US to deliver 11 million citizenship with new law

WASHINGTON - Agence France-Presse

Tens of thousands of immigration reform supporters march in the ‘Rally for Citizenship’ on the West Lawn of the US Capitol in Washington, DC. AFP photo

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is on the cusp of introducing the most sweeping immigration reform in a quarter century, in what could amount to a dramatic victory for President Barack Obama.

A Senate bill is now expected to be unveiled on April 15, Democrat Robert Menendez, one of eight senators tasked with thrashing out the deal, said at a major immigration reform rally on April 10 outside the U.S. Capitol.

Several members of the so-called Gang of Eight - four Democrats and four Republicans - have said it would contain a long-term path to citizenship for most of the country’s 11 million undocumented migrants.

The bill will include an expansion of quotas of foreign workers, as well as demand stringent and expensive new tightening of border security measures.

Immigration reform has been a key recent focus for Obama, while Republicans smarting from their 2012 election defeat are seeking to broaden their outreach to minorities, particularly the Hispanic community.
 
“We are very, very close,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told Agence France-Presse.

According to a person familiar with the plan, illegal immigrants would be barred from applying for permanent legal residency until authorities are monitoring 100 percent of the southern U.S. border with Mexico and stopping 90 percent of the people crossing illegally in some areas.

According to a March 21 survey, six out of 10 Americans support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.