Dear Readers:

Last week we provided a detailed summary of the Specter comprehensive immigration reform bill. This is the most likely bill to pass of a number of major immigration bills introduced in this session of the Senate.

There were several key developments this past week on the legislation. First, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) introduced an enforcement-only immigration bill. Frist says his goal is to ensure something on immigration passes before the Senate goes into recess April 10^th. Frist has given a deadline to the Judiciary Committee of March 27^th to get a bill out in order to have two weeks to debate a measure. 

Senator Specter made a major move that could very well make it possible to meet the Frist deadline. The Judiciary Committee will now simply vote March 27th on either including the guest worker immigration provisions of either the Kennedy-McCain immigration bill or the provisions of the more restrictive Cornyn bill. The ‘gold card’ provision in the Specter bill will now be replaced with this new language. The Kennedy-McCain language seems to have the votes.

Even if Specter is not successful in meeting the deadline, Senator Frist got an unexpected challenge on Wednesday from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) who vowed to lead a filibuster of the Frist bill if the Majority Leader attempts to bypass the Judiciary Committee. Senator Hilary Clinton (D-NY), widely considered the frontrunner for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination also strongly criticized the Frist bill, noting that the harsher enforcement provisions were contrary to Biblical Scriptures.

We’ll report next week on whether the Judiciary Committee is successful in meeting the Frist deadline.

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As always, we remind readers that we're lawyers who make our living representing immigration clients and employers seeking to comply with immigration laws. We would love to discuss becoming your law firm. Just go to http://www.visalaw.com/intake.html to request an appointment or call us at 800-748-3819 or 901-682-6455.

Regards,

Greg Siskind