Immigration Bill Moves Through the House

CNN.com House passes immigration bill No decision on 11 million illegal immigrants in U.S. until next year WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House acted Friday to stem the tide of illegal immigration by taking steps to tighten border controls and stop unlawful immigrants from getting jobs. But lawmakers left for next year the tougher issue of what to do with the 11 million undocumented people already in the country. The House legislation, billed as a border protection, anti-terrorism and illegal immigration control act, includes such measures as enlisting military and local law enforcement help in stopping illegal entrants and requiring employers to verify the legal status of their workers. - The vote was 239-182, with opposition coming from Democrats and some Republicans upset by the exclusion of the guest worker issue and other Republicans wanting tougher border control measures. - Nobody is advocating the deportation of 11 million illegal immigrants, said Republican Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona, sponsor of a guest worker measure. Without a temporary worker program, he said, "We simply won't enforce the law, and that's the dirty little secret here." - Bush has proposed that undocumented immigrants be allowed to get three-year work visas. They could extend those for an additional three years, but would then have to return to their home countries for a year to apply for a new work permit. - The most sweeping provision of the House bill would require all employers in the country, more than 7 million, to submit Social Security numbers and other information to a national database to verify the legal status of workers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups protested this provision as unworkable, while immigrant rights groups said some of the new penalties were draconian. This is a decent start to the immigration we have. I can only hope that it goes through and that the guest worker provision isn't added to it in the Senate. I also hope that the issue of 11 million undocumented immigrants illegal aliens is handled by the law, and not overlooked. One of the highlights to the bill is below: It makes drunken driving convictions a deportable offense. The bill makes unlawful presence in the United States, currently a civil offense, a felony. This is one issue that has been in the news across North Carolina in recent months.