Overview
- Senators John Curtis and Mark Kelly filed the proposal as a federal pilot to let states sponsor a new nonimmigrant status that covers workers, spouses and minor children for up to three years under Department of Homeland Security approval.
- The measure caps state-sponsored slots at 5,000 per state per year with an additional share of a 245,000 visa pool and requires states to allow visa holders to seek occupational licenses while barring them from federal means-tested benefits.
- Enforcement features tie program growth to compliance: a 3 percent overstay threshold triggers a mandatory $4,000 bond and a 50 percent cut in a state’s quota, and states must report where sponsored workers live.
- A contested provision would let some people who were physically present in the U.S. as of December 31, 2016 become eligible for legal residency after vetting and a $1,000 penalty, a clause that has drawn conservative criticism calling it amnesty.
- The bill, filed as S.5197 and now held in the Senate Judiciary Committee, revives ideas from Utah’s 2011 Compact and a 2017 federal proposal and faces uncertain prospects because of partisan pushback and broader congressional gridlock.