Hidden in all this are three things:

1. Automatic green cards for graduates of US universities with credentialed Masters and PhD in tech fields (engineering, computing, biotech, etc).

2. Automatic waivers for Red employers who hire undocumented workers if they can "show" no US citizen would apply (after advertising in Greek in the local penny saver in the disused basement beneath the second basement of a small town with no road to it).

3. Increasing H1-B visas four-fold to 300,000 so that all the tech jobs get snapped up so that Americans can't take those jobs in the first place.

Wake me when they get real.

A link to the text of this framework can be found here.

Surprise, surprise - if you are an undocumented agricultural worker, you will get special dispensation.

Due to the utmost importance in our nation maintaining the safety of its food supply, agricultural workers who commit to the long term stability of our nation's agricultural industries will be treated differently than the rest of the undocumented population because of the role they play in ensuring that Americans have safe and secure agricultural products to sell and consume. These individuals will earn a path to citizenship through a different process under our new agricultural worker program.

Yes, it's all about the safety of our food supply, and not about maintaining the artificial low cost of our food supply. And by dangling the reward of citizenship after "long term" service in front of them, undocumented farm workers will put up with being paid even less.

Even so, this framework is much better than what we have today. Let's see how watered down it gets.

@1 I'm sorry I fail to see the problem with those three things, your attempt at editorial comment not with standing.

All we need is a North American Union...a place where citizens of Mex, US, Can are allowed to live, work and travel freely in the continent legally and with no restrictions.

After that the normal pathway to citizenship is open to any who wish or feel the need to pursue it.

@4 or we could just give Texas back to Mexico, let em annoy them for awhile.

The North American Union (NAU) is a theoretical economic and political union of Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The concept is loosely based on the European Union, occasionally including a common currency called the Amero or the North American Dollar. A union of the North American continent, sometimes extending to Central and South America, has been the subject of academic concepts for over a century, as well as becoming a common trope in science fiction. One reason for the difficulty in realizing the concept is that individual developments in each region have failed to prioritize a larger union.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Ameri…

@3 I have to agree. I went to MIT and it was strange that some of my classmates had to leave the country in order to get proper work visas so they could come back. Sure they compete for jobs with us real 'mericans, but they also pay taxes and ensure that innovation happens here.

Similar for H-1B visas. Better to have Microsoft create a braintrust in Redmond than to start an overseas campus because they can't bring in the workers they want to hire.

It'll be interesting to see how the right handles the agricultural worker provision. Rank and file (read, poor) republicans hate illegal aliens and the republican corporations love cheap labor. That's the dirty secret you'll never hear on Fox NEWS.

Ask any broke-ass republican about Reagan granting amnesty to 4.5 million illegal immigrants as payback to big agro for making him governor of California and then president and they'll call you a liar.

Ask McCain whether the DREAM Act was originally a republican idea and he'll instantly become as senile as Reagan testifying during Iran-Contra.