What You May Not Know About Immigration Bill

I didn't know this, but I haven't read the bill yet either:

The immigration bill, according to its critics, hands out amnesty to illegal immigrants as soon as some ineffectual steps toward enforcement are taken. Don’t believe it. The bill provides amnesty as soon as it is enacted.

The Bush administration wants to divert attention from this fact by talking about “Z visas,” and some of the critics have fallen into this trap. But the government will start issuing those visas only after it meets its enforcement benchmarks — if that ever happens. Illegal immigrants are eligible for “probationary” legal status, on the other hand, as soon as the bill passes. The government has only one business day to run a background check on people applying for this status.

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