Call it what you wish, amnesty or otherwise. What counts is that the Senate bill legalizes aliens residing in the USA that should not be here to begin with, i.e., have entered the country illegally or overstayed temporary visas. In addition the guest worker provisions of the Senate bill legalizes more illegal aliens, some of whom will overstay their ‘visits’ like the millions of others who have overstayed any of our other guest worker/visa requirements. Below is a list of the current temporary visa programs. I count 20 in all, not including travel for vacations, conferences, seminars and the like, by foreigners for which requirements vary by country of origin. It should be noted that the current Senate bill says nothing new about temporary agricultural workers. Current law covers those folks.
The Senate bill also does not address the issue of “anchor babies,” i. e., which basically assumes that anyone born on US soil, other than those exempted by war or treaty, is considered a citizen. However, the Supreme Court has never explicitly ruled whether or not the Fourteenth Amendment grants children of illegal aliens automatic citizenship.
The current, proposed Senate bill, recently put on hold by the last cloture vote which failed, adds at least three more classes of visas, Z1, Z2 and Z3, which legitimizes the residency of those illegal aliens residing in the US as of January 1, 2007. It also expands the numbers of visas that can be issued in other current classifications.
Employment Visas
H-1B
H-2A
H-2B
H-3
O-1
Business Visas
L-1
I
E-1
E-2
Education Visas
J-1
H-3
M-1
F-1
Fiancee - Marriage
K-1
K-3
Other Visa Categories
B-1(travel-biz travel)
B-2 (travel-biz travel)
C (transit)
D (vessel crew)
R (religious)
Employment Visas
H-1B
H-2A
H-2B
H-3
O-1
Business Visas
L-1
I
E-1
E-2
Education Visas
J-1
H-3
M-1
F-1
Fiancee - Marriage
K-1
K-3
Other Visa Categories
B-1(travel-biz travel)
B-2 (travel-biz travel)
C (transit)
D (vessel crew)
R (religious)