In times of economic development the audience can forget about illegal immigration, but in hard times, they quickly find immigrants guilty of economic turmoil. During the crisis, the number of Americans who believe that the main problem of the U.S. is illegal immigration has increased by 3 times. Even the President Bush and his administration tried - unsuccessfully - to implement immigration reform, in particular to give illegal migrants who did not violate any of the U.S. laws, except for immigration statutes, the ability to obtain a residence permit in the U.S. after they have paid taxes for all years of illegal residence in the country.
The Obama administration also tried unsuccessfully to obtain from Congress a law called the DREAM Act, which would give the children of illegal migrants the opportunity to legit in the U.S.. President Obama expressed hope that Congress would reconsider its decision on the matter. Therefore, in 2011, the Democrats started to pedal pro-immigration reform, though not only due to the kindness of their hearts, but they understood that without a vote of Hispanic voters in the U.S., which generally support these reforms, the 2012 election Barack Obama will not win. But the status of "illegal" has been already likely to ignite in the Congress even with more passion. Indeed, many Republicans who reached Capitol Hill after the November elections ran under the slogan of tightening control over illegal immigration (Hart, 2011).
Recently in Washington conservative representatives of Hispanic community have met to U.S. lawmakers, conservatives. They stated that if the country adopts new anti-immigration laws, and if this process is accompanied by verbal attacks on the immigrants then the White House in 2012 will be unreachable for conservative politicians. Hispanic leaders have a reason to make such strong statements in the USA, since 22 per cent of voters are Hispanics. Without their support, the White House for a potential candidate is white, fading mirage in the air (Hart, 2011).
As for the Democrats, they are also strict to illegal workers - judging by the fact that this administration is not going to cancel some rather strict rules. In 2010, the U.S. deported 393 000 illegal immigrants. John Morton, the head of the federal Bureau on verification of compliance with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, during a recent phone conversation with a reporter of "Associated Press" said that in the future, the Agency will not intend to diminish their efforts.
In such a difficult situation that takes place in American society, many politicians of the left wing and the so-called "human rights" make allegations in favor of amnesty for illegal people in the U.S.. They apparently believe that these illegal immigrants after being legalized and on becoming equal citizens of the United States will thank them during the next elections and will vote for the Democratic candidate. This, presumably, is taken into account in the opposite camp as well, where the most conservative wing of the Republicans strongly opposes to legalization of illegal immigrants.
Besides, against amnesty for illegal workers in the U.S., serves a number of major trade unions, who fear in the event of immigration reform loss of influence on the part of certain employees. These sentiments are part of trade union leaders led to the exit in 2005 of six organizations of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and creation of a new, rival union so called "Change for the sake of victory." And according to some experts, members of the Federation played an important role at the initial stages of the presidential campaign of Barack Obama (Karen, 2011).
In this regard, the White House faced a difficult task: Latinos pulled in one direction and the other unions. And at the time when the Democratic Party proposes to introduce an amnesty for those who have illegally entered the country and further strengthen the border, the Republicans are in favor of more stringent measures.
Republicans believe that all the fuss was raised by lobbyists for the Democratic Party. According to the former senator from Colorado, Tom Tancredo Republican, Democrats in such a way are looking for cheap popularity among Hispanic voters. And yet, as he said in his commentary, the "hysteria" around the law can be caused by radical Latino groups that claim to have right to the territory ceded to the U.S. after the war with Mexico. A lot of organizations around the Republican Party, however, are lobbying the interests of the white population. These are: Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), Numbers USA, etc. Wall Street Journal investigation showed that many of them were established by Tantonom John, an ophthalmologist from Michigan, who promotes progressive ideas such as forced sterilization of women from the Third World, and a ban on abortion due to increasing the birth rate etc. (Karen, 2011).
Part of the Democrats, with Obama at the head, sincerely believes that the amnesty of illegal immigrants is not deprived of common sense. That's why they do not leave and will not leave attempts to smuggle DREAM Act. Recently, Obama has again stated - "I am determined and this administration is determined to get immigration reform done." At the same time, there is an opposite opinion, in particular, that this is a mistake and to deal with illegal immigrants, the most severe methods are needed. And those who support this idea consider it to be the only way to solve this problem. Thereby there should be legalized those who did not violate the law, and who have been waiting in queues for 10-15 years to get American citizenship. On the other hand, that will unlikely be supported by the Republican majority (Hart, 2011).
References
Brooks, Karen. Business Lobby Helps Scuttle Immigration Curbs in Texas. Jun 29, 2011. Retrieved December 7, 2011, from:
Hart, Patricia Kilday. Business Opposition Puts 'Sanctuary Cities' Bill at Risk. June 25, 2011. Retrieved December 7, 2011, from:
