The bipartisan group of senators working on a deal for comprehensive immigration reform are nearing agreement on a deal that would grant undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. a pathway to citizenship that would take 13 years.
The Associated Press reported Thursday that officials with outside groups keeping up with the talks say that the panel of U.S. Senators working on the bill-known as the "Gang of Eight"-are largely in agreement on the bill regarding the portion of the pathway to citizenship.
The bill would "contemplate" a 10-year waiting period for illegal immigrants inside U.S. borders before they would be eligible to apply for green cards. However, they would be able to stay in the U.S. during that time under provisional legal status.
That accounts for 10 years. The remaining three years would be the time said immigrants would have to wait before being able to apply for permanent residency, a two-year reduction from the normal waiting time that most green card holders need to wait by.
Aside from the touchy citizenship issue, the bill-which has been worked on for weeks by the panel-would raise the standards for border security as well as allowing more high- and low-skilled workers to enter the U.S.
The bill also calls for mandating the E-Verify program that helps businesses check the legal status of workers, as well as giving more visas to high-tech workers and limiting family-based immigration to put greater emphasis on skills and employment ties.
The guest worker program that would allow visas to low-skilled workers was cited by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., as a key item regarding his support of overhauling the nation's immigration laws. If the bill fails, Sen. Rubio cited the unions' differing opinion with business leaders over how to handle visas as a reason why the bill could fail.
"I don't think it's any secret that in the past, unions killed immigration reform," Sen. Rubio told POLITICO recently. "I think because of pressure from some of their members, they've at least publicly changed their stance on this. But I don't think they are doing cartwheels over this."
In response, Ana Avendaño of the AFL-CIO, one of the nation's largest and most powerful union groups, responded that Rubio's assertion that unions could kill immigration reform reeked of desperation.
"It is their last gasp of trying to rewrite the rules of future flow to undermine the wages of local workers," Avendaño said, adding that voters and Latinos wouldn't be swayed by Rubio's assertion on the issue.
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