CIR May Move to the Frontline Again After the 4th of July
* There is looming up a movement to place the Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation at the forefront again after the Fourth of July. Reportedly a bi-partisan Congressional leader group is scheduled to meet with the business leaders and immigrant advocates today and the Hispanic group is scheduled to stage demonstration at the front yard of Rep. Sensenbrenner, the Chairman of House Judicial Committee, who proposed and was instrumental in passing the House bill that totally limited the immigration reforms to reinforcement of immigration law enforcement and tightening of border security, including criminalization of illegal aliens. He has been leading a movement in the House to oppose the Senate passed S. 2611.
* There is also an indication that the Republican leaders in the Congress are attempting to work out a compromise to the conflicting House bill and Senate bill and trying to bring a compromise bill to the Conference Committee process. Sen. Specter is known to chair the Coference Commitee once the Conference Committee is called to an action and he is moving towards the compromise to attach a condition of successful achievement of border security and immigration law enforcement to the guest worker proposal and legalization of illegal aliens. In fact, such compromise was introduced in the Senate which failed to make it in the final S. 2611. Sen. Specter is changing stance on illegal immigration issues in working out a compromise to the Senate and House bills. It is not clear how much such compromise will be agreed to in the House and by the Democrats in the both Houses, but it is obvious that should a compromise immigration reform bill be passed in the Congress before the election in November, it would look substantially different from the Senate S. 2611 when it comes to the illegal immigration issues. Sen. Specter's compromise may be strongly opposed by the illegal immigrant community but more or less supported by the legal immigrant community that is anxious to see the reform in legal immigration front, particularly employment-based immigration. When it comes to the reform of legal immigration system, there is no strong opposition in the both Houses. There appears to be a slim chance that the Senate bill and the House bill will be able to make it without any type of compromise as the two bills represent more or less two extreme views of the far right and the far left. For the legal immigrant community, question remains whether the bill will pass at all before the election, while for the illegal immigrant community, the question remains what kind of bill should pass the Congress before November rather than passage of any kind of CIR. Please stay tuned to this web site for the new development of compromise immigration reform legislation activities.