Immigration reform before Congress | The Salt Lake Tribune

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Under the Senate compromise ...

(Defeated in a procedural vote Friday morning.)

* Illegal immigrants here more than five years could work for six years and apply for legal permanent residency without having to leave the country.

* Two years to five years: Would have to go to border entry points sometime in next three years but could immediately return as temporary workers.

* Less than two years: Would have to leave and wait in line for visas to return.

* Provides a new program for 1.5 million temporary agriculture workers over five years. It includes calls for a ''virtual'' fence of surveillance cameras, sensors and other technology to monitor the U.S.-Mexican border.

Under the House bill ...

(Passed in December but awaits a compromise version with Senate.)

* Requires all employers to use, within six years, a database to verify Social Security numbers of employees or face civil or criminal penalties for hiring illegal workers.

* Requires mandatory detention for all non-Mexican illegal immigrants arrested at ports of entry or at land and sea borders.

* Makes illegal presence in the country a felony.

* Makes a drunken driving conviction a deportable offense.

* Requires building fences along 700 miles of the 2,000-mile border between Mexico and the United States.