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Hume: Senate immigration plan would be an 'improvement'

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    Evaluating the merits of bipartisan proposal

  • Duration 2:52
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Auctioneers.

And bipartisan group of senators and President Obama have unveiled outlines of immigration reform legislation this week.

Senior political analyst Brit Hume is here with what his analysis of what's right with one of them.

-- -- -- Clinton -- question why I have so many immigrant families from Asia had done so well in this country.

One reason surely it is that they had to come a long way to get here.

For all the wonders of modern travel and ocean is still a formidable obstacle and it tends to screen out the less able unless determined.

The result is a relatively small subset of the US population about 6% nearly half of whom have at least a bachelor's degree.

They are assured to kind of people this country needs.

This is -- while the most useful parts of the senate immigration reform package rolled out the other day is a provision that would award green cards to immigrants who hold advanced degrees in science.

Technology engineering and math.

Our technology sector is said to need about a 120000.

-- -- computer engineering jobs every year.

We graduate about a third of that number and many of those leave the country because their visas expire.

A bill to award such people green cards passed the house last year but was blocked by senate Democrats who preferred to protect the current system.

-- which about 55000 green cards were awarded by random drawing each year to immigrants from countries who previously said few people in the US.

It is -- not surprisingly as the diversity lottery.

And has been notoriously subject accusations of fraud the proposal to -- green cards the kind of -- workers skilled workers the country is now losing.

Would certainly be an improvement -- So for the critics who -- out there who say this is amnesty it's going to get people in right away.

-- they have an argument that's going to be forceful up on Capitol Hill perhaps not so much about this particular proposal.

But more broadly speaking the bill does allow for something called probationary.

Status where you're here working -- though you don't hold a green card you and you're not you're not on -- path to citizenship.

This is a piece of -- that is going to be subject to the to the a word amnesty which has been a killer.

In times past.

The problem is of course -- this -- this bill is a good stuff of the kind of thing I just described and there's lots of -- in this bill.

Is it still hostage to some extent to this kind of accusation.

And is also the question of well we're making a six and exchange year.

Yet there's going to be -- they'll be amnesty but an exchange that we're really gonna close the border -- -- really gonna do it the problem with that is measuring how well you've -- the security piece.

And nobody just figured out quite how to do that so we'll see Republicans point back to Reagan and say yeah that's what he did you know he he thought he was getting.

Amnesty several millions and internally and an exchange -- close the border.

On the -- never quite got close to Barbara thank you.

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