An Analysis of the Proposed Immigrant Legislation in the United States Congress
| Autor | John W. Nowell Fonk |
| Cargo | Director del Centro del Lenguas y Culturas Extranjeras. Universidad Iberoamericana León |
| Páginas | 1-11 |
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Both the United States’ House of Representatives, and the United States’ Senate, have put forth proposals on how to resolve the problem of undocumented immigration in the United States. Legislation can originate in either the Senate or the House of Representatives, but both Houses of Congress must approve the legislation before it can be implemented. It then goes to the president for his signature, or his veto, depended on the administration’s position.
The House of Representatives in December 2005 passed what is known as the Sensenbrenner bill, and sent it to the Senate for approval. The Senate however, passed its own proposal for immigration reform in May 2006, which must then be sent to the House of Representatives for its approval. Both versions of how to solve the immigration dilemma are very different, and in this article, an attempt will be made to describe the major thrusts of each proposed bill.
The Bush administration has published its general outline of its priorities in immigration reform. According to a White House press release, the Bush administration’s five objectives for immigration reform are
• Securing the borders of the United States
• Creating a temporary worker program
• Making it easier for employers to verify employment eligibility and holding employers accountable for the legal status of their workers
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• Finding a solution for the millions of illegal immigrants who are already within the United States
• Honoring the American tradition of the “melting pot”
The Bush White House priorities contain portions that are contained in both the Senate and House bills on immigration reform. It is interesting to note that Bush’s priorities, as a Republican president, have both “guest” worker, (another way of stating the temporary worker issue), and “amnesty” (another term often used for “legalizing” those undocumented workers already present) provisions which are usually associated with the Democratic party, and are notably absent from the Republican-majority House bill. The reason for Bush’s realistic or enlightened view of immigration reform is usually attributed to the fact that he was once governor of the state of Texas which has one of the largest Mexican populations in the United States and shares a border with Mexico. For this reason, he seems to have a better understanding of the immigration problem than most of his Republican cohorts in the House and the Senate who have never dealt directly with the immigration problem.
In December 2005, the United States Congress passed the Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. This bill was authored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, a Republican from a rich district north of Milwaukee, the largest city in Wisconsin. Sensenbrenner has become very powerful in thePage 4 House, and is also known for being virulently anti-immigration. He is disliked by many in the United States for his seemingly vengeful attitude against these poor undocumented workers who come to the United States not as criminals, but in search of work. Much of this dislike comes from the fact that he is from an incredibly wealthy family, and has never known poverty, so his attitude toward the poor seems all the more callous. His great-grandfather, Frank Sensenbrenner, was the founder of the large paper company in Wisconsin, now...
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