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Last Updated: Oct 16th, 2008 - 13:33:17 |
The architects of the Comprehensive Immigration and Reform Act call the bill the "grand bargain." The question is: is anyone buying?
The bill failed to receive the 60 votes it needed to move to a final vote and stalled in the Senate two weeks ago, reportedly due to the more than 300 amendments lawmakers added to the bill.
"I am disappointed the United States Senate did not, today, fix our broken borders and immigration system. Our nation badly needs the reform," said Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., in a statement after the vote.
"Failure is not an option," the statement read.
Although there was a noticeable lack of participation by President George Bush before the Senate's vote, since the president's return from the G8 summit meeting in Germany he has made both public and private displays of support to ensure the bill will pass.
The president met with Republican senators in a closed-door luncheon last Tuesday.
Two days later, the president pledged $4.4 billion in immediate funding for border security.
"By matching our benchmarks with these critical funds, we're going to show the American people that the promises in this bill will be kept," the president said to the Associated Builders and Contractors June 14.
However, not everyone is optimistic.
"If the administration was serious about fulfilling the border security promises, then this funding should have been supported all along, not offered at the last minute to attract votes to a bad bill," Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said in a statement after hearing of the proposed $4.4 billion promised by the president.
According to a statement by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the immigration bill will return to the senate floor and be voted on by July 4. This time, only 11 amendments to the bill will be allowed from each party.
Opponents argue that the bill gives amnesty to the millions of workers that have entered the country illegally.
Colorado Representative and Republican presidential hopeful Tom Tancredo has made his campaign platform a petition to end the bill with his "Save America" campaign, calling the bill a "sellout of America."
Some immigrants in this country are also weary of the bill.
Gus Montano, 24, of Littleton, came to the United States with his mother when he was 10 to escape the civil war in his birth country of Venezuela.
He describes the process to become a citizen as "ridiculously long." However, he feels that immigrants should not be given handouts.
"It's all about proving yourself. Some people have a green card but no job," Montano said.
Montano estimates he has been to Immigration Services in Aurora about 300 times to seek answers to questions about residency applications over the last 10 years.
"You can't call them on the phone," Montano said. "You have to be there at 4:30 in the morning because when it opens at six there is a huge line - even if your question only takes six minutes."
"It makes me angry," he said about the opportunity the bill provides for undocumented people.
"What I went through I think people should go through," Montano added. "I'm a lot better person because of it."
Montano, who will become a citizen of the United States in August as he turns 25, said that after going through the process a person becomes grateful for what they have.
"I think it's crap to give them a crutch," he said.
How the promise of border enforcement and accountability will be implemented is also a contentious point of the bill.
Steve Wymer, communications director for Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said although the senator voted against sending the bill to a final vote, "Allard supports some of the amendments of the bill, in particular, his amendment, section 303, that requires Homeland Security to share information with the office of Social Security."
Donna Hamburg, director of resource services for the city of Denver, said the success of the bill depends upon how it's managed in the real world.
"We will see how the rules are played out, it all depends on how the rules are administrated," said Hamburg, who deals with the welfare of immigrant children.
She said that unless people have a green card, identity cannot be established and guardians are not eligible to receive aid like Medicare.
"Undocumented people follow this issue closely but they are skeptical. It has always been a huge word of mouth, what is and isn't, what works and doesn't." Hamburg said.
Gabriela Flora, central region project voice organizer for Coloradoans for Immigrant Rights, said economies and communities are dependent on immigrants but said that the ability to gain legal status is cumbersome, costly and will leave out a significant number of people.
"I believe immigration laws are in desperate need of repair and end exploitation and fear. This needs to happen at a federal level but we need a true and just immigration reform and as it currently stands this isn't it," Flora said. "When people are viewed simply as labor, and not people, it continues exploitation."
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