On October 1, 2013, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) has provided an analysis on four (4) possible legislative scenarios that currently exist in light of the stalemate in Congress on the Comprehensive Immigration Reform.
1. Discharge Petition on Senate Bill 744
At this juncture, U.S. Senate has passed the Senate Bill 744 - Border
Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013.
If enacted, the Bill would, amongst other things, provide would provide
a road to citizenship for as many as 11 million unauthorized immigrants,
allocate billions for border protection and enforcement for the southern
border, and restructure the family immigration system. The Bill would
also create strict enforcement and deportation measures, and ramp up workplace
enforcement by mandating employers to use the E-Verify system.
The idea of a "discharge petition" on the Bill has been discussed
in Washington DC. A "discharge petition" is a means of bringing
a bill out of committee to the floor for consideration without a report
from the committee and usually without the cooperation of the leadership.
In other words, when the congressional leadership refuses to bring a bill
to the floor, a majority of Congress can petition to bring that bill to
the floor. A discharge petition is a rare maneuver and requires a majority
of Congresspersons to request such a vote. Moreover, there is a majority
Republicans in the House and the Republican support for the Bill is nil.
Furthermore, a discharge petition would require the full support of House
Minority leader Nancy Pelosi, and her office has been silent on this approach.
As such, it is unlikely that a majority of Congress will support such
a petition.
2. House Comprehensive Bill
The
Washington Post reported that the Republican leadership will not support the efforts of
the Gang of 7. The
Roll Call reported that two Texas Republicans, Sam Johnson and John Cater, have
left the Gang of 7 due to lack of confidence that President Obama has
not enforced the current law, and that the President would not enforce
the new immigration law. As such, the Gang of 7 is disbanded. As a result,
there is no hope for a House Comprehensive bill at this juncture.
3. Executive Action
Many advocates had been pressuring President Obama to issue an executive
order that would be similar to DACA (temporary work authorization to undocumented
youth) and TPS (protection from deportation) for the 11 million undocumented
immigrants. The President recently told Telemundo that such executive
was not an option, and that he does not have the authority to grant deferred
action, nor to stop the deportation.
4. Piecemeal Legislation
The leading supporter of this approach is the Chair of the House Judiciary
Committee Bob Goodlatte (R - VA). This approach would offer individual
pieces of legislation that would separately address individual issues
such as border militarization, mandatory E-Verify, a new Bracero programs,
and a very stringent interior enforcement bill called the SAFE Act, without
a pathway to citizenship. Goodlatte said that e would like a vote on these
bills in this October and has further proposed the idea of providing legal
status for the DREAMers under a "Kids Act", without a special
path to citizenship.
With a plate full of contentious issues such as the federal budget, the
debt ceiling, and possible defunding of Obama Care, together with the
partial shutdown of the federal government, it is unclear whether the
House can put together a package before the Thanksgiving recess.