The United States of America is faced with an immigration problem that has troubled administrations. Immigration into the U.S. is enticing to non-US nationals due to their original countries’ desperate conditions. For most immigrants, social, economic, and political challenges in their parent countries are so intolerable that they seek to move into the U.S. The immigration bill has been at the center stage of U.S. politics owing to many immigrants. However, no comprehensive federal immigration reform has been made in recent years. The immigration issue in the U.S has been facing major roadblocks, including the political environment, lack of collaboration between state and federal government, and legalization issues which have contributed to the failure to pass comprehensive policies, despite the interest of key players such as political parties and employers .
The first major roadblock to the immigration bill is the political environment. The USA is composed of the Republican and the Democratic parties, which constitute the biggest number of politicians in the country. Politicians from the opposing political parties have been locked in the controversial immigration topic (Alden, 2017). Any reform bill has to pass through congress. With politicians in the political parties not agreeing on the immigration bill, passing any bill through congress is an insurmountable hurdle (Johnson, 2018). Therefore, the immigration bill faces politics as a major obstacle.
Similarly, lack of collaboration between local and state governments is a major obstacle to the immigration bill. Whereas immigration enforcement is a role of the national government, cooperation by the local government is crucial to any reform bill’s success (Pierce, Bolter & Selee, 2018). Cooperation by local governments takes the form of reporting immigrants and passing laws that limit immigration. Some places in the USA act as sanctuaries for immigrants, thus thwarting immigration reforms. Thus, minimal support from the US government is a huge hinderance to the immigration bill as it affects the laws being passed.
Additionally, the U.S.’s pro-immigrant movement is a hurdle to immigration reform since it have failed to call out the flaws in the system. The pro-immigrant groups are responsible for ensuring that the law makers implement policies that support fairness and humane treatment of immigrants without discrimination. The U.S. is known for holding protests surrounding human rights issues. Over the years, protests for immigration rights have taken place in major cities in the USA. For intsnace, the 2019 protests by hundreds of immigrants who camped in Washington demanding for immigrants who had fleed war and disaster from ytheir home country to be given permanent residence in the U.S (Bloemraad & Voss, 2020). Despite the crucial role immigrants play of providing labor in diverse industries such as forestry and farming, most pf them have been denied legal right to become residents in the country. Social movements like the pro-immigrant movement have continued to address the challenges that immigrants experience such as unfair deportation despite being loyal non-residents. Therefore, the movement has been a hinderance due to its inability to protect immigrants in the country by proposing laws that promote fair treatment of non-residents in the U.S.
Furthermore, workplace enforcement is a significant obstacle to any immigration reform. One major reason for immigrants is the search for economic gains. Employment is one sure way of economic gains that makes immigrants cross into the USA. Employers lack a method of verifying who passes as an authorized worker. Owing to this challenge, immigrants can easily secure employment. Johnson (2018) opines that creating a system to reduce undocumented immigrants’ employment is daunting. Consequently, workplace enforcement of immigration policies makes immigration reform difficult.
Moreover, courts have played a role in acting as a challenge to immigration reform. Pierce et al. (2018) postulate that the judicial system has a key role in implementing any constitutional reform. In the past, the judiciary has blocked some pertinent immigration changes. An example is President Donald Trump’s ban on people from some seven countries entering the USA (Johnson, 2017). Owing to the seven countries being of Muslim majority, courts blocked the executive order stating that they went against the USA constitution’s provisions. The constitution blocks favoring of any religion. Such actions by the judicial system make it a roadblock to comprehensive immigration reform.
Another challenge to immigration reform is the issue of legalization and skilled migration. Alden (2017) opines that the brightest migrants should be legalized. The issue of legalization has for long been controversial. Legalization covers undocumented immigrants residing in the USA, most of whom graduate from universities and colleges with skills. Instituting a legalization policy has become a major roadblock to comprehensive immigration reform since there is disagreement on who should undergo the legalization process (Alden, 2017). Hence, the need to incorporate skilled immigrants into the USA through the legalization of immigrants is a major problem facing immigration reform.
There are many players involved in the immigration debate with various stakes involved. Foremost, the political parties draw membership from immigrants. Most immigrants are Latinos making the Latino voters important to the political parties (Alden, 2017). Other players in the immigration debate are the employers. Immigrants offer employers skilled and unskilled labor (Johnson, 2018). Most immigrants are cheaper to employ than American citizens. Consequently, employers are set to spend more on wages if any comprehensive immigration reform occurs. Therefore, political parties and employers form major players in the immigration debate.
Immigration is an issue that will continue to trouble policymakers in the USA in the future. The only sure way to address the issue is to ensure that the obstacles facing comprehensive immigration reform are addressed. Moreover, the controversial immigration debate’s key players must be convinced of the prospective gains an immigration reform bill offers.
