Public Policy: Immigration
The reforms that President Obama are trying to properly execute throughout the states is changing life for immigrants today. Obama recently gave two Executive Orders, the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents for Americans), which are helping families resist separation. The big question on Obama’s immigration Executive Orders are if they are within the President’s power. It is Congress’s job to made the laws and the president’s to executive them, but with the creation of DAPA and DACA, many think that Obama is overstepping his authority.
One big reason why President Obama felt the need to create his Executive Order is because of the what happened in 2013 when the Senate first created a bill addressing immigration. The bill was created by the Gang of Eight, which were composed of four Democrats and four Republicans, which was lead by Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer. They passed a bill with a vote of 68-32. The bill “promises to overhaul immigration laws for the first time since 1986…” (Silverleib). The 1,200 page document would change four things, the first is that it creates a new 13-year pathway for citizenship for a majority of the undocumented immigrants. It would also raise the cap on visas for highly skilled workers, while also creating a new visa program for lowly skilled workers who would be working on America’s farms. The issue that House of Representatives were most concerned with was border security, but the bill proposed adding “20,000 more border agents, complete 700 miles of fence along the boundary with Mexico, and deploy $3.2 billion in technology upgrades…” (Silverleib). The last thing is that immigrants would be eligible for permanent residency after five conditions were met and they were verified by the Department of Homeland Security. Senator Chuck Schumer commented that,