Is there real hope on the horizon for the roughly 12 million immigrants residing illegally in the United States? According to a bipartisan group of senators dubbed the Gang of Eight, immigration reform may be on the horizon in 2013. Many people have resisted the temptation to become overly optimistic, mainly because the immigration reform initiative sounds eerily familiar to the same offer as it was released in 2005, 2009, and again in 2010, which was eventually phased out without a real resolution. However, several factors indicate that this year will be different. Political will in the form of radical demographic changes in the US and an exponential increase in the Hispanic population, along with 1/3 of the legislators in the House and Senate who are new to their positions, will likely become the lever of change needed to address our nation’s immigration policies.
Republican John McCain, a staunch and vocal opponent of President Obama’s stance on immigration reform, said on ABC’s “This Week” that the group still had a lot of work ahead of it, but was pleased with progress. ” McCain further stated that a change was needed, because “we cannot go on forever with 11 million people living in this shadow country in an illegal state. We cannot have forever children who were born here, who were brought here by their parents when they were little, to also live in the shadows. “
So why should this new plan be any different? According to the plan offered by Gang of Eight, which includes key decision makers Michael Bennet of Colorado, as well as Republicans Marco Rubio of Florida, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jeff Flake of Arizona, the plan contains enough compromise in both. sides of the hall to make a real remodel a possibility. Legislators are aware that times have changed and immigration problems now have dire consequences.
The plan contains four basic ideas that would lead to a systematic transformation of immigration policies. First, the new plan would streamline the current immigration system and create a “tough, fair, and practical roadmap” toward citizenship for illegal immigrants. Second, it would reward advanced graduates of American universities in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields. The plan would also create a way for employers to check the status of potential employees and impose sanctions on companies that fail to comply, and ultimately the new plan would allow employers to hire low-wage, undocumented manual workers when there are no Americans to do so. they will accept the job.
However, the plan is not without opposition. “In the race to overcome Obama’s amnesty, the Gang of Eight today repeated the failed amnesty plan of six years ago,” said Rosemary Jenks, director of government affairs for Numbers USA, an advocacy group that fights at higher levels. low immigration, calling the plan little more than “Amnesty 2.0”. Additionally, Republican Lamar Smith of Texas expressed an opinion likely shared by other conservatives when he said, “When you legalize those in the country illegally, it costs taxpayers millions of dollars, it costs American workers thousands of dollars. jobs and encourages more illegal immigration, “Smith said,” by granting amnesty, the Senate proposal actually compounds the problem by encouraging more illegal immigration. “
Senator McCain summed up why the current plan will succeed where others have failed with one word, “Elections.” “The Republican Party is losing the support of our Hispanic citizens … This is a preeminent issue for those citizens.” As long as both parties remember that Hispanic voters have a tremendous impact on the success or failure of an election, there is real reason to be optimistic about the success of the 2013 immigration reform.
