• Illegal immigrants who have been in the country for at least five years could receive legal status after meeting several conditions, including payment of a $2,000 fines and any back taxes, clearing a background check and learning English. After six more years, they could apply for citizenship without having to leave the United States.
• Illegal immigrants in the country for between two and five years could obtain a temporary work visa after reporting to a border point of entry. Aides referred to this as "touch base and return," since people covered would know in advance they would be readmitted to the United States.
• Officials said it could take as long as 13 to 14 years for some illegal immigrants to gain citizenship. It part, that stems from an annual limit of 450,000 on green cards, which confer legal permanent residency and are a precursor to citizenship status.
• Illegal immigrants in the United States for less than two years would be required to leave the country and apply for re-entry alongside anyone else seeking to emigrate.
Separately, the legislation provides a new program for 1.5 million temporary agriculture industry workers over five years.
It also includes provisions for employers to verify the legal status of workers they hire, but it was not clear what sanctions, if any, would apply to violators.
To secure the border, the bill calls for a virtual fence — as opposed to the literal barrier contained in House legislation — consisting of surveillance cameras, sensors and other monitoring equipment along the long, porous border with Mexico.
A "virtual' fence?
Do these guys in Washington think we're stupid? What good is monitoring equipment, other than to allow border enforcement officers to watch the illegal immigrants sneak into our country from a distance?
If any of these illegal immigration provisions are to work we have got to stop the tide of people pushing across the border. We aren't going to stop them without a wall. Whatever your opinion about what we should do with the illegals who are already here, there should be no question about stopping these people at the border.
We need a wall, but it looks like we aren't going to get it.
This is pathetic.