THE passage of Comprehensive Immigration Reform was among the campaign promises of then-presidential candidate Illinois Sen. Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential elections.
On the second term of the Obama administration, the US immigration system remains broken.
Republicans and Democrats continue to differ in solutions to the immigration problem.
But even as the president supports immigration reform that would offer a path to citizenship for most of the nation’s 11-12 million undocumented immigrants, record number of deportations continue.
The Obama administration has deported almost 2 million people during the president’s five years in office.
Criticized for tearing families apart with the record number of deportations in the past years, President Obama reasons that unless immigration laws are changed, the government is duty-bound to vigorously enforce border control laws.
In 2013, the US government deported around 369,000 undocumented immigrants (about 3 percent of whom are Filipinos).
About 60 percent of the total number have previously been convicted of a crime.
Of the 216,810 deported individuals, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) apprehended and deported 110,115 individuals with a crime conviction from within the country.
Another 106,695 undocumented immigrants (who were attempting to enter/re-enter the US unlawfully) were arrested at the border.
But as the Washington Post reported, there has been a 10 percent drop from last year, when a record of 410,000 undocumented immigrants were removed from the country, according to new statistics from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The drop is a result of the Obama administration’s discretion to prioritize the deportation of those with criminal record along with those who pose a threat to national security.
In June 2012, Pres. Obama announced an administrative action to defer deportations for young immigrants, who were brought to the country illegally by their parents (DACA).
According to DHS, more than 400,000 people have been granted deferred action under this program.
Immigration advocates, however, contend that Obama could and should do more to stop deportation under the same rationale, for the discretionary power he used for DACA.
Obama has also reasoned that he cannot do more to halt deportations because of requirements under federal law. Instead, he asks the American people to put pressure on Congress, especially on Republican lawmakers, to overhaul the immigration system.
While the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill has already been passed with bipartisan support in the Senate in 2013, it has stalled in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
But a survey (conducted by Basswood Research and Republican pollster Jon Lerner on Nov. 2 and Nov. 3, 2013) revealed that a majority of likely voters in 20 Republican-represented swing congressional districts support the broad outlines of comprehensive immigration reform and a pathway to citizenship.
About three-fourths of respondents in the districts surveyed support allowing undocumented immigrants to earn eventual citizenship, either with or without border security provisions, according to polling commissioned by pro-reform group FWD.us.
Meantime, a new Latino Decision poll (released in October 2013) finds that Latino voters are paying very close attention to the immigration debate in Congress and that a candidate’s stance on immigration policy will directly effect how many Latino votes they win or lose.
The study reveals that overall, 58 percent of Latino voters rate immigration reform as the most important issue that they want Congress and the President to address — up from 35 percent, who rated immigration reform as the top concern in its November 2012 election eve poll.
Latino Decision poll asked Latino voters if they would be more or less likely to vote Republican, if the GOP took a leadership role in passing comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship. Overall 44 percent say they are more likely to vote Republican, with only 8 percent voting less likely.
Consequently, the new year started on an optimistic tone from the camp of House Speaker John Boehner.
As the New York Times reported: “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.
The New York Times further reported that other House Republicans, who see immigration overhaul as essential to wooing Hispanic voters crucial to the party’s fortunes in the 2016 presidential election, said they may work on separate bills “that would fast-track legalization for agricultural laborers, increase the number of visas for high-tech workers and provide an opportunity for young immigrants who came to the country illegally as children to become American citizens.”
From the Democrats’ camp, Pres. Obama said he is open to the “piecemeal approach” on immigration favored by House Republicans, but only if it does not abandon comprehensive goals in legislation, which passed the Senate last summer.
According to strategists in both camps, the biggest hurdle now is to reconciling the House approach with the broader ambitions of the Senate bill.
Democratic Senator Charles Schumer expressed optimism that Congress will reform immigration in 2014 because of Speaker Boehner’s break with the tea party.
“For the first time, Speaker Boehner said he won’t let the minority of his caucus — the tea party minority — run the show,” Schumer said in a report by The Washington Times.
The Washington Times reported that Speaker Boehner criticized tea party members of his caucus, as well as outside conservative organizations who came out against the budget deal in December, before it was even finalized.
The leader of the Republican-dominated House of Representatives also hired an immigration expert to be his assistant last month, which many observers say is a positive sign that “Mr. Boehner is ready to open the conversation on immigration reform.”
Do you share their optimism?
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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
