Do you wonder why there has been no Immigration Reform bill passed in almost 40 years? If you want to know the answer, read on. If you don’t, grab that copy of “What Happened?” In it Hillary gives you all the answers to everything.
I’m reminded of the little boy whose father was a blacksmith. As all little boys do, he loved to watch his Dad go about his business whenever he could. He was fascinated with the fire. Whenever his Dad took a piece of metal he was crafting out of the fire, the little boy always wanted to get close and look at it. His Dad told him often, “Don’t touch that metal. It’s really hot and it will burn you.” One day when his Dad walked out of the shop the boy with his bare hand picked up a piece of metal his father was using to make a tool and has just taken out of the fire. It was really hot. The little boy dropped it on the floor just as his Father walked back into the shop. His Dad said, “I told you you’d burn yourself if you picked something up right out of the fire.” The little boy quickly quipped, “It didn’t burn me. It just doesn’t take me long to look at a hot piece of metal.” Democrats — that story reminds me of Democrats.
Am I saying having no Immigration Reform is the fault of Democrats? That’s exactly right. No matter what you hear trumpeted daily from the news media or DNC Leadership or Democrats in the House and Senate, Donald Trump and the Republicans are NOT responsible for Immigration Reform not happening. Believe it or not, Democrats stopped it over and over again. They just don’t want you to remember.
Bill Clinton. Here was the perfect opportunity for a Democrat President to get Immigration reforms. And to make it easier, Clinton while President had control of BOTH Houses of Congress in 1993 and 1994. What a perfect opportunity to cement the Hispanic vote in the Democrat Party foundation for eternity. Certainly with Immigration Reform that would grant full citizenship to all illegals would make that happen. But even with two full years — that’s two Congresses — Clinton could not get it done. Do you blame that on Republicans? Hispanic activists, Democrats and the Leftist Media do as do the Clintons.
George W. Bush. No one today would expect that any Immigration Reform bill would show-up during a Bush presidency. But one did. The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 (full name: Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007 (S. 1348)) was a bill discussed in the 110th United States Congress that would have provided legal status and a path to citizenship for the approximately 12 million undocumented immigrants residing in the United States. The bill was portrayed as a compromise between providing a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and increased border enforcement: it included funding for 300 miles (480 km) of vehicle barriers, 105 camera and radar towers, and 20,000 more Border Patrol agents, while simultaneously restructuring visa criteria around high-skilled workers. The bill also received heated criticism from both sides of the immigration debate. The bill was introduced in the United States Senate on May 9, 2007, but was never voted on, though a series of votes on amendments and cloture took place. The last vote on cloture, on June 7, 2007, 11:59 AM, failed 34-61 effectively ending the bill’s chances. A related bill S. 1639, on June 28, 2007, 11:04 AM, also failed 46-53.
There were several ironies in this. First, President Bush was in full support of it! He guaranteed that if this bill passed, he would sign it into law, even over the objections of his Party. Even though Democrats controlled the House and Senate for 3.5 years of the Bush 43 Presidency, (and that was the case in June of 2007 when this bill was on the floor) DEMOCRATS failed to pass it!
Barack Obama. How soon we forget. Obama during his 8 years in the White House had the benefit of a Congress tilted his way. From 2009 to 2011 Democrats controlled the House and the Senate. As big a deal as Immigration Reform was, why did they not with the White House AND Congress controlled by Democrats pass it? Why did they wait until January of 2013 for the “Gang of Eight” (comprised of 4 GOP Senators and 4 Democrat Senators) to put their proposal together? The Obama control of Congress had ended two years before that. Why did they not pass comprehensive Immigration Reform in the first couple of Obama years?
To make matters more mysterious, in November of 2014 Obama issued an executive order full of immigration reforms that if left in place would have seriously altered Immigration Law. Here’s what the E.O. did: It allowed roughly 45% of illegal immigrants to legally stay and work in the 
United States. The largest prior deferral action, in 1990, during the administration of President George H.W. Bush, affected 40% of undocumented immigrants then. Up to 3.7 million undocumented parents of individuals who are U.S. citizens, or who have been legal permanent residents in the country for at least five years, are eligible for the new deferrals, as are about 300,000 immigrants who arrived as children before January 2010. Members of this second group would be eligible by expansion of the existing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which previously covered 1.2 million people, the expansion bringing the new coverage total to 1.5 million. The new deferrals would be granted for three years at a time. Supplemental executive actions also announced include an end to the Secure Communities program, increased resources for border enforcement, and new procedures for “high-skilled immigrants.” These other “parts of the president’s plan” could provide “protection from deportation” for roughly “an additional one million people.” President Obama’s actions were clearly presented as a response to Congress having been unable in recent years to agree on a general legislative overhaul of U.S. immigration policy. Obama indicated:
“[By] acting where Congress has failed…[I hope] to work with both parties to pass a more permanent legislative solution. And the day I sign that bill into law, the actions I take will no longer be necessary.”
Just one month later, Arthur J. Schwab, a United States federal judge in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, ruled that President Obama’s executive action on immigration was unconstitutional in a case involving a Honduran man facing criminal charges for returning to the United States after being deported. The case was appealed and has been in the court system ever since. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Judge Schwab’s ruling was to remain in place.
Donald Trump. An executive order is NOT a law. As Barack Obama stated when he issued that DACA executive order, he thought it might be un-constitutional and would probably be temporary. He implored Congress to pass a permanent fix. Of course that did not happen in his presidency. Trump in his campaign promised to stop illegal immigration and fix the system. His determination to end DACA in six months was obviously to put the pressure on Congress to act and put a comprehensive Immigration Reform plan into place. The ball is in the court of Congress.
Summary
It’s amazing what the shiny light of truth will do when it’s turned on in a room full of spiders and snakes — often for the first time you see exactly what’s in the room. Just like that little boy in his Dad’s blacksmith shop when he was caught doing the wrong thing and then denying it, Democrats are doing the same thing regarding their failures in 3 presidential administrations that each was 8 years long! That’s 24 years in which Democrats could have fixed immigration. Why do you suppose that did not happen?
In my opinion, it is an identical issue to the Civil Rights Act. In a Democrat controlled Congress under President Lyndon Johnson, there were not enough Democrat votes to pass it. Republicans joined in to get it passed and signed into law. But as the decades have slipped by, Democrats have successfully made their party in most Americans’ minds to be the party of civil rights in America, even though factually that is NOT true. Why do the Dems do this? For the same reason they have “perceptually” painted the picture in Americans’ minds of the Democrat Party being the only home for Hispanic immigrants. They do this (as they always have) for votes — for POWER. “With Power, you can get everything you want.” So true with Immigration.
The one big plus for President Trump as he approaches Immigration Reform is that most Americans fully support his plan to stop illegal immigration. His plan was/is to shore up the southern U.S. border, to pause immigration from countries known for harboring terrorists until the U.S. implements a thorough vetting process before allowing any immigrants from those countries into the U.S., and ridding the nation of the entire criminal element entrenched in the illegal immigrant population.
Can comprehensive immigration be put in place during this presidency? Only if Americans who support President Trump’s immigration plan follow through with their support by pressuring their representatives in Congress to act accordingly. In this D.C. environment it is not a lock that the G.O.P. will get any immigration bill passed even with a majority in the House and Senate. But I know that this President will not give up until he has exhausted every opportunity to make it happen.
He promised Americans he will get it done. Let’s hope he does.
