On June 27, 2013, the full Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform legislation, 68-32. All Democrats voted for the bill; 14 Republic
ans joined them. The bill includes a lengthy pathway to provisional legal status, permanent residence, and eventual U.S. citizenship for up to 11 million undocumented persons.
It also includes enforcement and border control measures like finishing a 700-mile fence along the border with Mexico, deploying an additional 20,000 Border Patrol agents, and mandating E-Verify. Despite the potential costs, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that if the bill became law, it would reduce the United States’ deficit by almost $900 billion over the next 10 years.
A celebratory atm
osphere ensued after the vote. Despite admonishments from Vice President Joseph Biden, who presided over the vote, chants of “Yes we can” and “Si se puede” were heard from the public gallery after the bill passed. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) called it a “historic day.”
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group in the House is working on its own version of comprehensive immigration reform, but observers expect that the House may pass immigration-related legislation piece by piece instead of voting for a comprehensive bill. House Speaker John Boehner said, “The House is not going to take up and vote on whatever the Senate passes. We’re going to do our own bill.” He said representatives would go home for recess and “listen to our constituents. And whe
n we get back, we’re going to…have a discussion about the way forward.”
Supreme Court’s DOMA ruling opens door to immigration benefits for same-sex spouses
About 30,000 same-sex binational couples may now be eligible for immigration benefits, such as permanent residence based on marriage, thanks to the Supreme Court’s decision on June 26 in United States v. Windsor, which struck down the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as unconstitutional.
That law had prohibited
the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages, regardless of whether they were legally valid in certain states or in other countries, and from conferring federal benefits on same-sex spouses that are enjoyed by heterosexual spouses.
Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security, said she applauded the decision. “Working with our federal partners, including the Department of Justice, we will implement today’s decision so that all married couples will be treated equally and fairly in
the administration of our immigration laws,” she said.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas said that USCIS has a list of marriage-based green card petitions that were filed since February 2011 by same-sex binational couples but were denied.
He hinted that the cases might be reopened once implementing instructions issue. Secretary Napolitano issued further guidance indicating that cases can be filed immediately and that they will be treated equally like any other marriage.
The Supreme Court’s ruling doesn’t apply to same-sex couples in states that don’t recognize gay marriage, only to the 13 states that do. There is disagreement among legal observers about whether a gay couple who gets married in one state and moves to another state that doesn’t recognize the marriage will still be entitled to federal benefits.
DOL releases new version of application for prevailing wage determination
The Department of Labor (DOL) has released a new version of Form 9131, Application for Prevailing Wage Determination.
The revised version of Form 9141 was implemented on the iCERT Portal on June 18, 2013. The DOL made minor changes “to clarify information needed for more efficient application processing.”
Requests submitted before June 18 using the iCERT Visa Portal System based on the previous ETA Form 9141 will be completed and returned using that version of the form, the DOL said. Any form initiated in a user’s system but not yet submitted by that date, however, will not be accepted. In addition, requests on the previous version of Form 9141 can no longer be “reused” in iCERT to submit a new request for processing.
Users can complete a new form by logging into their iCERT Portal account, clicking on “Begin New ETA Form 9141,” and completing all the mandatory fields.
Cyrus D. Mehta
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