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Immigration reform, once seeming close under President Bush after the introduction of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007, has completely stalled since that point. That bill died in the Senate (Marre, 2007), and there has been little action on immigration reform since then, despite the support for the ideas of CIRA by both Presidents Bush and Obama. There are few reasons why immigration reform has stalled. The first reason is that the economy went swirling down the porcelain. This shifted the priorities towards the end of the Bush Administration and for the first couple of years of the Obama Administration. Both presidents were forced to address economic issues, orchestrating bank bailouts and other measures to stabilize the economy. Immigration reform, while still viewed as important at the time, was simply viewed as less important. While Democrats had the clout to pass an immigration reform bill, they were concerned with addressing the economy and health care reform. Immigration, given bipartisan opposition in 2007, was a riskier bill with less upside for the new administration.
The elephant in the room, of course, is that racism plays an important role in the lack of immigration reform. Forget for a minute the...
President Bush made personal appeals to have this legislation passed in 2007, as he considered it part of his legacy. It would also have improved the standing of Republicans among Hispanics, including Texas, perhaps allowing Bush to secure the state for the party for the foreseeable future. It was, in essence, not only a humane bill but a politically savvy one, and a Republican President should have been able to count on his own party to support it. That is not what happened, however, an opposition was virulent, particularly to the idea that the bill created a pathway for illegal immigrants to gain citizenship (Smith, 2007). That the opposition never had credible facts on their side and resorted to fear-mongering, and that the bill was supported by the capitalist side of the Republican Party, all speaks to the other elephant within the elephant. When the arguments against something are…
References
Marre, K. (2007). 46-53 immigration bill goes down in the Senate. The Hill. Retrieved November 12, 2014 from http://thehill.com/homenews/news/12430-46-53-immigration-bill-goes-down-in-defeat
Smith, D. (2007). Senate kills Bush immigration reform bill. Reuters. Retrieved November 12, 2014 from http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/06/29/us-usa-immigration-idUSN2742643820070629
Foley, E. (2014). Conservatives warn that GOP must act on immigration, not just attack Obama. Huffington Post. Retrieved November 12, 2014 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/10/republicans-immigration-reform_n_6128980.html
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