THE prospect for Federal Immigration Reform in 2010 seemed to have all but evaporated last month, as Congress found itself mired in yet another partisan dogfight over banking reform. With Arizona’s passage of SB 1070, however, the Federal Government has mobilized to stave off other such ill-advised attempts by states to regulate immigration. On April 29, 2010, Senators Reid, Durbin, Schumer, Leahy, Menendez and Feinstein introduced a six-part "Real Enforcement with Practical Answers for Immigration Reform" proposal (REPAIR) to fix our broken immigration system. REPAIR is a blueprint for much needed reforms in the areas of border enforcement, illegal employment and the registration and eventual legalization of unauthorized foreign nationals present in the US. Ironically, it took a misguided anti-immigrant law state law to once again bring the need for comprehensive reform to the forefront of the National consciousness.
On April 22, 2010, Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer signed into law SB 1170, which makes the failure to carry immigration documents a crime and requires police to detain anyone the police "reasonable suspect" is in the country illegally. Although Arizona has experienced problems with mounting crime and violence at its southern borders, the law’s over-breadth and patent vagueness belie a much more sinister and hateful intent. First, the law is unconstitutional, as a violation of the 4th Amendments prohibition against illegal searches and seizures and the Supremacy clause. What could possible constitute "reasonable suspicion" a person is in the country illegally, Latino or Asian appearance, or perhaps speaking with an accent? The law sets no standards in this regard and would easily be abused by local enforcement, especially in Maricopa County where Sheriff Joe Arpaio is already known for radical, anti-immigrant actions. More fundamentally, the law attempts to usurp the Federal Government’s plenary authority over immigration, which violates the Supremacy Clause.
The Arizona law is likely to never be enforced, given its dubious Constitutionality and the public outcry it has engendered, but it has actually served as a wake-up call to the President and Congress that the time for Immigration reform is now and waiting for a more politically opportune time to address immigration would be an enormous mistake. In response, a handful of Senators from both major parties introduced REPAIR, as a blueprint for comprehensive legislative reform. REPAIR proposes to control the border to prevent future illegal immigration, arrest and deport criminal aliens and those already ordered removed from the US, institute mandatory employment eligibility verification, reform the family and employment-based visa preference categories, allow for registration and legalization of those already in the US illegally, and increase the immigration court and USCIS resources to improve effectiveness.
Of these provisions, the registration and legalization provisions are certain to be the most controversial. After all, ultra-nationalist, anti-immigrant sentiment coming from groups like the "Teabaggers" is what fueled the frenzy leading to Arizona’s passage of SB 1170 in the first place. In order to satisfy the critics of any registration and legalization program, REPAIR would give only prospective immigrant status (LPI) to qualified applicants who pass a rigorous background check, can speak, read and write English, and demonstrate a basic knowledge of the history and form of Government of the US. The law requires that these LPI’s will be required to hold that status for 8 years and that Congress will not permit their adjustment to permanent resident status until the border control and other enforcement-related objectives of the program have been accomplished. Although eight years seems like a long time, the Senator’s sponsoring the Bill feel that requiring a waiting period and evidence that the border is secure before authorizing legal status to previously undocumented foreign nationals will be necessary to secure enough votes for the measure to move through Congress.
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Daniel P. Hanlon is a California State Bar Certified Specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law and a principal of Hanlon Law Group, PC, located at 225 S. Lake Ave., 11th Floor in Pasadena, California; tel. No. (626) 585-8005. Hanlon Law Group, PC is a "full-service Immigration Law firm." E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and www.hanlonlawgroup.com (Advertising Supplement)
( Published May 5, 2010 in Asian Journal Los Angeles p.B2 )
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