U.S. IMMIGRATION REFORM EFFORTS SINCE 2013

Echoes of Ellis Island

Background (to date):
In June 2013, President Barack Obama secured passage by the U.S. Senate of a bipartisan immigration "overhaul bill" more comprehensive than unsuccessful proposals of President George W. Bush (who sought "legal status over time" without a "blanket amnesty" as in 1986). Republicans in the House of Representatives were, however, reluctant to approve the Senate's "path to citizenship" of 2013, without additional measures against illegal immigration coming first.

In November 2014, Obama announced "deferred actions" enabling about half of undocumented immigrants to legally live and work in America. These measures, somewhat exceeding those exercised by prior presidents, were blocked by court challenges. Addressing objections to his actions, Obama told Congress: "Pass a bill." Congressional Republicans responded by favoring funding restrictions or court injunctions or reviving prior attempts intraparty compromise, but made no further attempts at bipartisan overhaul.

In 2016, presidential candidate Donald Trump declared his desire to "have Mexico pay" for building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. After his upset win in the November general election, he told 60 Minutes that in places "there could be some fencing" instead of a wall. An August policy statement (still on a presidential transition website in early December, 2016) was consonant with the basic Congressional Republican position of 2014-16: "When we have accomplished our enforcement goals…only then will we be in a position to consider the appropriate disposition of those [illegal immigrants] who remain."

https://www.greatagain.gov/policy/immigration.html as of 6-Dec-2016

General articles here below

Specific analyses, listed to the left here, and in

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