One of the promise Obama said would be on his agenda if re-elected was a “comprehensive” immigration reform bill that would both provide a pathway to citizens and also be fair to those who opted to try legal means to enter the US and are waiting in line to enter the United States. This month, the Senate kept good on this political promise by formally beginning debates on the matter. A bipartisan “Gang of 8” have come up with a plan, which creates a “13-year path to citizenship for most of America’s 11 million undocumented immigrants.” (CNN.com).
The bill contains four basic legislative “pillars” that it wants to see enacted into law. The first involves the pathway to citizenship. In the committee’s framework, they call it a “tough” path to citizenship, but even a tough pathway is one that currently does not exist under the current laws in the States. The committee wrote that “our legislation will provide a tough, fair, and practical roadmap to address the status of unauthorized immigrant in the United States that is contingent upon our success in securing our borders and addressing visa overstays.” (Schumer, McCain, Durbin, Graham, Menedez, Rubio, Bennet and Flake)
Part of this pillar also involved an increased protection at the borders. What could become controversial is their statement of increasing unmanned surveillance equipment to assist with boarder patrol efforts. I think that this could be seen as controversial considering the current controversy and backlash of both the US’s drone service and also the current NSA debacle in which many Americans feel the government is overstepping it’s legal rights in it’s surveillance of it’s people.
This pillar carries in the document the commitment that it will take further action against racial profiling. They would also like to install a tracking system that will keep track of when and where citizens of other countries are entering in order to inform the government of travelers who have overstayed their Visas. This pillar also includes fines and forces undocumented citizens to register and pay any back taxes that they may have.
The second pillar involves an overhaul of the entire system that will better be able to allow qualified immigrants to come to the country to help strengthen the economy and American families. This pillar is the one, which might increase the amount of visas given to qualified graduates.
The drafters of the bill right that such a reform is necessary to “ensuring America’s future economic prosperity.” They are looking for a system, which is focused and able to recognize “important characteristics.” It will also provide a clearer pathway for foreign students who were educated in in the US. (Schumer, et alt).
The third pillar involves doing a better job of detecting workers which should not be within the country and preventing the identity theft which workers currently use to get around the current laws and system in place. In their writing on it the writers of the bill recognize the cause of what is bringing undocumented workers into the US—jobs. The federal government wants to help provide employers with an easy way to verify if their workers are able to work within the United States.
The forth pillar is to create a much better procedure for allowing workers to serve the economic workforce needs. Here the issue of drug trafficking has been identified here as another problem in this very convoluted situation. Of the 327,00 illegal entrants that the CBP caught in 2011, they see that they came for jobs and wanted to find employment without seeking the assistance of parallel powers like narcotraffickers. (Senate.gov).
The debate came to the floor in May when the judiciary committee’s 13-5 vote sent the amended plan to the floor. Senators Schumer, Durbin, McCain, Graham, Menendez, Rubio, Flake and Bennet authored a document that lays out a framework for the comprehensive reform. (Senate.gov).
The committee’s tally carries weight to it that might mean it is a real possibility that the bill could lead to enactment as a law. Three republican leaders, Hatch, Flake and Gram voted in support of the measure.
The biggest obstacle currently is that it would need house approval, where there is a conservative entrenchment that is vehemently opposed to the bill in its current form becoming a law. Democrats have the recent memory of their failed attempts to pass gun legislation going into debates around immigration reform.
While there is republican support for the bill, there is also republican resistance to it, one of the republicans of the gang of eight recently left the group due to his disagreements with the ideas coming out of the group. The disagreement was due to a disagreement regarding health care provisions of the bill.
Senator Raul Labrador from Idaho wanted to ensure that workers in the US illegally were prevented from obtaining any taxpayer funded health care. (CNN.com).
One advantage is if not the support then at least the complacency of Republican speaker John Boehner, who although has not expressed any substantial ideas regarding the policy being discussed says he supports the “Gang of Eight.” He is however, a powerful force in the Republican controlled house, and no one can say at this moment how exactly where his support will lie once the bill is on the floor.
The legislation is monumental both because the broken immigration system has been an important political issue for the growing Hispanic vote which voted overwhelmingly in support of the democratic ticket in the 2012 election. The Telegraph’s article “How the Latino vote swung it for Barack Obama” discussed how Latinos were not just a key voting block for that particular election but made predications about it’s importance through the century. Some of the interviewed voters showed disenfranchisement with the party that they believed instead of working for them were working against them and their families. (Telegraph.com)
Many Latino families contain a mixture of documented and undocumented workers. It is about more about the 12 million estimated workers within this country, but one must also consider not just them but their families and neighbors who want to see them treated fairly. (Foxnews.com).
For most of my adult life, the immigration an issue has been an issue with little progress towards a little solution. George W. Bush’s “great wall,” has today been seen as the failure it is. This was a large political gesture, but has had little effect on the actual issue at hand of illegal immigration.
Right now both of the parties have been sparring on this issue and a host of other ones. From gun control to foreign policy, the two parties within the United States are more divided than they have ever been. This issue has the potential to fail, like gun control did, but it could also be an issue where both parties could find common ground and could be a uniting issue. There seems to be enough support on both sides of the aisle for this to be a real possibility.
Works Cited:
"5 things to know about immigration reform - CNN.com." CNN.com International - Breaking, World, Business, Sports, Entertainment and Video News. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2013. <http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/22/politics/5-things-immigration-reform>.
Altman, Alex. "Senate Immigration Bill Clears Committee in Bipartisan Vote | TIME.com." Swampland | Political insight from the Beltway and beyond | TIME.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2013. <http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/21/senate-immigration-bill-clears-committee-in-bipartisan-vote/>.
"Bipartisan Framework for Comprehensive Immigration Reform."Senate.go. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 June 2013. <www.flake.senate.gov/documents/immigration_reform.pdf>.
Blanton, Dana. "Fox News poll: Voters want immigration reform | Fox News."Fox News - Breaking News Updates | Latest News Headlines | Photos & News Videos. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2013. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/13/fox-news-poll-voters-want-immigration-reform/
"How the Latino vote swung it for Barack Obama - Telegraph." Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph - Telegraph. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2013. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/9667324/How-the-Latino-vote-swung-it-for-Barack-Obama.html>.
