A deep unease, but still hope

Senator Charles Schumer with Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform Chairman Ciaran Staunton.

 

By Ray O’Hanlon

Just which way the immigration reform pendulum will swing during the Trump presidency is still in question – this despite a series of high profile raids by federal authorities in recent days during which scores of undocumented immigrants were detained for deportation.

But such raids were commonplace during the Obama years, so much so that the 44th president earned the sobriquet of “deporter in chief.”

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However, President Obama was also a supporter of comprehensive immigration reform, a legislative sea change that President Donald Trump has yet to embrace.

In recent days the political newspaper Roll Call reported that President Trump may want senators to re-form a “Gang of Eight-style group focused on passing comprehensive immigration legislation.

“But a hyper-partisan atmosphere in Congress combined with the bitter legacy of the last failed overhaul means Trump’s wish will likely go unfulfilled,” the report cautioned.

The “Gang of Eight” reference is to a group of senators from both parties that secured passage of a reform bill in 2013, only to see it die in the House of Representatives.

President Trump does not support the 2013 bill as written, but there are indications that he might be open to a revised version at some point.

If such a revised version is to be crafted it will likely take initial form on the majority Republican side of the U.S. Senate.

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a GOP “Gang of Eight” member, is one who continues to espouse a comprehensive reform effort.

Graham, according to reports, has said he is prepared to use the 2013 bill as a jumping off point for a new effort to write a comprehensive bill.

It will take quite a jump to renew a full debate, but it could be argued that vigorous pursuit of his campaign promise to deport “criminal aliens” will give President Trump the necessary political cover so as to be receptive to any emerging congressional reform initiative.

Meanwhile, Senator Charles Schumer, a leading Democratic member of the “Gang of Eight,” has expressed alarm at the recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.

"Reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement targeted non-violent immigrant families over the past week are deeply disturbing. Undocumented immigrants live in fear, and they are confused and scared,” said Schumer.

“Targeting law-abiding innocent immigrant families whose only wrongdoing was crossing the border to give their children a better life, instead of focusing on removing those who have been convicted of violent crimes, is a waste of limited resources and undermines law enforcement in communities across the country.

“I have always supported smart immigration enforcement that helps to keep our country safe, but raids targeting law-abiding immigrants and treating those with traffic violations the same as murderers and robbers will only achieve the opposite,” the New York Democrat said.

By various estimates there could be as many as 50,000 undocumented Irish living in the U.S., which is only a small fraction of the estimated total of eleven million illegal and undocumented living within the nation’s borders.‎

 

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