The Senate Judiciary committee held two hearings this week on the bipartisan immigration bill (S.744) crafted by the so-called “gang of eight.” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano testified during the third hearing on Tuesday about border security issues. She had been scheduled to testify last week but her appearance was postponed because of the Boston Marathon bombing.
Napolitano said the bill devotes more money to securing the border, requires employers to verify their workers’ identify, and implements new systems to track people as they leave the country–something that might have helped flag one of the Boston bombers traveling to Russia last year. Of great importance, she said, is the eventual path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants currently in the United States illegally. “One of the real significant improvements made by this bill is to bring people out of the shadows,” she said. She also told the committee the border security “triggers” in the bill, which make a path to citizenship conditional on accomplishing border security goals, are achievable.
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said Wednesday that the committee will begin marking up the legislation on May 9, following a one-week congressional recess. He said wating until the Senate returns for a state-work week would give senators enough tim to read the more than 800-page bill. Amendments to the bill will be due May 7 and would be posted on the committee’s website. Leahy predicted that perhaps dozens of amendments could be filed, so several subsequent markup dates have been scheduled on May 14, May 16, and May 20.
The gang of eight is comprised of Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), and Michael Bennett (D-CO).
