Despite what appears to be the best efforts of lawmakers in the nation’s capital to come up with a comprehensive plan to overhaul current immigration policies, a recent poll conducted by Quinnipiac University reveals that seven out of ten registered voters don’t think that lawmakers will be able to work together to pass an immigration reform bill by the end of this year.
A Bumpy Road So Far
Anyone who is keeping up with the state of immigration reform in America has no doubt heard and read of the slow but steady progress which lawmakers have made so far. Unfortunately, passing a bill like comprehensive immigration reform isn’t easy.
It started with the Gang of Eight, a bipartisan group Senators, which created a proposal bill that was then forwarded to the Senate Judiciary Committee for finalization. The Senate Judiciary Committee has made more than a few changes to the proposal, but a final version of the check contains both a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country and provisions to beef up border security – the next step for the bill is to be voted on by the entire Senate.
A Bumpy Road to Come
Something that many people forget is that America’s legislative branch is comprised of two chambers, the Senate, which contains an equal number of members from each state, and the House of Representatives, which contains representatives from each state based on state population.
For a bill to become law, both chambers need to agree on a final version which the President will then be asked to sign. So far, the Senate has been making lots of progress toward a bill, but the House maintains the option of voting on the check as it is written by the Senate, or writing a check of its own. If the House writes its own bill, then both bills from both chambers will have to be consolidated into a single bill.
So far, critics are saying that the recently passed Senate bill stands little to no chance of being passed by the House – but only time will tell for sure.
What the Poll Means
Despite the lack of faith which polled voters appear to have, the good news is that the poll means little to nothing when it comes to getting the bill to pass. Individuals who are keeping an eye on the state of American immigration reform should keep in mind that much of the noise they hear on the news is debate and speculation – and that’s the way it will be until a check is actually passed into law.
If they are concerned or worried about what will happen to them, immigrants living in the United States who may be affected by the passing of an eventual check are advised to get legal advice only from experienced immigration attorneys.
Immigration attorneys are in the best position to accurately advise immigrants on the current state of the law – getting this kind of important advice from anyone other than an attorney can lead to the immigrant getting bad and inaccurate information which may have an adverse effect on the immigrant’s status.
