Editorial:
The immigration reform bill passed out of the Senate with a 68-32 vote. Supporters of the bill were hoping for a supermajority 70 yes votes, which would have put pressure on Congress to accept the bill and pass it without changes. If Congress does change the bill, it will have to go back to the Senate for approval. But if Congress approves the immigration reform bill with no changes, it can go on to the President for signature.
The Hispanic community had hoped that the political subject of immigration reform would treat immigrants humanely and acknowledge that immigrants are a vital part of the United States. This recognition would come in the form of common sense immigration reform that would appreciate the contributions of immigrants and offer a sensible path to legal citizenship. The Hispanic community was hoping that immigration reform would cherish the family and that one of the outcomes would be helping to keep immigrant families together. We had hoped that immigration reform would empathize with our young people who through no fault of their own were raised and educated in the United States, and offer these dreamers a path to citizenship.
For the Republican Party, immigration reform has emphasized border security and penalties for those who want to come out of the shadows to lead a productive, happy life.
After the Congressional Budget Office came out with the report that immigration reform could lower the deficit by $197 billion, Senators Corker and Hoeven introduced the border security amendment that would spend $38 billion on border enforcement, militarizing the Southern border with Mexico while ignoring the border with Canada. Without the amendment, many Republicans would not have voted for it. Republican leadership insists that there will be no path to citizenship until the border is secure. This is troubling without the definition of a secure border being articulated.
Sure there are parts of the immigration reform bill that the immigrant community can hang their hat on like the express path for those serving in the military or going to school. It saddens us that humanitarian concerns are overshadowed by the insistence of lawmakers to militarize the border and also to secure a low-cost, high and low-skilled workforce for corporate and agricultural American businesses.
The assumptions being made with the passage of this bill is that approximately 800,000 immigrant youth would be legalized under Section 2103 (DREAM Act), and approximately one million under Title II, Subtitle B—(Agricultural Worker Program). That means about 2 million immigrants will be legalized. The other 9 million or so immigrants in the country must go through the general legalization program offered.
Legalization for these 9 million immigrants would require an application for Resident Provisional Immigrant (RPI) status, which they would maintain for six years, after which they could renew their application for another four years. After that, they could apply for a green card, and three years after that, they could begin the citizenship process. In addition to the extremely long intervals of application for citizenship, the associated costs will be prohibitive at best.
Immigrants are looking at a 13 year period even before they can start the citizenship process. They will be required to pay thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars, meeting stringent guidelines. As with most government run programs, the backlog will surely add years of delays.
The 4 to 5 million immigrants unable to legalize their status under the Senate bill’s terms will be left facing an extremely harsh and unforgiving set of laws that will eventually force their detention and deportation or more likely leave them in undocumented status for the rest of their lives.
This immigration bill is not about reform, but about providing a steady workforce without fear of work place raids or government interference. It will only provide the façade of reform, while efforting to controlling the Hispanic community and limiting citizenship. The Republican Party does not want to add any more Hispanic voters to the Democratic Party.
Despite all of the hype about Hispanic voting power at the polls, the Hispanic community is being asked to settle and accept a deeply flawed immigration bill. If we did indeed have political power we would not be asked to settle, we would be setting the terms for reform, but that day has not yet come.
We will no longer use the word reform. Reform implies improvement which this does not do. All this bill will do is to militarize the border, construct a fence, and patrol the air with drones, all of which is a slap in the face to the Hispanic community and Mexico.
From this day forward the catch phrase will be, ‘the bill is not perfect, but it does move immigration forward with a path to citizenship, and it is better than nothing.’ We wonder if it is indeed better than nothing?