By Jorge Luis Sierra
SAN JUAN — Efforts to pass a comprehensive immigration reform are running not only against its opponents, but also against time. In a national Town Hall meeting held last October, Congressman Luis Gutierrez, a representative from Illinois, told supporters from all states that there is only a small window of opportunity to approve the reform sometime between mid-February and mid March 2010.
Gutierrez explained that timing in a recent interview for the National Public Radio:
I believe our window is very small. That is to say, you do health care, you get the energy bill passed in the House and the Senate. Get both of those bills signed by the president. That should bring us to about the beginning of February and that’s the window, I think you have that window of February and March. And once you go into April, you really have a diminishing opportunity because you do have the midterm elections getting closer and closer.
Supporters of the reform fear that if it is not filed, discussed and approved before the end of March 2010, the opportunity to approve it will be postponed maybe for years. What lies ahead is the November 2010 election, when 435 House of Representatives and 36 Senate seats will be at stake, along as 39 gubernatorial elections, including the four states at the border with Mexico.
In the past, legislative discussions on immigration bills have been affected by political concerns and it could also be the case in 2010. Candidates will have to face a primary election in March and many of them usually constrain their actions and speech in regard to the immigration issue. As it has happened in election time, the anti-immigrant climate becomes exacerbated and, with some exceptions, immigration reform virtually disappears from the discourse and political platforms of some candidates.
That is why Gutierrez is saying that there is only a window of opportunity for the immigration reform to be approved and discussed in the short term. Therein lies the paradox. The adoption of the reform will impact on all economic, social policy and U.S. long term because it will allow 12 million immigrants to get out of the shadows and enter the formal economy. But the opportunity to approve it is short.
Despite fears that the reform did not reach the sympathy of more than 60 senators, Gutierrez expressed confidence that the Senate will approve the reform and the fight will also be waged in the House of Representatives.
Gutierrez will have another national Town Hall on November 18, 7:30 p.m. You can hear the conference at the La Unión del Pueblo Entero (LUPE)’s San Juan office in Cesar Chavez Rd. and Business 83, or at LUPE’s Alton office, located at 201 W. Main Ave. (Conway and Mile 5).
