1. The core of the bill must be a clear, unequivocal, and enforceable path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who have been horrifically abused by corrupt corporate interests. Republicans would prefer a “guest worker”, bracero or some other vaguely euphemistically-named scheme to allow for more cheap exploitable labor, while disallowing eventual citizenship or making it all but impossible in practice to obtain. Aspects of the recent Gang of Eight proposal, including extending the already crippling delays in place, are unacceptable, as these would in practice turn the immigrants into an exploitable cheap labor class, unable to vote or assert their rights against the corrupt firms abusing them.

2. Family reunification must remain the backbone of the immigrant system in general, and that includes same-sex couples. Republicans once again, will tout various alternatives or argue for replacing the family reunification scheme with some point-based or “skills” preference, which is little more than GOP wingnut-speak for various methods to separate families and deprive immigrants of basic rights, using them instead as defenseless cheap labor.

3. Immigration status cannot be contingent on employment status- one of the corporate giveaways that Marco Rubio and other Republicans in the Gang of Eight apparently want most. This would basically replicate the worst features of the H-1B program, giving employers carte blanche to abuse and humiliate their immigrant employees by threatening them with arbitrary job termination and subsequent deportation of them and their families. Immigrant workers would be too intimidated to speak up against abuses, arbitrarily low wages, 100+ hour weeks and such.

4. Immigrants must be paid fair, comparable wages and receive full benefits for their work, as befitting a modern industrialized country. No exceptions. To do otherwise would amount to a betrayal of both American workers and immigrants alike, acquiescing to the GOP’s cheap-labor (“as close to serfdom as possible”) lobby.

5. The path to citizenship can’t be larded with a gazillion stupid, arbitrary demands that make no sense in the context of the issue. The fine (which could be set to anything, potentially many thousands of dollars) is especially offensive, since gaining citizenship is outrageously expensive as it is, and the undocumented migrants have already been grossly abused and robbed of the fruits of their labor by corrupt, stingy employers. They’re hard-pressed financially, and a large fine would exacerbate their woes and merely serve to provide an ill-gotten revenue source for governments too cowardly to tax the real freeloaders (aka 1%ers milking the system and sending their proceeds offshore, like Mitt Romney and the health insurer and financial sector in general). It would also push hard-pressed immigrants into debt and make them vulnerable to further exploitation by Payday lenders and our corrupt financial sector. If anything, the underpaying, exploitative employers of illegal immigrants must be the ones bearing the fines.

The language test likewise doesn't belong in the bill- how can hard-working, exhausted immigrants already pushed to the brink, be expected to find spare time to prep for this sort of thing? How would it even work in states like New Mexico, where Spanish has been the main official and working language since the Mexican-American War in 1848? Spanish isn’t a foreign language in the USA, we’re the world’s second-largest Spanish-speaking country and we’ve been a multilingual land from the start. Heck, languages like Algonquin and Navajo, as well as Spanish, were established in United States territory well before English was, the first biblical scriptures were published in native American languages and Spanish! Immigrants aren’t stupid, they’ll learn the languages they need wherever they’re working, and for a big diverse country like our own. The language requirement does nothing more than provide another opportunity for corrupt obstructionists to block and delay immigrants from gaining their basic human rights.

6. The H1-B visa program must not in any way be expanded. A few Dems have been duped into supporting this corrupt serf labor scam based on high-sounding platitudes from rich corporate donors, always a danger in this wonderful post-Citizens United era of ours. (Including of all people, Sen. Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota who’s been a reliable progressive otherwise, tricked into co-sponsoring the H-1B cap increase with two oily wingnut showboaters, Orrin Hatch and Marco Rubio, not to mention Grover Norquist in his recent NYT piece. She’s reasonable and will reconsider this mistake if we help make her aware of it.) If anything, the H-1B program should be formally abolished, and replaced with a more humane program that puts the visa into the hands of the immigrant worker, not the employer, while allowing immigrants to stand up for themselves against abusive companies and executives, obtain citizenship and earn wages that are consistent with industry standards. Heavy penalties should instead by applied to companies that outsource American jobs while paying virtually no tax to the country that's allowed them to gain so much wealth.

7. There must, absolutely, be more funding and expediting of the naturalizing process. The backlog for gaining citizenship is an outrage and affront to decency as well as our country’s traditions, and here too we see ulterior motives at work. After all, the longer immigrants are kept in limbo by Republicans, the more corrupt employers can exploit their labor and intimidate their workers while pushing down wages, without the immigrants being able to vote or assert their rights. There have been some suggestions about doubling the numbers of legal immigrants each year, but this should be considered only if there are concrete steps to accelerate and expedite the naturalization process.

8. There must not be any consideration of the sorts of violent, ultra-punitive border control measures that Marco Rubio and other Republicans seem to fantasize about in their various gusts of hot air about immigration reform. .

9. There must be attendant consideration given to low-cost worker retraining and a true, effective jobs bill for both Us-born workers and immigrants in this still awful economy. The true unemployment (U6 and measures that look at discouraged workers) is not far away from Depression levels, so simply tossing workers to the wolves won't work. There has to be public involvement (yes, the evil hand of government to Norquist and his fellow corporate bootlickers) to smooth this process.

Ideally the Dems will be able to twist enough arms to bring about truly progressive comprehensive immigration reform. But the GOP controls the House and is throwing a temper tantrum a day in the Senate, so it’s conceivable that they may try to water down the immigration bill into an ugly corporate giveaway and vicious exploitation of immigrants as cheap labor, depriving them of the ability to protect themselves. If so, then we can’t give in and allow a bad bill to be even considered. We need to keep constant vigil and pressure on our elected representatives, to make it clear that there’s no tolerance for capitulation on any of these provisions, and if the GOP wants to obstruct, so be it- as their power wanes, we’ll be back. In the meantime, Obama can use his executive powers to bring about necessary interim changes for the better (as he did with the Dream Act).

This is just a brief list, and unfortunately I'll be working a night shift and then some so won't be able to follow up on my own. Just wanted to spark some discussion about these and other key elements that you all might have in mind to ensure the progressive quality of this legislation.