As a former congressional staff member for the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and Border Security, I have become all too familiar with the challenges in successfully enacting reforms that address the comprehensive immigration issues of our time. Our organization recently decided to promote Congressional interest in a modified version of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, including addenda that provide a path to citizenship for immigrants younger than 12 years of age and augment enforcement and deportation efforts for adult immigrant criminals. In consideration of the goals and prospects of our proposed legislation and its implications for future immigration politics, there are several obstacles that appear relevant to its passage.
Obstacles to Previous Reform Attempts
One of the greatest challenges for our group to confront is the elevated level of partisanship currently present in Congress and the federal government as a whole. Research demonstrates that over the last several decades, increasing division along party lines-- particularly in Congress’ voting patterns—has ignited simultaneous division over immigration policy and reform. A 2011 study released by the Immigration Reform Caucus of the House of Representatives revealed that agreement on immigration-related legislation in both the House had dropped on average 4 - 5% with each successive session of Congress. These numbers correlated closely with similar analyses of changes in party polarization during the same period (1975-2005). Overall, these data portray the Democrats' as supporters of policy that is more forgiving for undocumented immigrants—including more amnesty initiatives and citizenship measures, while reflecting the Republican focus on tighter enforcement of existing policy and concern for national security issues related to