WASHINGTON –In June, the Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform with bipartisan support. But once the bill hit the House of Representatives, bipartisanship quickly derailed. What once was a front-burner issue now appears to have little chance of passing the House by the end of the year.
“I don’t think most people believe Congress can get anything done,” said Jill Wilson, a senior research analyst from the Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank. “There’s not a lot of confidence, but there is a lot of anger and frustration.”
Many experts say 2013 started with support for immigration reform strong. Senate Republicans and Democrats came together to form the “Gang of Eight,” which worked on bipartisan legislation that became a comprehensive overhaul of the immigration system.
Support for the bill grew through the first half of the year. After the bill was introduced in April, the debate over the legislation moved fairly quickly to the Senate vote in June.
“The Senate finished its bill in fairly good timing considering the size and breadth,” said Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration policy expert from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “The real difficulty was always going to be in the House of Representatives.”
, Republican leadership in the House wasn’t interested in a bipartisan success, and many attention-grabbing events and headlines took center stage instead.
“There have been several things that have come up that have been distraction and taken attention away attention from the headline, none of which had anything to do with immigration,” Wilson said.
The possibility of a U.S. airstrike in Syria had been mounting during the summer and early September and bombarded media coverage.
“The most successful opponent of immigration reform this year was President Assad of Syria,” said Nowrasteh.
The summer recess was a crucial time to garner support among Republican members to gain support for immigration reform, but possible intervention in another Middle Eastern country swamped headlines with protests over U.S. intervention.
“The August recess was crucial for getting House members on board for reform,” Nowrasteh said. “It was going to be make-or-break and both sides knew it.”
But Wilson pointed out that blaming events in Syria, the government shutdown that began Oct. 1 and the failed launch of Obamacare later in the month are poor excuses for why immigration reform hasn’t been brought to a House vote. Instead she said the biggest culprit has been the lack of bipartisan efforts in Congress to work together.
Nowrasteh agreed and said that the lack of will in Congress to work together, combined with these events have crushed reform efforts. Delay has been a successful tactice, he said.
“The more you delay it, the more likely it is you are going to win,” said Nowrasteh. “Combined with outside occurrences like Syria and the shutdown, all together really put a damper on the House at a time when it was their time to move.”
With less than two months left in the calendar year, another budget battle on tap for December and a looming debt-ceiling deadline, the chance of passing comprehensive immigration reform is slim.
“There are always going to be things that happen and big stories,” Wilson said. “If anyone is trying to say that any other these have prevented immigration reform, it’s a bad excuse.”
Nowrasteh predicted the Senate comprehensive immigration reform measure will most likely get broken into smaller bills in the House and will be approved individually over the next few years.