Counting chickens on immigration reform in the hopes it made it into law in May is a lost cause.
Even though the latest “in the loop” gossip on the Hill had it that the President was making phone calls to Republican senators to pull things together for an attempt at a bipartisan bill for immigration reform, the window on timing got smaller and smaller. Some hinted the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill would make it into law in May. What is likely is that it “may” make it into law prior to the end of the year – maybe.
Obviously, timing on this bill is vague at best and impossible to pin down at its worst, which leaves a whole load of people up-in-arms over whether or not they will ever see the reform in their natural lifetime. The best that can be said for comprehensive immigration reform right now is that it is still being pushed in the right direction. Unfortunately, there appears to be a number of stumbling blocks, most of them human, and most of them political. One wonders what happened to the will of the people in this scenario.
Will CIR make it into the limelight in June? If the President can get the stalled wagon train moving once again, there may be the possibility that CIR would be hailed into law by the end of the year, but certainly not within the next few months. The logistics of accomplishing that would be far too daunting to manage with any great degree of skill and accord. And so the machinations continue on the Hill.
If you look back at what is going on, most of this interplay that is taking place right now makes a great deal of sense. Why would the President go forward if he doesn’t know for sure that he has the votes to accomplish what he needs? It’s too risky to take that kind of a flyer and go forward, hoping the support is there. If something were to happen, the whole process could fall apart.
Overall, in reality, it’s really unlikely the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill will ever get passed in the Senate on a party line vote. That means then that the President must aim for bipartisan support – a daunting task indeed given that immigration reform is a hot button. And so, the clock continues to tick.
Sally Odell – Rifkin & Fox-Isicoff, PA is an immigration lawyer in Miami with immigration law offices in Orlando and Miami Florida. To learn more, visit http://www.rifkinandfoxisicoff.com.
