A non-partisan public policy organization has released new information regarding a piecemeal law that may be introduced by Republicans. According to the study, the Republican approach could help about one-third to a half of all undocumented immigrants gain legal status.
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Although Congress has stated that they would begin thinking about proposing a new immigration bill soon, Speaker John Boehner is reportedly in charge of introducing the new piece of legislation. The new report is the first attempt at beginning to create an estimate of how many people could become eligible for lawful permanent residency.
As of right now, no specific bill exists, but several lawmakers are working on propositions to bring before committees. Stuart Anderson, the author of the new specific legalization bill says he took numbers and based his estimates off of already publicly supported statistics. He argues that those who have “The strongest connection to the United States and least likely to leave voluntarily” will be reportedly be most eligible to receive these green cards.
This new bill would grant legalization for about 6.5 million undocumented immigrants in comparison to the Senate’s comprehensive immigration bill allowing eight million undocumented immigrants to be eligible for lawful permanent residence. There are many positive factors contributing to immigrants becoming documented including a large economic boost. The justification for this is the fact that naturalized citizens tend to earn on average 11 percent more than legal noncitizens according to Think Progress. Over time, the cumulative gain to the U.S. GDP would be about $832 billion by legalizing immigrants. While neither Speaker Boehner nor any lawmakers have directly come out to present this bill, it is likely that elements of it may be incorporated in the final draft of immigration legislation.
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