Many believe that immigration reform will happen in 2014 as it is President Obama’s top priority. The Senate passed S.744, a comprehensive immigration reform bill, in 2013. This bill passed the chamber with bipartisan support but the House, which is not in favor of a comprehensive bill, is not willing to take up this bill. Most of the lawmakers who belong to the Republican party are against the Senate bill’s path to U.S. citizenship. However, there are around 29 Republicans who are likely to support the citizenship path that this bill includes.
House Speaker John Boehner who is in favor of a piecemeal approach to immigration reform is not willing to bring the Senate bill to the House floor for a vote. The House Republicans are against the comprehensive approach to immigration reform. They are in favor of a piecemeal approach but it is still unclear whether their bills would include a path to U.S. citizenship.
The House Republicans have come up with smaller bills and those bills include tougher immigration enforcement and will create new visa programs for agricultural workers and high skilled immigrants. They are working on the Kids Act that would legalize undocumented youth. However, they have not come up with bills that would put all the undocumented immigrants on a path to citizenship.
Members of the Democratic party may not vote on bills that would not legalize the undocumented immigrants. Meanwhile, immigration reform advocates are calling on President Obama to stop deporting innocent undocumented immigrants, using his executive authority. They want him to expand the deferred action program and grant the undocumented immigrants a relief from deportation. They want him to reform the immigration laws and fix the country’s immigration system that is broken.
Political scientists say that immigration reform is likely to have an impact on the November 2014 midterm elections. They say that the party of the President is likely to lose seats during the midterm elections. Republicans might gain seats in the House and a shift in control from the Republicans to the Democrats of the House is unlikely, after the midterm elections, according to the political scientists.