The Waiting Game

Unfortunately for Democrats and immigration reform activists, it looks as if the wait for reform is going to be a lot longer than hoped for. Fueled y the recent talks prompted by Arizona state passing a toothy illegal immigration bill, protesters and advocates of illegal immigration reform are outraged by the lack of response from the federal government to place reform as the top priority on the national to-do list. What makes their plight even worse is that Arizona's bill has begun to prompt other states to pursue their own immigration reform bills. The video linked here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw4Thm6RpS4 talks about the recent reform in Arizona, and how Utah is now considering passing a similar immigration law. But why is the federal government waiting to press forward on this issue if its so pertinent to millions of Americans and illegals alike?

According to a recent article in Reuters, it seems the reason why is because there is so much more going on right now that immigration reform has to take the back burner. Much of the aggression of protesters and advocates alike have is focused on the president, who made campaign promises to try to pass a reform bill sometime in his first year of office. However, between the financial crisis overhaul of Wall St., the nomination of two new Supreme Court Judges by the end of this year, dealing with a climate change bill coupled with a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the economic failure and jobless rate increase, as well as an impending arms treaty between Russia and the U.S., it seems as if the president doesn't quite have the time to deal with the reform bill at the present time.

Not only does the president not seem to have time, but Congress also looks to be at a stand-still on this issue. The Washington Post's recent article on the Congressional effort towards this bill speaks of how the only Republican that was working with Democrats to pass a bill by the end of this year, has recently backed off of the issue. Sole Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, has stated that at the present time, pushing an immigration reform bill against the current opposition would stall the process "for years to come." When speaking to the secretary of Homeland Security, Graham stated that "I believe we can do it by 2012, if we're smart and we address the big elephant in the room, and that is that our borders are broken."

For those Democrats relying on the paltry Republican support, Sen. Graham's digression is quite the blow for their movement to pass a reform bill this year. Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the number three Democrat, explained that the federal government (under such a bill as could be passed) would enhance border control and create a new fraud resistant Social Security card for current citizens. If illegal immigrants wanted to stay in the U.S., they would have to admit to breaking the law, pay back taxes and fees, and pass a criminal background check after living in the U.S. for eight years.

In short, it looks like regardless of what side of the fence you're on its going to be a long wait. With staunch opposition to a reform bill by Republicans and crisis after crisis facing the Whitehouse at the present time, any form of a bill won't be seen anytime in the near future.

Heating Up

The debate on immigration reform is heating up all across the country this week, with thousands of people taking to the streets to pass the law in Arizona last week and Congress having serous talks about how to deal with the push for immigration reform.

At the national level, the President has provided two opposing statements within the last two days. On Friday while aboard Air Force One, the President stated that, "Congress might not have the appetite for an immigration overhaul." However, more recently the President has stated that the immigration reform is "an important step" and that a lack of federal action on passion new legislation would leave room for "a patchwork of actions at the state and local level that are inconsistent and, as we have seen recently, often misguided."

The Democratic members of Congress have also showed two sides of their intentions, unveiling a framework for a comprehensive immigration reform bill, but not committing to a specific date for accomplishing reform. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) however, believes that, "Failure to act on immigration reform will mean that our broken system and ineffective laws will continue to weaken our national security and hurt our workers and fall short of the most basic standard of justice" (further underlining the message sent out by the president). The essential gist of the proposed bill would be to secure our boarders first before dealing with the illegal immigrants already here, as well as punishing employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants with jail time or harsh fines. Unfortunately for democrats, not a single republican has opted to support the bill, leading to what House Republican Leader John Boehner states is "not a chance" for an immigration reform bill to pass this year.

Meanwhile out on the streets of major cities all across the USA., thousands of people came out to support immigration reform in a positive light, frequently carrying signs and banners denouncing the bill passed in Arizona which many regard as "racist." Many of the protesters are advocating that Washington D.C. is taking too long and not giving an easy enough way for citizenship for illegal immigrants. Others are simply fed-up with the utter lack of direction from the federal government itself, stating promises that Obama made during his election that he has yet to keep.

Whatever happens in the next few weeks should be interesting. With all of the mixed messages flying around in Congress and from the President, as well as the steady increase in volume from protesters having had enough of waiting, the future is wide open to just about any kind of reform... Or lack thereof.