Prospects for Immigration Reform are Bleh…er, Bleak

In case you were wondering, what with the swearing-in of the new congress and all, the prospects for immigration reform, according to thehill.com, are bleak. I don’t like that word, in this circumstance. Bleak. It sounds too much like bleh, like it was fun during the election, but not any more.

The Hill reports:

“With Republicans poised to assume House control in January, immigrant-rights advocates see scant chance legislation to grant illegal immigrants any kind of foothold in the U.S. could move through the lower chamber.
But with Democrats still holding the Senate and the White House, conservatives urging a harder line on deportations and citizenship requirements aren’t terribly optimistic about those proposals either.”

The result is an impasse, or as less cultivated persons might say, a Mexican stand-off (I thought about not going there…but my better angels are still hung-over from new years eve).

We should expect a series of small immigration bills that won’t have a structural effect on immigration policy. With Lamar Smith at the control of the legislative spigot on matters concerning immigration there’s no hope for comprehensive reform.

According to The Hill,

“Smith — an immigration hard-liner who will head the House Judiciary Committee next year — has said his first two immigration-related hearings will focus on work-place enforcement and E-verify, a program allowing employers to check the legal status of potential hires.”

And that’s just because these specific items add up in his political calculus. The Hill says that Smith told Politico.com “They are what I call ‘70 percent’ issues — 70 percent or more of the American people support those efforts.”

Really? We’ll just have to keep that number in mind, for future reference.