If Republicans have been waiting for a post-election week in which immigration reform was somewhere near the top of the national agenda, this may be the moment.
The House is expected to consider on Friday a Republican-backed measure aimed atallowing American-educated legal immigrants with advanced degrees to remain in the United States. Advocates have described the bill as just the kind of modern approach that should guide immigration reform. Opponents have balked at provisions that eliminate an entire class of visas -- the legal permission needed to enter a country -- that is intended to keep the country and its immigrant pool diverse.
But given that most Americans consider the estimated 11 million to 12 million undocumented immigrants to be the country's most significant immigration challenge, a Senate bill introduced this week by a pair of retiring senators has grabbed most of the attention. That bill, dubbed the Achieve Act, has come in for tepid endorsements, mild critiques, bruising analyses and in some cases satirical ridicule.
The Achieve Act, introduced by outgoing Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and John Kyl (R- Ariz.), would offer temporary, renewable work permits to likely fewer than 1.2 million young, undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.
The controversy around the bill that emerged this week wasn't regarding what it did or did not include, but what the senators behind it had to say about their own policy.
During a Monday press conference, Hutchison and Kyl acknowledged that the plan will likely go nowhere in the final weeks before they leave office. Then Kyl suggested a more personal and permanent solution for those wanting more.
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