Is Comprehensive Immigation Reform Imminent?
For the 12 million estimated undocumented immigrants in the United States, comprehensive immigration reform may be the only solution to bring them out of the fringe of American society and into the mainstream. The last immigration reform proposal in 2007 sailed through the House only to be defeated in the Senate. Dead issue. Recently, serious discussions of immigration reform have once again revived the pulse to the immigration debate. Comprehensive immigration reform may be on its way.
Since the start of the new year, there has been renewed interest and positive momentum lead by the Obama administration to push for comprehensive immigration reform, including a way for illegal immigrants to become legal. Additionally, on April 13, 2009 the AFL-CIO voted unanimously to support a nationwide comprehensive immigration reform, which they had not endorsed in 2007.
According to a New York Times article on April 16, 2009, President Obama plans to begin addressing immigration reform this summer through work group discussions between lawmakers and immigration proponents for possible legislation as early as this fall. Related to immigration reform, a bill called the Reuniting Families Act was introduced in the Senate on May 20, 2009 to amend family unity in the U.S. immigration system. According to a press release issued by Congressman Michael Honda's office on June 2, 2009, the bill specifically will include the following:
- aRecaptures unused family-based and employment-based visas previously allocated by Congress which remain unused.a
- aAllows a green card holder to reunite with their spouses and minor children: The bill classifies the children and spouses of lawful permanent residents as aimmediate relatives.a This would allow lawful permanent residence spouses and children to immediately qualify for a visa.a
- aIncreases the per country limits of family and employment-based visas from 7% to 10%: Right now, each country only has a 7% share of the total cap of visas that Congress allocates each year. Increasing each country's percentage of visas would eliminate the absurdly long wait times for individuals to immigrant from certain countries like the Philippines, China, and India.a
- aAllows orphans, widows and widowers to immigrate despite death of a petitioner.a
- aPromotes family unity by allowing more people to use the system: The bill gives the Attorney General greater flexibility to address numerous hardships, including family separation, caused by a provision that bars individuals who had been unlawfully present in the United States from utilizing our legal immigration system.a
- Recognizes the sacrifices that certain World War II Filipino veterans made for this country, by exempting their children from the numerical caps on visas.
- Ends discrimination in immigration law, allowing same-sex partners to reunite.
In press conference on June 4th, Congressman Mike Honda, who introduced the bill to the House, said:
aThe Reuniting Families Act should be at the heart of comprehensive immigration reform, seeking to fix our broken immigration system while taking into account the current economic climate. Our family-based immigration system has not been updated in 20 years, separating spouses, children and their parents, who have played by the rules, for years, often decades. Our proposed legislation is in line with both American family values and with our short-term need to grow our economy and save taxpayer money.a
Though the Reuniting Families Act would not be comprehensive immigration reform, it is a positive step and perhaps the tipping point to an over-haul of the current immigration system. At this point it is not certain what comprehensive immigration reform may involve and who it will benefit. However, according to Obama administration officials, Mr. Obama's plan may not add new workers to the American work force, but would recognize millions of illegal immigrants who have already been working in the United States. Immigration reform proponents and lobbyists may push for future comprehensive immigration reform to include a temporary guest worker program, an increase in H-1B visa numbers, as well as backlog relief of the employment and family based preference system. No matter what future comprehensive immigration reform will include, current events show there is positive momentum afoot towards comprehensive changes to the U.S. immigration system.
