earned a high school diploma or GED here, and attended college for at least two years or served in the military for at least four years.

Under the legislation, Dreamers who have been deported could also apply to reenter the United States, so long as they were in the country prior to 2012 and were not deported for criminal reasons.

This just came out, Several news outlets have publicized this 17 page outline of the Senate’s Gang of Eight immigration bill titled: “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013.”

Many immigrants rallied all across the U.S. today in anticipation of the immigration bill to be unveiled by the Senate that is to deal with many immigration issues. At a rally in Washington, D.C. outside the U.S. Capitol, many thousands of immigrants and their supporters who gathered under a hot sun Wednesday to show support for proposals that would grant a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants.

Organizers of the Rally for Citizenship hope they can press Congress to help. The rally featured speeches from immigration rights advocates, labor leaders, faith organizations and members of Congress working on immigration legislation. Many other rallies were organized across the country. Among them:

• In Atlanta, more than 1,000 people gathered at the Georgia Capitol, calling for an end to deportation.