On May 4, 2004, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Representatives Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), introduced the “Safe, Orderly Legal Visas and Enforcement (SOLVE) Act of 2004” (S. 2381/H.R. 4262).  According to the bill’s sponsors, this comprehensive immigration reform legislation is intended to legalize workers, reunite close family members in a timely fashion, regulate the flow of legal immigration by reforming the temporary worker system, strengthen worker protections and enhance national security.

When presenting the bill in the Senate, Senator Kennedy stated: “The bill we are introducing today will achieve the full reforms we need.  A good first step would be to enact two bills that are already pending - the AgJOBS bill to reform the immigration laws for migrant workers, and the DREAM Act, to enable undocumented high school students to qualify for legal status so they can attend college...Let's at least get these bills done now.  We cannot afford any more delays.  I look forward to working with my colleagues to reform our immigration laws.  It's time to make these long-overdue reforms happen.”

Through the new bill, immigrants who are already present in the US, pay taxes and learn English could earn legal status.  The Department of Labor estimates that the need for foreign labor will continue to increase in the coming years.  The bill’s sponsors argue that legalizing foreign workers already in the US would provide employers with a more stable workforce, improve wages and working conditions for all workers and protect immigrant workers for being exploited by their employers because they fear deportation.

The proposal would also provide for the timely reunification of immediate family members.  Currently, the wait times for close family members to be reunited are long. A US citizen parent petitioning for Mexican children must wait approximately ten years and a US parent must wait 14 years to be reunited with their Filipino children.  Legal permanent residents have even longer wait times.  The bill’s proponents believe that these long wait times have led to illegal immigration to the US as families are forced to be separated for long periods of time.  If passed, the SOLVE Act would broaden the definition of “Immediate Relative” to include the spouses and children of legal permanent residents and stop the subtraction of Immediate Relatives from the annual cap on family immigration.

The SOLVE Act is also intended to protect immigrants by regulating the flow of immigration and by safeguarding workers’ rights.  The bill’s sponsors believe that the current US immigration system encourages illegal immigration, fosters the growth of immigrant smuggling operations and leads to immigration fraud.  The Act would create a temporary worker program as well as provide an opportunity for earned legalization.  Through the temporary worker program, workers would receive the same protections afforded to US workers and ensure employer accountability.

The bill’s sponsors are also touting the immigration proposal as a vehicle for enhancing national security. The plan’s authors believe it will help by reducing illegal immigration and improving enforcement capacity by allowing enforcement agencies to focus on terrorists and criminals.  Immigration documents issued under the program would include machine-readable, tamper-resistant biometric identifiers, which would also reduce crime by preventing the falsification of documents.

HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, welcomed the introduction of the new bill.  HIAS President and CEO Leonard Glickman informed the media that the organization “look[s] forward to working with the sponsors of the new bill, the administration, as well as Congress and community leaders committed to reform, to make our country safer and more humane through Comprehensive Immigration Reform." In 2003 HIAS endorsed Comprehensive Immigration Reform as an important organizational priority because American values and American security interests can be served by taking bold steps to solve the problem of undocumented migration.