Winning the Next Immigration Battle
Amnesty, Patrols, and the Future of U.S. Borders
Article Summary and Author Biography
In tonight's State of the Union address, President Barack Obama is expected to make reform of the nation's immigration laws one of his top priorities. To succeed, he will have to satisfy skeptical House Republicans that immigration reform would not be as disastrous now as it was in 1986, the last time Congress revamped the laws. Fortunately for Obama, the cards are in his favor: improved overall border security has made illegal immigration a much less daunting challenge.
EDWARD ALDEN is Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was Project Director for the 2009 CFR Independent Task Force on U.S. Immigration Policy, chaired by Jeb Bush and Mack McLarty.
Comment
Washington claims that the country's borders are more secure than ever, but the truth is that no one knows for sure. The U.S. government has never defined what border security actually means or how to measure it -- both of which are essential prerequisites to keeping the country safe.
Snapshot
With Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff meeting Obama this week, it is time to reconsider allowing citizens of her country and those of other emerging markets into the Visa Waiver Program. The United States would reap economic, political, and security gains by doing so.
A United States Border Patrol agent keeps watch. (Eric Thayer / Courtesy Reuters)
U.S. President Barack Obama has made reform of the nation's immigration laws his top priority this year. But to succeed, he will need to overcome the old adage "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." The last time Congress passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, it did not work out quite as promised. Indeed, rarely has a piece of congressional legislation failed as spectacularly as did the 1986 bill. It was intended to hold back a growing tide of illegal immigration into the United States but did nothing of the sort. The population of illegal immigrants in the United States, which was somewhat over three million at the time the bill was enacted, surged to an estimated 12 million by 2008. Today, there are about 11 million in the United States without authorization. The epic failure of the 1980s sowed mistrust between Congress and successive presidents, and persuaded many lawmakers that immigration reform does not deserve a second chance. As Representative Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who chairs the immigration subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, put it in early February, after listing the unmet promises of the 1986 bill: "Why should we believe you now?"
