The CIR (Comprehensive Immigration Reform) Is Unlikely to Pass the Republican Party

President Barack Obama recently held a White House meeting on immigration. One of Mr. Obama’s critics says that the right people were not invited to this meeting. The President did not invite an experienced immigration lawyer, or an experienced immigration judge, or members of Congress who will eventually vote on immigration reform legislation. This critic also says that the President has been giving lip-service to immigration reform for over two years now but has done nothing except blame the Republicans for failure to reform the immigration laws. The critic concludes that Mr. Obama's meeting on immigration reveals he has no real intention to address immigration reform and that his strategy is to talk about immigration but actually avoid doing anything about it.

Another critic says that the President had a Democratic majority in had both Houses of Congress in his first two years in office, but he never actually proposed an immigration reform bill. Instead, he decided to let Congress sort it out for themselves rather than taking the lead on the issue.

Republicans are basically opposed to any new legislation that would lead to a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants already living and working in the United States. They say that any immigration reform proposals that offer a path to legal status are the same as amnesty, and they are firmly opposed to that. In the last Congress, the Democrats had large majorities but weren't able to pass the comprehensive amnesty bill because members of both parties are against granting amnesty to over ten million illegal aliens.

One congressman thinks the Obama administration should first secure the U.S.-Mexican border and put a greater emphasis on getting rid of illegal workers and penalizing the businesses that hire them. He also criticized the Obama administration for what he sees as a substantial reduction in workplace enforcement.

Even though there appears to be solid opposition to immigration reform bills, Representative Zoe Lofgren said she still sees hope for changes. Lofgren said she sees "big steps forward" in the future, in the form of changes to immigration laws that affect immigrants married to U.S. citizens and in the form of a re-designed DREAM Act.

Can we actually expect any immigration reform legislation to become law during the remaining time Mr. Obama is in office? Yes, if the President shows firm leadership in this area and succeeds in convincing both parties to follow his lead, and yes, if the reform legislation does not grant anything like amnesty to the millions of illegal aliens now in the US.

What kind of immigration reform bills might be successful in Congress? Just about any reform bill has a chance of passing if it does not offer amnesty or a path to a Green Card for illegal aliens. Agricultural workers and guest workers might receive favorable treatment if their presence in the US is strictly limited to the time needed for their work.

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Q.1. What kinds of Reform have been discussed that would benefit the Vietnamese community?
A.1. Some members of Congress would like to the numbers of visas for family members increased. Another proposal is putting the spouse and children of Permanent Residents in the same category as a US Citizen’s immediate relatives. This would eliminate the waiting time entirely.

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Q.2. My wife and I both work long hours and we’d like to hire a nanny from Vietnam to care for our children and help them retain their Vietnamese culture. We’d also like to hire a caregiver from Vietnam to help my aging parents who live with us and who can’t speak English. Is an Immigration Reform bill likely to cover these categories of workers?
A.2. It’s too soon to say. Nothing has been put in writing at this session of Congress. In any case, it would be up to the US Consulate in Saigon to decide whether or not to issue such visas, based on the applicants’ ties to Vietnam and the likelihood that they would return to Vietnam when their visas expire.

 
 
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