Fronteras

With hearings on the Senate’s comprehensive immigration proposal underway, House Republicans have begun introducing their own immigration proposals. But they are taking a piecemeal approach.

The House Judiciary Committee received two bills Friday morning, both introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.).

The first offers a 500,000 farmworker visas a year, four times more than the Senate’s plan. But unlike the Senate’s plan, the House version offers no housing or partial travel benefits to those workers.

The second House bill phases in E-Verify for employment over a two-year period. The Senate’s bill is over four years. House Republicans say this piecemeal approach is the only way to satisfy everyone.

Muzaffar Chishti is an analyst with the Migration Policy Institute.

"So we can understand why politics will not tolerate all of them being together, but from policy point of view it will work best if they work together," Chishti said.

Senators who worked on the comprehensive Senate plan have said the House approach leaves no path to citizenship and little room for compromise.