We are all excited about the new year and the great things it will bring when it comes to immigration. We are all excited about the roll out of President Obama’s plans under his executive orders. However, three things might happen to spoil his plans, and we will discuss them here.
1. Will the Republicans pass their own plan? There is talk about a new Republican plan on immigration that should be rolled out in the first quarter of 2015. The plan is purported to have a border security component that makes border security a priority. However, there is little the Republicans can do to differ from the Senate’s plan that was passed last year, since it had enough security measures to pass the Senate with Republican support. Unfortunately, we do not know how far the plan will go when it comes to changing existing law. The last time we had a Republican Congress, we got IIRIRA, which curbed many of the protections that existed before it.
2. Will the President’s Executive Orders Be Ruled Unconstitutional? There has been one round in the sure to be a long fight to determine whether the President’s plans are constitutional. The Federal Courts have already dismissed Sheriff Arpaio’s law suit. The Republicans and the states will surely make the same arguments in their lawsuit, which will be hard to defend. The states will be unable to curb the President’s plans, since he used his constitutional powers to do what the law allows him to do.
3. What will happen with Cuba? DHS Secretary said that normalization of relations with the island nation does not change the Cuban Adjustment Act. However, normalization will mean that an undetermined number of Cuban citizens with standing removal orders could be removed from the United States as soon as normalization occurs. It is uncertain whether the new reform plan will address this problem, which might be one way for Republicans to gain favor with the Cuban community after the President normalized relations with Cuba. However, most of these Cuban citizens may also qualify under the President’s executive actions.
Please keep these three things and track them in 2015 because they are so important to immigration reform. Thank you for following me this past year. I promise that more good things will be on this blog in 2015. Happy New Year.
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