Schumer wants immigration bill by fall

Schumer said a bill could be on its way sooner rather than later.  

“I think we'll have a good bill by Labor Day,” Schumer told the Associated Press last week. “I think the fundamental building blocks are in place to do comprehensive immigration reform.”

Earlier this year, the Change to Win and the AFL-CIO labor unions threw their support behind immigration reform. In the past they have condemned a comprehensive immigration bill.

Last week Schumer met with Obama to outline his plans for moving the comprehensive immigration reform debate forward. 

The White House has convened two hearings titled “Road to Comprehensive Immigration Reform in 2009: Clearing the Hurdles.”

The first hearing examined whether comprehensive immigration reform could be enacted in 2009.  The second hearing examined the current state of border security and the remaining steps that need to be taken to achieve operational control over the entire border

This month, Schumer will hold two more hearings. The first will consider all of the existing ideas and solutions for achieving a simple and workable biometric-based employment verification system.  The second hearing will determine how best to structure employment-based immigration system for the future.

Meanwhile, Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin told the Irish government last week that hopes of working out a bilateral deal with the U.S. government for the Irish undocumented looked highly unlikely.

ILIR, in conjunction with the Irish government, has been working to secure an E-3 visa deal with the U.S. similar to the arrangement the U.S. has with Australia. The visa allows citizens from both countries to live and work in either country for an indefinite period of time.

“While the inclusion of Ireland in an expanded version of the E-3 program would provide extensive new opportunities for Irish people to work in the U.S. and help ensure that a new generation of undocumented Irish does not develop, our friends on Capitol Hill have been clear that the status of the undocumented Irish cannot be addressed in isolation from other ethnic groups," said Martin, who spent a week with a congressional delegation that recently visited Ireland.

Looking towards a comprehensive immigration reform approach in the U.S., Martin said it is a welcome development.

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Nster.com