Support for immigration reform by a group of senators who call themselves the “Gang of 8” doesn’t offer an immediate fix or concrete plans.  But at a news conference, they did talk about the pressing need to grant citizenship to most of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants who live and work in the U.S.  Senators Chuck Schumer, Democrat from New York, John McCain, Arizona Republican, Robert Menendez, Democrat from New Jersey, Dick Durbin, Democrat from Illinois, Lindsay Graham, Republican of South Carolina, Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, Michael Bennet, Democrat from Colorado say they’ve been working on this since last year and recognize the time has come to act.

 

Here’s what they’d like to do:

 

“1. Create a tough but fair path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants currently living in the United States that is contingent upon securing our borders and tracking whether legal immigrants have left the country when required;

2. Reform our legal immigration system to better recognize the importance of characteristics that will help build the American economy and strengthen American families;

3. Create an effective employment verification system that will prevent identity theft and end the hiring of future unauthorized workers; and,

4. Establish an improved process for admitting future workers to serve our nation’s workforce needs, while simultaneously protecting all workers.”