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Your Questions on the Future of Immigration Reform

Posted October 1, 2010 by Patrick Young, Esq.
Categories: Federal Immigration Policy

Right before the vote on the DREAM Act last week, someone who knew that I had worked til 11:30 at night on the issue the previous five days asked me what I thought the chances for passage were. “One in ten,” I told him. “With odds that bad, why are you working so hard on this?” he asked. I said, “Because if we don’t, the odds will be 100 to 1.”

After the DREAM Act failed, with not a single Republican voting for legal status for immigrant kids, I was as discouraged as you were.

And the next day I began working on immigration reform again.

And so must you.

I have been asked many questions about immigration reform over the last 10 days. I’ve culled them and offer my answers to some of them.

Why did the DREAM Act fail?

The simple answer is that not a single Republican supported the bill. There are more than half-a-dozen Republicans in the Senate who have supported the bill in the past, but the Republican Party has found a benefit in a “just say no” approach to legislation this year.

Wasn’t it the process that was used, which barred amendments prior to a vote, the reason the Republicans voted against it?

No. The same process has been used many times over the years. The procedural question is just a smoke screen.

Shouldn’t the normal legislative procedure have been used instead?

Over the last week I’ve received e-mails from a couple of DREAM Act supporters saying that Harry Reid doomed the bill by not using the normal procedure, which included hearing and amendments. These are the same supporters who two weeks ago insisted that the bill be voted on without amendment! Sorry, but you can’t have it both ways.

Trying to attach DREAM to the Defense Authorization Bill was a last ditch effort to pass the bill before the election. Going through the normal procedure would have thrown DREAM to the lame duck session and burdened it with multiple anti-immigrant amendments. That may be its fate (if we’re lucky) anyway, but at least this vote gave us a chance at a simple up or down vote.

Isn’t Bob Menendez’s introduction of comprehensive immigration reform right before the Senate adjourns just an election year ploy?

Gee, you’re surprised that politics plays a role in legislation? Menendez’s bill does a few things. It forces the Democrats in the Senate to begin to take sides in the immigration debate. Before they could say they were for sensible solutions to undocumented immigration and border security, now they have to either support or oppose specific language in a specific bill. Also, it gives Menendez a chance to go to the 8 or 10 possible Republican allies on reform and say, “You want changes? Tell us what language you want in the bill.”

Is there any hope for immigration reform in the lame duck session of Congress after the election?

Conventional wisdom is that with two (three?) wars and a recession, Congress will devote its few days of activity to other issues, but lame duck sessions have sometimes secured the passage of otherwise controversial pieces of legislation by senators who don’t have to worry about an immediate electoral backlash. This is why it is so important that you not give up on reform yet. We may not get the immigration reform we hoped for back in 2009, but we may win measures that significantly improve the lives of immigrants.

Also, the Congress will be either marginally or significantly more anti-immigrant in 2011. So hard work now is even more valuable.

Stay active and informed.

I will.

Tags : dream act, immigration reform, menendez

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