Next Big Fight: Immigration and DREAMERS

By Peggy Sands Orchowski

Now, it's immigration reform's turn.

 

At 5 a.m., Feb. 9, the House passed an historic $400 billion two-year government budget. It greatly expands funding for defense as well as for domestic programs.  There was not one word about the contentious issue that shut down the government two weeks ago: what to do about DREAMERS – millions of illegal immigrants who came into the U.S. before the age of 16 and have been here at least five years.

 

Democrats want all DREAMERS legalized along with their parents, adult siblings and more. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) occupied the House floor Feb. 7 for a record eight hours to lobby solely for DREAMERs.

 

Most Republicans agree that some DREAMERS, especially some of the 700,000 DACA recipients of President Obama's executive memo program — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — and possibly more, could be legalized. In exchange, the G.O.P. wants tightened border and interior enforcement as well as basic changes in current immigration law. Republicans promised once the budget was passed, they would devote at least a week to immigration reform proposals.

 

So, now what is going to happen?

 

I have been covering Congress as a credentialed (that means non-advocate) Congressional correspondent for the past ten years. I have written two books on how immigration laws and politics evolve in this country. Here's my take on the situation.

 

Immigration laws are always a work in progress. They are never done "once and for all" (as Obama urged Congress unsuccessfully to do during his eight years in office). Immigration laws and their enforcement respond to constantly changing forces: economic, demographic, politics and technology. It's Congress's right to change immigration laws, to change the regulations and numbers of legal and temporary visas.

 

Both parties have different ideas about immigration. Democrats tend to support expanding the numbers of immigrants, and some talk as if immigration is a civil even a human right. (It is not).

 

Republicans, especially after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the country, have tended to look at immigration as a national security and labor force development issue.  President George W. Bush created the first agency to enforce immigration laws inside the country – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Republicans also want to focus on giving visas to "merit-based immigrants," as Canada does.

 

Over the next few weeks, I'll be covering what I believe will be healthy as well as passionate discussions in Congress about changing basic elements in the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act.  Elements like chain migration and family reunification, "diversity" visas, permits for skilled and low-skilled workers, maybe even birthright citizenship.

 

One thing is clear.

 

The more illegal immigrants that Democrats want legalized, the more changes in the 1965 immigration laws and enforcement will be demanded in exchange.

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