LAST Wednesday, I asked our readers: Will immigration reform pass in 2014?
The Democrat-led Senate has already passed the bill last year, but it stalled in the Republican-led House of Representatives. The new year, however, ushered in more optimistic possibilities.
The New York Timesreported: “Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio has signaled he may embrace a series of limited changes to the nation’s immigration laws in the coming months, giving advocates for change new hope that 2014 might be the year that a bitterly divided Congress reaches a political compromise to overhaul the sprawling system.”
Rep. Boehner was reportedly committed to what he calls “step-by-step” moves to revise immigration laws, without disclosing specific details.
President Barack Obama expressed openness to a “piecemeal” approach, provided it includes a pathway to earned citizenship to some 12 million undocumented immigrants already in the United States.
Fil-Am community leader and staunch immigrant rights advocate Atty. Arnedo Valera looks at the glass as half-full. “Speaker Boehner has finished his soul searching. A change of mind and heart. And has conveyed to the public that he will work the passage of a new comprehensive immigration reform this year …Thank you, Speaker Boehner!,” Atty. Valera said.
On the other hand, Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican lawmaker who drafted the high-skilled version of the immigration bill, thinks otherwise.
“Comprehensive immigration is hard to do with the best environment between the executive branch and between the House and Senate, “Rep. Issa said in a media interview. “We don’t have the best opportunity. If we can find a compromise that is bipartisan on the 11 million undocumented workers, I think we begin to defuse some of the animosity.”
“ It doesn’t mean we get a bill passed for the next election,” Issa pointed out.
However, the Republican Congressman said Rep. Boehner will allow Congress to vote on his bill this year.
Issa’s bill, which was filed a few months ago, would grant highly skilled undocumented workers a working visa for six years. Issa said six years is enough time for these immigrants to adjust to a more permanent status.
Attorney David Leopold, past president and current counsel of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) did not share Issa’s gloomy forecast.
He argued on Balitang America: “Nobody said that passing immigration reform was going to be easy. I’m not sure why Rep. Issa finds it necessary to announce that it’s a hard thing to do. Of course, it’s a hard thing to do. But the Senate did it, and they did it on a bipartisan basis, with Republicans and Democrats sitting down and hammering out — not a perfect bill, but a good bill. And there’s no reason why the House of Representatives cannot vote on a similar bill.”
Leopold contended that the only reason immigration has not passed is because Republican leaders (like Issa and Boehner) have refused the full House to vote on the bill. “We need 218 votes to pass it. We have more than 218 votes,” he pointed out.
Leopold added that Issa’s bill does not do anything to fix America’s broken immigration system.
Whether immigration reform is passed through smaller pieces of legislation or through a comprehensive bill, Leopold told Balitang America: “It should contain border security, path to earned citizenship for the undocumented, a reform of the visa system and employment verification to protect US workers and prevent unscrupulous employers from hiring and abusing undocumented workers.”
President of the US Chamber of Commerce Thomas J. Donohue, likewise, refutes the idea that immigration reform will not pass in 2014.
The US Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business organization that represents the interests of more than three million businesses.
Donohue vowed that 2014 would be the year his organization pulls out all of the stops, in order to pass immigration reform.
In partnership with community organizations, Donohue said the Chamber is determined to lobby efforts with different sectors of government for the passage of the bill this year.
A majority of our viewers of Balitang America (57 percent) said in an online poll that they believe Pres. Obama can convince Congress to pass the comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2014.
Those who oppose have been consistent with their argument: “It is unfair for those who waited in line, paid the fees and taxes, and obtained their US citizenship according to immigration laws. We should enforce our existing laws and not reward lawbreakers. Deport all illegal aliens!”
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
