The Senate approved sweeping changes to the nation’s immigration laws on Thursday, passing a bill that would put some undocumented immigrants in the U.S. on a path to citizenship. The bill is now headed to the Republican-held House, where it faces opposition from staunch xenophobes Conservatives.

There was bipartisan support for the bill in the Senate, with 14 Republicans voting yes. The bill has provisions for a 13-year path to citizenship for many of the 11 million undocumented immigrants already living in the States, though only people who have been living in the country since before December 31, 2011 will qualify.

In an apparent effort to make the bill palatable to the tough-on-immigration, lawmakers also stuck in boneheaded border security measures, including $40 billion over the next decade for 20,000 new border patrol agents and 700 miles of fencing. Fences! On the flipside, I guess all that fencing means more construction jobs?

Still, the Senate vote comes as good news for cities, places that have historically given immigrants a soft landing, easy access to employment and the chance to build supportive communities.

This week’s Forefront story examines the service industry in Philadelphia, where more than a quarter of restaurant jobs are held by people born outside the U.S. Writer Allyn Gaestel goes into how reform, if passed and signed into law, would play out for workers in Philly and cities like it:

The change in regulation will have manifold impacts, but the most obvious for the restaurant industry comes in the form of e-verify, a nationwide online verification system to check the immigration status of potential employees. E-verify will mean a large shift for restaurant owners who currently rely on the documentation workers present without any easy way to verify its authenticity, making for something of a de facto don’t-ask-don’t-tell situation.

On the other side of that verification, however, looms the bill’s greatest possibility for change: Its pathway to citizenship. While nothing has been decided yet, the latest iteration guarantees undocumented U.S. residents a process by which they can eventually become citizens if they meet certain requirements, including a clean background check, registration with the authorities and fulfillment of other obligations like paying taxes and fees.

If the House can somehow find a way to work in concert with the Senate, all those immigrants will have a chance to become citizens. That means a larger tax base, more cash for social services and, if you’re feeling particularly patriotic, a strong sense of civic pride. But I’m more interested in how the additional cash flow from a tax base that is proportionate to a city’s actual population might help with social and city services.

Bill Bradley is a writer and reporter living in Brooklyn. His work has appeared in Deadspin, GQ, and Vanity Fair, among others.

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