Immigration Reform 2013: Obama's Plan vs Rubio's Plan

 

The President’s annual State of the Union address (SOTU) is scheduled on February 12, 2013. This speech is important because he will be outlining his key priorities for this fiscal year. Among his top priorities is Immigration reform. President Obama said he will present legislation in 2013.

Since 2006, Republicans have strongly opposed Immigration Reform. This year however, in lieu of their poor performance with Latino voters, Republicans are more inclined to support some form of Immigration reform. In fact, Marco Rubio has presented a proposal.  

President Obama has provided a high level view of his recommendations, so has Rubio. Let’s compare them:

OBAMA Plan: One Bill	Rubio: 6 Separate Bills	R Pass ?
PATHWAY TO CITIZENSHIP: PAY BACK TAXES, criminal background checks, learn English and paying a processing fee.	BILL1: PATHWAY TO Legal Status: PAY BACK TAXES, criminal background checks, learn English and paying a processing fee.. Then apply for Green Card & Potential Legal Status.	NO
Enhanced Border Security	Enhanced Border Security	YES
E-Verify: Enhanced enforcement on businesses that employ undocumented immigrants	BILL 3: E-Verify: Enhanced enforcement on businesses that employ undocumented immigrants	YES
Improving legal immigration: grants a green card to foreign students who earn advanced science and technology degrees in the U.S	BILL 4: Increase the number of visas for "highly-skilled" workers	YES
Pass the Dream Act: pathway to citizenship to undocumented youth seeking a higher education or military service	BILL 5: Pathway to Dream Legal Status	?
Guest Worker Program	BILL 6: Guest Worker Program, especially for guest farm workers	?
Improve Immigration Processing/Reduce Backlogs from Entering Countries and Backlogged Court Proceedings

The President supports One overall plan of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Rubio says his plan will be introduced in six separate bills.  It is easy to see why. Rubio can brag that he is introducing Comprehensive Immigration Reform and many Republicans will jump on board, all the while proclaiming their support of Latinos.

Which bills will Republicans support first? It is obvious:
1. Enhance Border Security, 2. e-Verify, 3. Increase # of Visas for "highly-skilled" workers.

Enhanced Border Security is just more of the SAME RACIAL PROFILING BILLS that have antagonized Latinos for years. Sheriff Arpaio and Arizona are notorious for sb1070. John Tanton's K-K-Kris Kobach WROTE THE BILL, for Heaven's sake! Just because the bill indicates there is "No Racial Profiling Permitted," we all know that Arpaio allows his ski masked posse to terrorize Latino neighborhoods with their "Suppression Sweeps." It is obvious that Republicans DON'T GET IT! We Latinos will NEVER vote for them as long as Latinos are treated as 2nd Class Citizens and told we MUST endure this Racial Profiling just because "We Fit the Profile" of what they believe an "Illeegal" looks like.  Enhanced Border Security should NOT be used to sugar coat all of this racial profiling. We have 55 Million Latino Citizens in our Country. We will NOT vote for anyone who promotes these racial profiling bills.

Republicans will also embrace the enforcement of e-Verify. We have it now, but next they plan to make the rules more stringent, even though the database has numerous flaws.

The third measure they will immediately advance is their support for giving shortcuts to Immigrants they deem are "highly-skilled" workers. Read this to mean more Northern European immigrants with advanced degrees.

So now that we know which bills Republicans will support, which bills will they IGNORE? They will absolutely drag their feet on Rubio's version of Pathway to Legal Status. Rubio's version is a PIG IN A POKE. It's FAKE! First of all, Rubio's version does NOT include a Pathway to Citizenship for the 11M here. Instead, he says if you complete several steps and if you pass them all, then we MAY provide you some type of temporary Legal Status.  Then, if you are very good, we will give you several more rules to follow, pay more fines, then we just might let you get in line and apply for citizenship.

As far as the Dream Act goes, Republicans don't want the Dreamers to become citizens. Rubio's bill allows them (after several hoops jumped) to obtain legal status, but they will have to get in line and leave to become citizens.

The Guest Worker program is being supported, particularly for farmworkers. Both sides need the work and the cheap pay to continue.

One area Rubio nor the Republicans are touching is streamlining the Immigration process so we don't have 12 - 20 year backlogs for entry from Latino countries and so we don't have years long backlog in Immigration Courts for people who are trying to resolve their Visa issues.

The President is right. We do need One Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill passed, otherwise, we will be stuck with Rubio's Phony piece meal approach. If passed his way, expect many more racial profiling bills enacted, more Employer ICE Sweeps and more Broken Immigration Reform promises.