In wake of Boston bombing, immigration bill now includes stricter monitoring of foreign students

In response to the Boston Marathon bombing, the Senate panel looking at the proposed immigration bill voted unanimously Tuesday "to tighten the monitoring requirements of foreign students," requiring the Department of Homeland Security "to transfer all student visa information to border control agents at the nation’s 329 ports of entry," Ed O'Keefe and David Nakamura report for The Washington Post. (CNN photo: Azamat Tazhayakov, left, an alleged accomplice of suspected bomber Dzohkhar Tsarnaev, right, was in the country on an expired student visa)

The measure was proposed by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), after it was found that one of the alleged accomplices of the accused bombers was in the U.S. on an expired student visa, and was allowed entry into the country, because U.S. Customs officials didn't know the visa was expired, reports O'Keefe and Nakamura. The hope is that the proposal will "prevent lapses in information-sharing about foreign students when their immigration status changes while they are in the United States."

Grassley, who has been the leading critic of the immigration bill, also submitted a proposal requiring businesses to hire Americans before "seeking out high-skilled immigrant workers, and a plan forcing companies dependent on such workers to continue counting them as part of immigrant worker quotas even if the worker is seeking permanent legal status," reports O'Keefe and Nakamura. The committee rejected that proposal. (Read more)

The bill includes a new "blue card" program that would allow experienced farm and agriculture workers who are in the country illegally the opportunity to move closer to obtaining a green card and legal residency, more quickly than most other workers. U.S. workers have also claimed racial bias, saying Mexican immigrants are getting all the jobs.