Arena: The year for immigration reform?
Martin Frost, attorney, former Democratic
congressman
“No year is ever a good year to seek immigration reform. Immigration reform makes Social Security reform look like a walk in the park. The Obama administration should concentrate on health care and energy legislation this year and not waste capital on this most difficult of all subjects.”
Cesar Conda, Republican strategist, former Romney and Cheney adviser
“Obama should focus on creating new legal avenues for foreign workers to enter the U.S.
“President Obama can get something done on immigration reform by avoiding President Bush’s mistake of allowing the debate to focus on amnesty for the current undocumented population. Obama should instead focus on creating new legal avenues for foreign workers to enter the U.S. ... To be sure, the current recession makes it politically more difficult to tackle immigration reform. But election-year politics also dim the prospect of passing immigration legislation next year. If President Obama chooses to focus on legal immigration reforms and not amnesty, I believe he could get Republican support and get something constructive done on immigration this year.”
Julian E. Zelizer, professor, Princeton University
“Any policy is doable, particularly one that has such a huge impact on communities across the country. Immigration is also integral to the economy, as all sides of the debate acknowledge. In previous eras, our immigration policies had a huge impact on the nature of the economy. The immigrants who entered the U.S. at the turn of the 20th century would form the backbone of the post-WWII economy. So there is no reason to take this issue off the table.”
James G. Gimpel, professor, University of Maryland
“It takes two or more Congresses to pass such legislation. This year will be fine to initiate the process, to begin congressional hearings on proposed legislation, but past rounds of reform have shown that it takes two or more Congresses to pass such legislation. Immigration law is a complex and multidimensional area of policy that will move through several committees, not just one. Moreover, the present ideas for reform are controversial and require considerable consensus-building, even among the majority party’s factions, to secure the needed majorities [leaving aside the Republicans for the moment]. Even if the process begins today, it may not reach the floor for a final vote — and passage — until very late in the second session of this Congress, or, more likely, the next Congress, in the second half of the Obama administration’s first term.”
James Carafano, The Heritage Foundation
“It’s always a good idea to fix bad policies that give you broken borders and a deeply flawed immigration system that encourages millions to live here unlawfully. But cures should be better than the disease. Repeating the failed Bush formula of amnesty first — itself an attempt to repeat the failures of the 1986 reforms — would be a tragic mistake. The right answer is real border and internal enforcement; a practical temporary worker program; reasonable visa caps on existing programs; improving federal immigrant services; and real partnerships with Latin America that improve the security and economy on both sides of the border (initiatives like Merida and free-trade agreements for Panama and Colombia).” http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21510.html
“No year is ever a good year to seek immigration reform. Immigration reform makes Social Security reform look like a walk in the park. The Obama administration should concentrate on health care and energy legislation this year and not waste capital on this most difficult of all subjects.”
Cesar Conda, Republican strategist, former Romney and Cheney adviser
“Obama should focus on creating new legal avenues for foreign workers to enter the U.S.
“President Obama can get something done on immigration reform by avoiding President Bush’s mistake of allowing the debate to focus on amnesty for the current undocumented population. Obama should instead focus on creating new legal avenues for foreign workers to enter the U.S. ... To be sure, the current recession makes it politically more difficult to tackle immigration reform. But election-year politics also dim the prospect of passing immigration legislation next year. If President Obama chooses to focus on legal immigration reforms and not amnesty, I believe he could get Republican support and get something constructive done on immigration this year.”
Julian E. Zelizer, professor, Princeton University
“Any policy is doable, particularly one that has such a huge impact on communities across the country. Immigration is also integral to the economy, as all sides of the debate acknowledge. In previous eras, our immigration policies had a huge impact on the nature of the economy. The immigrants who entered the U.S. at the turn of the 20th century would form the backbone of the post-WWII economy. So there is no reason to take this issue off the table.”
James G. Gimpel, professor, University of Maryland
“It takes two or more Congresses to pass such legislation. This year will be fine to initiate the process, to begin congressional hearings on proposed legislation, but past rounds of reform have shown that it takes two or more Congresses to pass such legislation. Immigration law is a complex and multidimensional area of policy that will move through several committees, not just one. Moreover, the present ideas for reform are controversial and require considerable consensus-building, even among the majority party’s factions, to secure the needed majorities [leaving aside the Republicans for the moment]. Even if the process begins today, it may not reach the floor for a final vote — and passage — until very late in the second session of this Congress, or, more likely, the next Congress, in the second half of the Obama administration’s first term.”
James Carafano, The Heritage Foundation
“It’s always a good idea to fix bad policies that give you broken borders and a deeply flawed immigration system that encourages millions to live here unlawfully. But cures should be better than the disease. Repeating the failed Bush formula of amnesty first — itself an attempt to repeat the failures of the 1986 reforms — would be a tragic mistake. The right answer is real border and internal enforcement; a practical temporary worker program; reasonable visa caps on existing programs; improving federal immigrant services; and real partnerships with Latin America that improve the security and economy on both sides of the border (initiatives like Merida and free-trade agreements for Panama and Colombia).” http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21510.html