By: Patrick Wheat
In 2009, the DREAM Act, formally the Development, Relief, and Education of Alien Minors, was reintroduced in Congress by members of both parties. This legislation fast became a hot button issue, each side using it as political ammunition to describe how the other party was undermining the foundation of America through its support or opposition. While the bill passed the House, it failed to pass in the Senate. Since then, immigration reform has fallen by the wayside. The economy has continued to flounder, the wars have grown in terms of force deployment and cost, and the Tea Party movement, a movement which looked upon immigration reform in an unfavorable light, rose to prominence.
Despite other policy distractions, immigration reform remains one of the most pressing issues in today’s political arena. In the 2010 census, over 40 million of the citizens of the United States were considered “Foreign Born,” a term used to denote individuals who immigrated to the United States at some point in their lives. This number only counts the number of individuals who immigrated here legally. Estimates at undocumented immigration number around 11 million individuals currently in the United States.
Now immigration reform appears on the horizon for the first time in the years. The Gang of Eight is a bipartisan group of senators who have come together in an attempt to get real issues addressed in a Congress considered historic in terms of partisanship and disapproval by the American public. The Gang of Eight has finalized a bill that will overhaul all immigration programs, including requiring employers to confirm the legal status of their workers, a large infusion of border security forces, and the creation of a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. This bill was introduced early Tuesday morning, with hearings scheduled to begin next Wednesday in the Senate.
As with all major legislation over the past several years, extreme sides of the Congress have already made their views
on this issue very clear. For instance, the New Democrat Coalition Immigration Task Force, a group of members in the House of Representatives, have already came out saying that the only issues they have with this bill are that more emphasis must be placed on reforming the methods of employment of undocumented immigrants, and more attention should be paid to ensuring that families will stay together. Inversely, a majority of House Republicans are ideologically opposed to the notion of allowing undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship.
On NPR’s Morning Edition Congressman Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) said, “The people that came here illegally knowingly — I don’t think they should have a path to citizenship. If you knowingly violated our law, you violated our sovereignty, I think we should normalize your status but we should not give you a pathway to citizenship.” His outlook is one of many that are unlikely to change over the next few months of debate.
The one area of immigration reform that both sides agree on is the need to increase the abilities of the border patrol. The bill proposed by the Gang of Eight calls for 100 percent surveillance of the U.S. border with Mexico, and 90 percent apprehension of all peoples trying to cross into certain high-risk areas. This is the one issue that both parties have vocally supported, and will likely remain a main provision of this bill as it is goes through committee hearings. The enforcement of the border, and more resources allocated to its defense, has been a major campaign point for many politicians for decades. By making this issue a fundamental piece of their bill, the Gang of Eight has taken a step in the right direction.
The road forward is unlikely to be easy. With a bill of this size we can expect a number of political maneuvers to be tried, ranging from the addition of amendments that will fundamentally change the bill to filibusters that go on for days. Any politician that fights to kill this bill without having an alternative plan in place does so at his or her own peril. Fifty-five percent of Americans support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, with 83 percent supporting stricter border control. Has the Gang of Eight proposed the long awaited solution that the American public desires to the issue of immigration? Or will this be another failure like the DREAM Act? With an issue as controversial and important as immigration reform, the American public will have to demonstrate to their representatives in Congress that the people of this nation deserve reform and a closing word on this chapter in American history.
