Comprehensive immigration reform might be held up even longer by the mid-term elections.
Just when you thought things might be about to give on the Hill in regard to comprehensive immigration reform, along comes – yes – another potential delay; the mid-term elections. You have to remember that the CIR bill was introduced into the Senate in March, making it highly unlikely it would get passed before the elections. The question is floating around now about the timing, as in was it deliberate?
It may have been deliberate, but we’ll likely never really know, as the politicians keep insisting that they may have the ability to get the bill passed. Overly optimistic? Overly enthusiast? Could be both of those scenarios, but in the final analysis it will either get passed or it won’t. Right now with looming mid-term elections right around the corner, chances are it won’t; not an overly big surprise either. Who really thinks the House will be doing too much significant business when they’re facing an election?
The honest reality of this situation is that those who will be voting in the upcoming election won’t really make that much of a difference in the outcome. Why? Because they are not likely going to vote solely on the basis of immigration reform and they won’t do that because they won’t be affected that much by the current CIR proposals. Not only that, most of them won’t even really be affected by the expected modifications or revisions to come. Those voting Democrat or your independent voter isn’t out to “get” someone to listen to their side of anything. They’re just out to vote – period.
On the other hand, Republicans have more ammunition in this upcoming battle, such as illegal immigrants, foreign workers, drug cartels, border security, crime, etc. They have also been accusing the President and the Democrats of striving to legalize illegal immigrants and increase immigration because they tend to lean toward voting Democrat.
Enough of the political confusion. What are the four major cornerstones to the latest CIR proposal? They are that people will have to have biometric social security cards which would mean certain illegal workers can’t get a job. There would be increased (yes, increased even ‘more’ than now) border security and enforcement. A process would be created to admit temp workers (no one is quite sure what that process would be). There would also be a tough but fair crack at legalization for the close to 11 million illegal immigrants living in the USA.
All of this sounds great, but we’ve heard it all before, and it is still going nowhere. The real question then becomes, does it have any place to go even if the politicians did get the thing off the rails?
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.
