Many people agree that our immigration system is broken. The debate lies in how to fix it and more importantly, how to address the issue of dealing with those who haven’t followed the legal path to citizenship. While it is easier to find common ground regarding improving our system for immigrants to enter our country legally, there remains concerns with granting amnesty to those who are already in the country without documentation.
Yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony for The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, S.744. Senator Marco Rubio is one of eight Senators that compiled this immigration reform bill that some feel defines a path to amnesty rather than citizenship. The fact that the “gang of eight” is comprised of four Democrats and four Republicans, provides hope for some that the bipartisan effort will help promote the passage of necessary immigration reform.
Sen. Rubio lists several reasons why he proposes legalizing illegal aliens.
Rubio explained that under his bill ilegal aliens who “have committed serious crimes” will be deported. However, the proposal will apparently not deem as a serious crime the habit of routinely driving without a driver’s license. “We have people in this country who are having children who are U.S. citizens and they go to our schools; they are driving on our streets without a driver’s license, which means they have no car insurance, which means all of us have to pay more in car insurance as a result,” said Rubio. “This is obviously not good for them, but it is not good for us.”
While Rubio’s plan has garnered support from conservative favorites such as Paul Ryan, it has also drawn sharp criticism from former Senator and Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint, who feels we cannot trust Congress to secure our borders and compares the bill to the one from 1986 that was tried and failed. “Lawmakers who supported the 1986 bill promised in grand speeches that amnesty would never happen again. Now there are 11 million unlawful immigrants in America because amnesty was immediate but the border wasn’t secured, workplace laws were not enforced, and our legal immigration system was not fixed. The result of amnesty is clear — it encourages more unlawful immigration in hopes of future amnesties” said DeMint.
President Obama’s ‘Organizing For America’ supports the bill, and some prominent Democrats have also been pleasantly surprised by the results of the negotiations.
“I must admit, I was impressed,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said Thursday after receiving a briefing with other members of the Senate Democratic Caucus. “You get a sense, and it looks like people seem to be responding very favorably.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a leader of the gang, emerged from the hour-long session with a bold prediction: “We will have the overwhelming majority of Democrats for the bill.”
The recent tragedy in Boston has once again, intensified the scrutiny of our immigration process, with one of the bombers being here legally although perhaps not justifiably, and the other suspect being a naturalized American citizen.
