The recent mid-term elections saw the Republican Party achieve majority control in the U.S. Senate. The Republican leadership now has control of both houses of Congress and, with the takeover of the Senate, is in a position to set the legislative agenda, convene committee hearings, bring legislation up for votes and pass bills which address long standing domestic issues. One of these unresolved issues is immigration and, more specifically, how to fix a system which many acknowledge is in need of major repair.
Just after the election, President Obama invited Congressional leadership led by House Speaker John Boehner and incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to the White House to discuss areas of common concern. At the meeting, the President highlighted the need for Congressional action on immigration reform and informed the leadership that, if Congress failed to take up immigration reform legislation by the end of the year, he would use the regulatory authority of the Executive branch to “boost border security and create a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.”
For more than a year, the White House has held out the possibility of using executive/regulatory action to carry out parts of its immigration reform agenda. Faced with a partisan stalemate in Congress and increasing pressure from interest groups to do something about immigration reform, the Administration has been telling Hispanic voters and advocacy groups that executive action, including a broadening of deferred action and employment authorization for the undocumented, is coming. In response, conservative groups and GOP leadership have warned the President about overstepping the bounds of his Constitutional authority by using regulation in place of legislation to change the law. In the days following the mid-term elections, Republican leaders cautioned that if he the president were to use executive orders to implement sweeping changes to immigration policy, this would create obstacles to bipartisan cooperation in the future.
Supporters of immigration reform have grown impatient with unfulfilled promises of help for the undocumented and their citizen families. Cynics have grown skeptical of White House assurances that action is just around the corner. Now, with the change in control in the Senate, pressure will come to bear on Republican leadership to take up immigration legislation and to enact some form of legalization. Will the mid-term elections mean opportunities for bipartisan cooperation or more obstacles for the President’s agenda? Time will certainly tell.
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