By David Gushee
Follow David: @dpgushee
Close observers of our U.S. federal government agree that due to the very strange rhythms of national politics, comprehensive immigration reform — defined as a bill that includes some path to legal status for undocumented immigrants in the U.S., along with other policy changes — will either be passed in the next few months or not until 2017 at the earliest.
Why is that? Some background helps.
The Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform by a bipartisan 68-32 vote in June of last year. The White House supports the Senate bill and would sign it into law tomorrow. If the GOP-controlled House were permitted by its Speaker, John Boehner (R-Ohio), to take an up or down vote on that bill, it would probably pass, with overwhelming Democratic support and enough Republicans to get it through. But because a majority of the GOP caucus opposes that bill, the Speaker will not bring it up for a vote. Smaller pieces of immigration legislation are, though, moving through the House committee process now.
Negative caucus pressures are not the only pressures the Speaker faces. Polls clearly show overwhelming public support for immigration reform — 79 percent in one poll. Latinos care deeply about the legislation and, as many national-level conservatives are saying, are likely to punish the GOP in 2016 and beyond if it blocks immigration reform. However, the GOP base, especially in the most conservative congressional districts, tends to oppose immigration reform, though signs of openness are growing.
House Republican members facing Tea Party challengers to their right in this season of primaries are mainly steering clear of the immigration issue until the primaries are over. But in some cases they will have greater political freedom, or need, to support immigration reform once they face a general election in November with voters who might be a bit more diverse. (Credit gerrymandering for helping push our politics to the extreme edges.)
Meanwhile, the Senate-passed legislation will expire with the end of this Congress in January 2015. A lame duck Congress after November, followed by a Republican-led House and possibly Republican-led Senate in 2015, are viewed by most observers as unlikely to pass comprehensive immigration reform. That is why 2017 is the first likely date when immigration reform would be considered again.
None of this political sausage-making is especially inspiring, that’s for sure. Especially when the legislation under consideration is so obviously needed, and why it is supported by such disparate groups as the Chamber of Commerce and most in the business community, most law enforcement leaders, and a vast array of religious leaders across the theological and political spectrum.
The impressively large Bible, Badges and Business network argues for comprehensive immigration reform, which to them means:
1) Creating a road to lawful status and citizenship for aspiring citizens while respecting those that have been waiting naturalization already. BBB says we need a “solution that brings [undocumented immigrants] out of the shadows, stabilizes the workforce, and allows all Americans to compete for jobs on a level playing field.”
2) Modernizing our nation’s immigration laws so that future immigration of workers and families is fair and orderly. “We must fix our work visa system so the entrepreneurs and workers of today — and tomorrow — start companies and create jobs in America.”
3) Securing national borders. “Border security is a federal issue with national security, economic trade, and domestic safety implications. The federal government must fulfill its sovereign responsibilities to enforce the law while ensuring the protection of border communities.”
4) Developing sensible worker programs which allow employers to fill jobs when U.S. workers are not available. “These programs, tightly controlled, will increase national security but provide a clearance process by which workers are checked before they enter the country and tracked while they are here.”
The Evangelical Immigration Table, which includes voices ranging from the Southern Baptist Convention to the National Association of Evangelicals to Sojourners, calls for immigration reform that:
1) Respects the God-given dignity of every person.
2) Protects the unity of the immediate family.
3) Respects the rule of law.
4) Guarantees secure national borders.
5) Ensures fairness to taxpayers.
6) Establishes a path toward legal status and/or citizenship for those who qualify and who wish to become permanent residents.
I believe the Senate-passed legislation does an admirable, not perfect, job in accomplishing these goals and respecting these principles. Our current immigration system is broken. Some 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the shadows of our country, in legal limbo, their families always at risk of being shattered by raids, their workforce participation quasi-legal and high-risk both for them and for the economy.
I believe that God’s sovereignty, God-given human dignity, God’s care for the marginalized, the proper functioning of our democracy, and concern for the common good point Christians toward supporting some kind of balanced, humane immigration reform that deals fairly with those who are here. I certainly believe that nativism, racism and xenophobia are perfectly awful reasons to oppose immigration reform, especially for Christians for whom such ideologies are a violation of the lordship of Jesus Christ.
I am hoping, praying and agitating for the House to do the right thing in the next few months while there may be a realistic political chance for them to do so. Contact your House representative today and advocate passage of immigration reform in keeping with the principles discussed here.