U.S. IMMIGRATION REFORM EFFORTS SINCE 2013

Echoes of Ellis Island

Background (to date):
In June 2013, with support of then U.S. President Barack Obama, the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan immigration "overhaul bill" which was more comprehensive than unsuccessful proposals of President George W. Bush (who had sought "legal status over time" for undocumented immigrants without another "blanket amnesty" as in 1986). The Republican controlled House of Representatives, however, did not act on the 2013 Senate bill.

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, and expanding on his 2012 DACA ("Dreamers") program, were blocked by court challenges. Addressing such objections to his actions in advance, Obama told Congress to "pass a bill" instead. There were, however, no further attempts at bipartisan immigration policy overhaul during the remainder of his presidential term.

In 2016, Donald Trump declared his desire to "have Mexico pay" for building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. After being elected president that November, he suggested that in places it could be a fence instead of a wall. In September, 2017, acting ahead of threatened lawsuits by state attorneys-general, the Trump administration announced that DACA would end after six more months unless Congress passed legislation formally authorizing it. In January, 2018, Congressional indecision on such legislation delayed passage of the annual federal budget shutting down government operations for a few days. A proposed "path to citizenship" for DACA recipients was part

of a "Framework on Immigration Reform and Border Security" announced by the White House on January 25, 2018. On June 12, a "discharge petition," to enable a "moderate" variant of this White House plan failed, by two votes, to pass the House of Representatives.

For more, see "Decades of Dodging Hard Decisions" (Economist, July, 2018)

General articles here below

Specific analyses, listed to the left* here, and in

Commentary section at bottom of this page

*Smartphone users see here, under "Migration today / US Immigration...", for links