The ACHIEVE Act: the GOP's "softer" DREAM Act

[Direckshun]

A step in the right direction.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...tml?1353102752

Dream Act-Lite Plan Circulating Among Republicans: Report
By Elise Foley
11/15/2012 4:39 pm EST

Republican senators are working on a Dream Act-style bill called the ACHIEVE Act to give legal status to some undocumented young people, the Daily Caller's Matt K. Lewis reported Thursday.

The GOP plan would be a watered-down version of the decade-old Dream Act initially put forward by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). The Dream Act was never able to get through both chambers of Congress, and most recently failed in the Senate in 2010. With renewed interest on immigration reform, there is an effort to come to some sort of bipartisan solution, and the ACHIEVE Act is reportedly a plan being floated to do so.

The ACHIEVE Act would allow some undocumented immigrants to attend college or serve in the military under a W-1 visa, Lewis reported. They could then apply for another four-year visa to work or do further studies, and then apply for permanent residence without welfare benefits. Citizenship "could follow," according to the details posted.

The bill being floated would apply to undocumented immigrants who came to the United States before the age of 14 as long as they are under the age of 28, if they have no college degree. If they are college-educated, the age limit is 32, according to the Daily Caller. The Dream Act, by contrast, would allow immigrants to apply so long as they came before the age of 16 and are currently under the age of 30.

Both plans require an immigrant to show good moral character, maintain a felony-free criminal record, and live in the U.S. for five consecutive years before the bill's enactment -- assuring foreign nationals will not enter the country now simply to apply.

The ACHIEVE Act would likely require undocumented immigrants hoping to take part in the law to go through a medical exam and background check as well, Lewis reported.

President Barack Obama announced a policy in June to grant deferred action to some of the same undocumented young people who would be impacted by the Dream Act. Republicans decried that decision as an overstep of his federal authority and said Congress should deal with the issue, but Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) dropped his plan to introduce a bill immediately after.

There is now increased appetite for reform, and a bill for undocumented youth may be an easier haul than broader legalization efforts. Members of Congress and the president have said they are working now on an immigration plan that would be comprehensive, but some Republicans seem more likely to chip off the issue of young unauthorized immigrants into its own legislation.

Rubio spokesman Alex Conant told HuffPost the text is "a working draft of what Sen. Rubio began working on over the summer."

"Senator Rubio has said that his proposal would be permanent and legalize the status of undocumented young people in America without creating a special pathway to citizenship," he said in an email. "We are still working on the timing and specifics of our legislation, with the goal of permanently solving the problem with broad, bipartisan support."

The senator said earlier on Thursday that be believes a Dream Act-style bill should be the first priority, followed by broader reform.

"The issue of these kids that are in this country undocumented is not an immigration issue, it's a humanitarian one," he said at The Atlantic's Washington Ideas Forum. "They are more like refugees in that sense than they are like illegal immigration folks, because they're here through no fault of their own, they've been raised their entire life here and they want to go on with their future."

[whoman69]

Originally Posted by ROYC75

You are full of shit if you think they didn't care to start with. How to address it was the issue and the Democrats took it as the R's didn't care, lied, smeared it to their agenda and the majority of the voters bought into a blatant lie by the D's.

But let's not let the truth correct anything now, let's keep riding that jackass to the next election.

I think you need to look at the Republican platform again and the voting records of Republicans against immigration reform. Deporting 12 million people was never feasible.

[Direckshun]

Leading immigrant advocacy groups think it's a half-assed half-measure.

After an election that bared the GOP’s huge disadvantages on immigration, three influential Republican senators have introduced legislation that would grant legal residency to young people brought illegally to the United States, if they seek higher education or enlist in the military…The measure — sponsored by Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), and retiring Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (Tex.) and Jon Kyl (Ariz.) — would offer a Republican alternative to the so-called Dream Act, providing a pathway for young adults to apply for legal permanent residency — but not citizenship — if they have completed military service or higher education and have worked in the United States for at least four years. Leading advocacy groups that push for immigration reform characterized the proposal as a half measure that would provide few new opportunities for normalization for young adults.

[Direckshun]

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/2...dream-act-bill

The Kyl-Hutchison bill, called the Achieve Act, sets up a three-step visa system to allow many of those brought into the U.S. at a young age to stay in the country. The first visa would allow those enrolled in college or the military to stay for six years. After they graduate or leave the military, they could apply for another four-year work visa. After that, they could apply for four-year visas to allow them to remain in the country legally…The senators’ move signals that Republicans might seek to push immigration reform in a piecemeal fashion rather than as a comprehensive overhaul of the system, as many Democrats want.

[Direckshun]

Heh.

@sahilkapur

I love how the 2 Republican senators who intro’d this immigration bill are retiring

[Detoxing]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/2...dream-act-bill

Hrmmm.....

Ok, so they can stay and go to school. Awesome.

But they're still not able to work.

And no one wants them getting Gov. money either.

So....how exactly are they suppose to pay for school?

If they're going to allow them to go to school, they need to allow them to go to work so they can pay for school, books etc. You can't wait till they graduate and THEN allow them to work.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

But they're still not able to work.

Where do you see that?

[Detoxing]

Originally Posted by Donger

Where do you see that?

The article claims it's a 3 step approach.

1st step is to attend and graduate college/military

2nd stage is to issue a work visa after the 1st stage is complete.

Maybe i'm not comprehending, but if the work visa isn't granted until the completion of stage 1, wouldn't that mean that no work visa is granted during stage 1?

[FD]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

Holy crap.

There's no chance this gets done this Congress, is there?

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/2...dream-act-bill

Republican senators introduce alternate DREAM Act legislation
By Cameron Joseph
11/27/12 07:29 PM ET

If those same exact senators had that opinion in 2010, it would be law right now. There were enough votes in the House and Senate at the time. This is political posturing.