The STRIVE ACT: an outline from FAIR
The Wait is Over – Guest Worker Amnesty Introduced in the House

After long negotiations and in-fighting, Representatives Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) broke away from their Senate counterparts last Thursday to introduce a guest worker amnesty bill in the House of Representatives. H.R. 1645, or the STRIVE Act of 2007 (Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy), offers amnesty to the estimated 12-20 million illegal aliens and provides big business with a future flow of cheap foreign labor though a guest worker program with a path to citizenship. The bill also makes improvements to border security efforts and provides for an employment eligibility verification system.

The guest worker portion of the bill creates a new type of worker visa, called an H-2C visa, that allows illegal aliens to stay in the U.S. for up to 6 years so long as they can:

establish employment;
pass a background check;
pass a medical examination; and
pay a $500 fee.
The H-2C program also allows these “guest workers” and their dependents to apply for permanent residency status and eventual citizenship. The program has an annual cap of 400,000 guest workers with an automatic escalator that can inflate the number to as many as 600,000.

The amnesty portion of the bill allows illegal aliens to apply for “conditional nonimmigrant status” by establishing that he or she was present and employed in the U.S. since June 1, 2006. The alien must also submit fingerprints, undergo a background check, and pay a $500 fine. Once granted conditional nonimmigrant status, the alien may obtain permanent residence status after six years by:

establishing employment;
paying of taxes (but only taxes owed for legal work);
paying $2,000 in fees and fines;
passing a background check;
meeting the citizenship requirements under current law; and
touching the border (see below).

This last requirement, called a “touchback” provision, only requires that sometime during the six year period of conditional nonimmigrant status the alien go to the border and reenter as a conditional nonimmigrant—the status they already have. There is no requirement that the alien actually return to his or her home country, undergo any new scrutiny, obtain any new documentation, or spend any meaningful time outside of the U.S. Indeed, Congressman Gutierrez was quoted in CongressDaily as saying the touchback provision could be accomplished “in a day.” Spouses and dependents are excluded from the touchback requirement.