Bleak prospects for comprehensive immigration reform in near future

[The Northerner]

Just days after Congress killed the DREAM Act, voices on all sides of the immigration reform debate say it’s unlikely there will be much movement on the issue during the next two years.

With Republicans poised to assume House control in January, immigrant-rights advocates see scant chance legislation to grant illegal immigrants any kind of foothold in the U.S. could move through the lower chamber.

But with Democrats still holding the Senate and the White House, conservatives urging a harder line on deportations and citizenship requirements aren't terribly optimistic about those proposals either.

The likely result is an impasse of sorts on the immigration-reform front through the 112th Congress, observers say, with lawmakers stepping up oversight of the administration's enforcement efforts, but unable to enact major changes of their own.

"I would expect 'small ball' — smaller, more-targeted measures that aren't meant to remake the immigration system altogether," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a D.C.-based think tank advocating for tougher enforcement of immigration laws. "Logic would dictate … they'll be doing a lot of oversight."

ACLU Legislative Counsel Joanne Lin echoed that sentiment, noting the House Republicans poised to chair the panels with primary jurisdiction over immigration policy — Reps. Lamar Smith (Texas) and Steve King (Iowa) — "are about as far away from supporting comprehensive immigration reform as anyone can be."

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/135425-near-future-looks-bleak-for-immigration-reform


Of course they'll all be surprised when CIR passes overwhelmingly with or without the repukes's support.

[msongs]

1. give dems a chance to lockin the latino vote for a generation so to speak. nt

[midnight]

2. Keeping the status quo is profitable.... Money trumps peace.

[shraby]

3. The immigration debate has been around for over a hundred

years. Been used as a wedge issue a long time. I found this in an old newspaper in my county:

Arrival of Emigrants.
The steamer Huron brought to this port on Thursday last nearly
one hundred emigrants a pretty satisfactory proof that the
bugbear of Know Nothingism has not yet produced the disastrous
results which have been predicted by old fogy politicans who are
always seeing "a n*****r in the fence" when it is only a
reflection of their own ugly countenance reflected in the puddles
by the wayside.
Let the Emigrants come, there is room enough & to spare. Strong
hands & willing hearts are needed to hew down the forest trees
and "and make the wilderness blossom as the rose." Let them come
if they will and we will guarantee that they have no more cause
to dread the insiduous wiles of the Know Nothings than of any
other time serving political demagogues, whatever may be their
creed.
The Huron is on the Green Bay route, and the Superior has
commenced her regular trips to Lake Superior.
Manitowoc Tribune, Manitowoc, Wis. Thursday, May 1, 1856 P. 3

[Andy823]

4. Republicans don't want reform!

Republicans have never been in favor of changing the way things are right now! They talk tough, threaten all kind so "deportations", crackdowns, and walls, but they NEVER follow through with any of it, and they won't now! Big business's want an "ILLEGAL" work force so they can drive wages down, not pay any benefits, and so they can take advantage of the workers. If there were reforms that helped solve the problems, they would end up with a LEGAL work force that would not work for less money, that would want benefits, and would not tolerate poor working conditions!

No the right like things the way they are, and they can continue to use immigration reform as a "wedge" issue in the next election to get their base all worked up!

[Aramchek]

5. the longer the Repukes delay this, the stronger the resentment will grow

in the Nation's fastest growing demographic.

They will pay for this for generations to come.