Dear Readers:
Happy new year to you all. 2014 has begun with a feeling of optimism regarding the prospects for immigration reform. Last year the Senate passed a major comprehensive immigration reform bill that the House has yet to take up. House Republicans threw cold water on the comprehensive approach and instead talked about passing a series of smaller bills. Five bills did advance through the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees, but none were voted on by the entire body and some of the toughest issues such as proposals to legalize any of the millions of out of status immigrants were not introduced.
Fast forward to this month and it looks like the Republicans in the House are ready to make their move. Sometime in the next few days, House Speaker John Boehner is expected to release a one page set of principles that will outline the Republicans overall plan for immigration reform. The document is expected to have tough enforcement provisions, mandatory e-Verify, a guest worker program for unskilled and lesser skilled workers and more slots for high skilled workers. And, yes, a plan to at least provide a provisional legal status to out of status immigrants.
Real movement of legislation implementing the principles will probably not start until after the filing deadline for most Republican primary races. Most deadlines will have passed by the end of March and even where they haven’t jumping in to a primary race that late will be impractical for many. The fear is that while immigration reform will probably prove popular with general election voters, Republican primary voters tend to skew to the right and could punish incumbents who decide to cast pro-immigration votes. So I would expect to see action on immigration reform not really start to get going until around Easter.
Regards,
Greg Siskind
Disclaimer: This newsletter is provided as a public service and not intended to establish an attorney client relationship. Any reliance on information contained herein is taken at your own risk.