Prospects for Comprehensive Immigration Reform in Congress - Paper Example

The comprehensive immigration reform continues to be a major theme of political debate as the consider how to address labor demands and border security. Presently, the fate of the approximated millions of undocumented immigrants existing in the U.S. coupled by the future legislations for legal migration, intersect at the balance. This paper attempts to analyze the prospects for the comprehensive immigration reform in the Congress. It introduces the origins of the critical issues revolving around this reform and details its present status and future prospects.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The origins of the issues surrounding the comprehensive immigration reform can be traced back to over fifty years when the U.S. immigration policy started to fail to lead to an unprecedented influx of illegal immigrants. The estimated millions of individuals who found their way into the United States illegally started to breach the rule of law and look go against the lawful naturalization process, while constant large numbers of immigration who failed to become assimilated threatened not only the social cohesion of America, but more the countrys civic culture and common identity. This state of affairs led to the enactment of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. The amnesty legislation sought to enhance the border security and crack down on U.S. individuals and organizations recruiting undocumented immigrants while extending amnesty to those already in the country illegally (Olivas, 2009). However, it neither managed to slow illegal entry of foreigners into the country nor establish an effective framework to address it going forward. Since this period, issues surrounding the failure of the immigration reform have often been referred to the 1986 legislation. Nonetheless, multiple proposals to the comprehensive immigration reform have been introduced to the Congress but faced stiff competition from the two sides of the house.

Supporters of increased immigration enforcement hold that illegal immigrant not only subject the safety of law enforcement agents and U.S. citizens particularly along the Southern border but also compromises the public image of immigrant and cost the country huge sums of money. Both the Democrats and Republican legislators are calling for policy changes. The standards for immigration reform the Congressional republicans announced in 2014 were to a large extent in agreement with the President Barrack Obama administrations suggestions to the immigration reform. However, the Congressional Republicans support step-wise enforcement as opposed to the package approach to the implementation of both border security and internal paths to legal status (Bruno et al., 2016).

Presently, illegal immigration is still a controversial matter in the Congress. Nonetheless, there have been several bipartisan proposals seeking to address the demand for high-skilled and low-skilled labor, to make the majority of undocumented immigrants who exist in the U.S. legal and to enhance both border and interior security measures. Besides the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and immigration Modernization bill passed by the 114th Congress in June 2013, the Congressional members have also advanced piecemeal approaches to the comprehensive immigration reform. The first proposal the Congress is considering is the Immigration Innovation Act. Introduced in the Senate in 2015, this bipartisan bill seeks to double the number of high-skilled workers holding temporary visas and do away with annual pre-country restrictions for work-based green cards.

Second, the Start-Up Act is another bipartisan bill introduced the same year which suggested the innovation of an entrepreneurs visa and STEM visas for immigrants and U.S.-educated laborers holding an advanced degree in STEM and scraping out pre-country limits on those seeking visas for employment. Third, Secure Our Borders First Act is a Republican bill that proposes imposing penalties against senior officials of the Department of Homeland Security whose units that fail to detect and apprehend an established number of illegal entries (Bruno et al., 2016). If presented with the proposed amendment, President Obama is likely to sign the bills into legislation given his position and actions towards immigration. Obama has expressed the need to overhaul the failed U.S. immigration system calling for a revision of immigration laws and procedures in several ways.

In light of the political polarization, especially in the House of Representatives, prospects for the comprehensive immigration reform are considerably dime. The Republican Party has experienced serious internal divisions, with notable Republicans such as the former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Senator Marco Rubio lobbying for some proposals to immigration, whereas the House Republicans are more likely to support such legislation. For example, a simple suggestion for comprehensive reform to feature on the table saw Eric Cantor, the Former House Majority lose his seat in the primary to Dave Brat, a Tea Party candidate. While the establishment wing mounts support for immigration reform, the populist wing rejects it. From this state of affairs, it is clear that if any attempt would happen it would happen in pieces, hence killing the prospects for any legislative action in the Congress today. In the meantime, the fate of estimated millions of immigrants lies with the judicial system especially as the newly elected President Donald Trumps executive directives await courts decision.

In conclusion, it is imperative to note that the comprehensive immigration reform has been subject to the political rivalry for decades. The reform has revolved in the U.S. Congress for several decades, shifting decisions to the executive and judicial units of government and forcing the deliberations into the halls of government at both the state and municipal levels. Therefore, the business, labor, and political interests must find a way to reconcile their conflicts.

References

Bruno, A., Argueta, C. N., Bjelopera, J. P., Garcia, M. J., Kandel, W. A., & Siskin, A. (2016). Immigration Legislation and Issues in the 114th Congress.

Olivas, M. A. (2009). The political economy of the DREAM Act and the legislative process: A case study of comprehensive immigration reform. Wayne L. Rev., 55, 1757.