Skip to footer

Bipartisan immigration reform back on the table

Two high-profile Senators from across party lines are re-starting talk of immigration reform. Senators Charles Schumer, a Democrat, and Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican, have a four-part plan that includes a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

|
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., (I.), and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, wait to speak at a news conference in 2011. On Sunday, Schumer announced the two will resume their effort to pass bipartisan immigration reform.
  • By Reuters

Two key US senators are restarting bipartisan talks on US immigration reform that will include a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country, Senator Charles Schumer said on Sunday.

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," the Democrat Schumer said he has spoken with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and they have agreed to resume talks that broke off two years ago.

"And I think we have a darned good chance using this blueprint to get something done this year. The Republican Party has learned that being ... anti-immigrant doesn't work for them politically. And they know it," Schumer said.

President Barack Obama, re-elected last week with overwhelming support from Hispanic voters, in 2010 called the proposal unveiled by Graham and Schumer a "promising framework" on immigration reform. But the plan never got off the ground.

Obama's support among Hispanics was about 66 percent in the election, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling data.

There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States, most of them Hispanics.

The Graham and Schumer plan has four components: requiring high-tech, fraud-proof Social Security cards to ensure that illegal workers cannot get jobs; strengthening border security and enforcement of immigration laws; creating a process for admitting temporary workers; and implementing a path to legal status for immigrants already in the country.

Schumer said the plan embraces "a path to citizenship that's fair, which says you have to learn English, you have to go to the back of the line, you've got to have a job, and you can't commit crimes."

Many Republican leaders have taken a hard position against illegal immigrants. Obama's unsuccessful Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, said during the campaign that illegal immigrants should "self-deport" from the country.

Since the election, some influential conservative voices, including television commentator Sean Hannity, have announced support for immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants in the United States with no criminal record.

House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, said on Friday that the U.S. immigration system is broken, and that Obama had to take the lead. Boehner has said he is confident Republicans could find common ground with the president.

The Obama administration announced in June it would relax US deportation rules so that many young illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children can stay in the country and work.

The change would allow illegal immigrants who, among other criteria, are younger than 30 years old and have not been convicted of a felony to apply for work permits.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Bipartisan immigration reform back on the table
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2012/1111/Bipartisan-immigration-reform-back-on-the-table
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe