Immigration Reform essay

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Akif Rahman

Immigration is a hot topic in US politics at the moment due to recent executive orders and divides within Congress on how to deal with immigration. The Democrat Party has a set of key beliefs and one of those is social progression and helping minorities which is why it seems like the Obama administration, which has had 2 terms in power, should have had numerous successes in the field of immigration. Unfortunately, they haven’t; by looking at the increase in spending for border controls, the shunning of immigration reform in the first two years, the 2014 mid-terms and the shift in Congress, the fact that the Gang of 8 bill has not been furthered, the laws implemented by states and the lack of action on sanctuary cities, we can see the Obama administration has a record of total failure on immigration reform.

When Obama was elected, in 2008, he promised to tackle immigration and help those in the nation who wanted citizenship. This was contradicted by the rise in deportation and the rise in security spending. It is through these facts that we can see the Obama administration has not only failed on immigration reform , but it failed to help minorities which is one of their beliefs which is significant in realising that the party may have shifted on the spectrum. However, it is clear that attempts were made to make large reforms. In 2010 the Dream Act was proposed again. This shows that the administration have the mind set to progress on the topic of immigration. Unfortunately, this was filibustered by the Republicans which shows that the Obama administration had failed due to opposition. This could be a factor in the future too.

In the 2014 mid-term elections, the congress was handed over to the Republicans in the sense that they had the majorities in both the House and the Senate. This is significant because the Republican Party are very nationalist and traditional. Most of their supporters fear immigration and their politicians do too as seen in the filibuster in 2010. This shows that the Obama administration were not clinical enough in deciding what reforms to prioritise. However, the Republican Party are changing in their views. It is evident through politicians such as Marco Rubio and his Border Reform Act in 2013, the party were changing and this could be because of Obama’s push for immigration reform and the potential voting influence it may have in 2016. This therefore shows that Obama and his party have influenced changes elsewhere and shows that successes can be achieved through these means. Despite this, the reform proposed by Rubio was largely rejected in the party because many saw it as amnesty for immigrants. This shows the Obama administration has failed and cannot change views which suggest the idea that they should have taken their chance when they had it.

The first two years of Obama’s presidency seemed promising as there was a Democrat stronghold in Congress so reform would have been easy to pass, but Obama chose to focus elsewhere. The Obama administration decided that healthcare reform and the stimulus bill were their main priorities and so they shunned immigration reform. This shows that they not only failed to implement reform, but they simply did not care enough about it. Despite this, as time progressed, the party learnt and in their third year, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals was passed as executive action, which shows they knew they failed to act when they had a chance and that they wanted to progress now. Unfortunately, this was a bit too late and in hindsight, it seems the party would have had a lot more luck when they were actually in power with strength, which simply shows the administration were ineffective in implementing change.

In addition to this, we can see that the Obama administration is poor at progressing from change too. The Gang of 8 bill was passed in 2013 and seemed to revolutionise the immigration reform record as it seemed to be an amazing bill that created a path to citizenship. But since then, it has not been enhanced and when John Boehner brought it up in the House, many were not keen to enhance it. This shows that the Obama administration has a record of failure because even when they do pass reform, they are not effective at implementing it. However, we can see why Obama didn’t want to expand this bill; it is because there were plans in place for an executive order. In 2014, the executive order on immigration saved over 4 million people from deportation. This is significant because it shows the Obama administration is using their powers well in order to pursue action that will help their supporters. Nevertheless, this sees to be the only huge success of the administration. There have been failures to bring up reform like the Dream Act in 2010, and it all in all shows a record of failure. This is leading to states taking their own action.

Due to the government’s failure to create national reform, the states have taken the issue into their own hands in order to help immigrants. In 2012, California passed legislation that allowed farmers, who were immigrants, to join unions and protect their rights. This shows that the country sees immigration needs to be addressed but due to the failure to implement reform, they have had to take their own action. However, the National Supreme Court has fought against some state laws in order to protect immigrants for example in the Arizona V. USA case where the Supreme Court deemed the Arizona SB1070 law as unconstitutional because it implemented an ID card system. Obama spoke on this issue and called on Congress to create a national bill as these patchwork state laws were not the solution. Despite this, Obama has spoken on the matter, but has not got results yet which simply shows his administration has failed to implement reform on immigration and has also led to states not listening to executive orders.

Many politicians have called on Obama to do something about sanctuary cities which simply refuse to accept national laws in order to keep immigrant safe. This is detrimental to the lives of immigrants because they will simply be treated in ways that may not be right; it means with things such as the executive order in 2014, they won’t reap the benefits it brings. However, the Obama administration has done nothing to improve the lives of immigrants so it may seem better for them to have state law preside over national law. On the other hand, many have called immigration the new form of slavery and so there has to be action on immigration. This is simply saying that the issue is a vote winner and that the next election will be fought on this so it can be argued that the Obama administration has succeeded in bringing immigration into the limelight of US politics. However, it seems like the next president will be Republican (due to the results of the mid-terms) and therefore there may not be any chances in the future to have immigration reform and that the Obama administration has failed to act effectively.

To conclude, it is evident that the Obama administration has attempted to bring in immigration reform, such as the Dream Act and have actually been successful in their implementation of the executive order. However, this is simply not good enough from this government because it is expected and in fact was promised to be addressed and so the failure to implement legislation, and the shunning of the issue completely in the first two years as well as they failure to expand on laws passed shows that the Obama administration has a record of total failure on immigration reform.