The bill made it unlawful for an employer to knowingly hire undocumented aliens and established a verification and enforcement system. It also granted temporary legal status to people who had entered the United States without permission before and who had been in the country continuously since. Under that law, those individuals could eventually gain permanent resident status, green card status, and citizenship.
The bill passed because, while there was opposition to immigration, there was also a powerful center anchored by the business community, which lobbied for the bill to ensure a flow of low-wage workers into the country. The center, in , could balance out the intensity on either the left or the right that we see today.
Immigration was not a major issue in the presidential election and only in some congressional elections. By , the economic and political landscape on the issue had changed. A Republican president, George W. Bush, and a Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, worked together to forge a comprehensive immigration bill. But the combined bipartisan political clout of the president and speaker was not enough to overcome the new, polarized politics of immigration.
While the bill was introduced, it never even came up for a vote. By both parties had to confront the reality they live with today: immigration has become intricately bound up with issues of identity, prone to the politics of tribalism and of less interest to the business community.
In the years between and , the center has collapsed. A combination of disparate economic forces, such as new trade deals and low-cost containerized shipping, has decreased the stake the business community traditionally had in immigration policy.
Today, it is easier for businesses to relocate to where labor is cheap than it is to hire cheap labor in the United States. Now that immigration reform is back in the news, it is worth looking back at what exactly happened in that last failed effort.
Kennedy and McCain had tried to get a bill going in and without much success. Most Republicans were automatically opposed to anything that smacked of amnesty -- like the bill's pathway to legalization for existing immigrants.
But in , the Democrats regained control of the House. That meant -- in theory, anyway -- the main obstacle was a GOP Senate filibuster. But a deal arose with the support of several moderate and even conservative Republicans, such as Arizona's Jon Kyl. It was at this point that many on the Left began to step away. Frank Sharry, who was then executive director of the National Immigration Forum, told The Washington Examiner that although conservative opposition was the biggest stumbling block, there were also "divisions on the Left.
Organized labor was split. The Service Employees International Union favored a deal. More strikingly, it lost the support of several pro-immigration groups, such as the League of United Latin American Citizens. In a June , the American Immigration Lawyers Association said it "cannot support enactment of the Senate bill in its current form," citing no fewer than six major problems. Bob Sakaniwa, a lobbyist with AILA, told me this week that that didn't mean that his group opposed the bill.
But when I asked how and whether his group had urged senators to vote on ending the filibuster, he said, "My memory is hazy on this point.
But Sharry said the groups' stances caused confusion, with some Democrats thinking the pro-immigration lobby was now opposed. Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers began pushing for amendments that would alienate what Republican support the bill's had. Byron Dorgan, D-N. Among the amendment's backers was then-Illinois Sen. The bill failed a series of cloture votes in June of A final effort on June 28 received only 46 votes, 14 short of the votes needed to invoke cloture.
Twelve Republicans voted with most Democrats to end cloture. Sixteen Democrats voted with most Republicans to kill the reform. Many believe the vote was closer than that, because some senators switched their votes when it was clear the bill would fail. The charitable explanation is that those Democrats had serious reservations about the bill. To believe that, you would have to believe that Ted Kennedy was selling them out.
It stresses this is an initial buy and that it also will play in some House races. I know the needs of this congressional district very well. I also know that this district needs a strong, conservative voice in congress. I plan to continue to stand up for our veterans, bring common sense solutions to our nation's problems and most importantly I will fight to get our fiscal house back in order.
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