We have reached a pivotal week in the community's struggle for comprehensive immigration reform. Last week, while senators were in their home states, MALDEF held a press conference in Texas, participated in conference calls and meetings with senators, and collaborated with Washington, D.C. and community partners and advocates. While significant progress has been made, the as yet unknown results of the coming week will determine whether the Senate can pass a bill along the lines of the White House-Senate compromise; what improvements MALDEF and our allies can make; how successful we and our allies are in defeating other amendments, and where we stand on the final Senate product. We are expecting an effort to cut off debate on Thursday (cloture vote) but because of the death of Senator Thomas of Wyoming, the Senate deliberations on immigration are now scheduled to carry over into next week.

Our top priorities are protecting family reunification from both immediate and permanent damage. Senators Menendez, Clinton, Obama, and Dodd have pro-family amendments we are strongly supporting. We are also fighting amendments that would make the path to legalization costlier and out of reach for too many. Later this week, we will be active on the employment verification system and temporary worker provisions of the bill. Finally, we will vigorously oppose an unnecessary and damaging provision for official English (an amendment offered by Senator Inhofe) that fails to provide English classes and jeopardizes progress made for language resources.

Key Amendments:

Allard amendment

What to Say: "I urge the Senator to vote no on the Allard amendment that would deny many undocumented immigrants a chance to gain permanent residence once they have paid appropriate penalties."

What this amendment would do: Under the Senate bill, legalized immigrants with Z provisional visas have to wait for people who are currently waiting to enter the country before they are allowed to adjust their status to permanent status. This will take between 8 and 13 years. The Allard Amendment would require Z visa holders to apply and compete through the point system along with new immigrants for permanent status without any credit for their time in the United States in Z visa status. If passed, the amendment would bar most Z visa holders from ever gaining permanent residence.

The Allard amendment is scheduled to be voted on today.

Cornyn amendment

What to Say: "I urge the Senator to vote no on the Cornyn amendment that would make millions of undocumented immigrants ineligible for legalization, and would seriously undermine the reforms the bill attempts to accomplish."

What this amendment would do: The amendment would further limit a judge's discretion in deportation cases, and would allow the federal government to rely on secret evidence in order to deny citizenship to legal permanent residents. It also would make undocumented immigrants ineligible for legalization if they used false documents to work and are convicted of a crime for doing so, or if they were present without documents for over a year and left and re-entered the country illegally. In other words, it would make most undocumented immigrants ineligible for the very program that would legalize their status.

Menendez-Hagel amendment

What to Say: "I urge the Senator to support the Menendez-Hagel amendment that protect all family members who are currently waiting in the legal line for visas from being made ineligible. It is not fair to punish immigrants and their families who followed the rules and waited their turn for a visa."

What this amendment would do: The Senate bill provides visas to eliminate the backlog in family-based visas. However, anyone for whom a relative petition was filed after May 1, 2005 would have their petition voided, and they would have to apply through the new point system that the bill sets up. This amendment would move that cutoff date to January 2007, so that backlog reduction visas will be made available to persons for whom a petition was filed between May 1, 2005 and January 2007. The amendment also brings existing family-based petitions more in line with the Senate bill's treatment of existing employment-based visa applications, which are grandfathered in to date of enactment.

Sessions amendments

What to Say: "I urge the Senator to vote no on two amendments offered by Senator Sessions, to deny access to the Earned Income Tax Credit to Y and Z visa holders and legal permanent residents. Immigrants who are taxpayers should be treated like any other taxpayer."

What these amendments would do: These amendments would deny the Earned Income Tax Credit-available for certain low-wage workers-to legalized immigrants who would obtain Z visas and Y visa for future workers (amendment 1234). Amendment 1235 would deny the Earned Income Tax Credit to Legal Permanent Residents for the first five years after they obtain a green card.