Migration, Again …

Like any bipartisan attempt to tackle a real problem, the proposal seems doomed in advance by an atmosphere of polarization in the country, particularly in Congress.

A new immigration reform proposal is being hailed as a rare bipartisan effort to tackle one of America’s most complicated and vexing problems.

But like any bipartisan attempt to tackle a real problem, the proposal seems doomed in advance by an atmosphere of polarization in the country, particularly in Congress.

Led by Republican Maria Elvira Salazar (Cuban American from Miami) and Democrat Veronica Escobar (Mexican American from El Paso), a group of up to seven legislators from both parties have proposed solutions to discuss a decades-long political conflict.

The bill seeks to update what is clearly an outdated and dysfunctional U.S. immigration system by increasing funding for border security, expanding legal migration channels and legalizing some of the immigrants currently living in the country without permission.

It also proposes opening up pathways toward regularization, including access to citizenship for the “dreamers,” the children who accompanied undocumented immigrants and grew up here.

The nearly 500-page bill is the most detailed and far-reaching proposal to reform U.S. immigration laws in Congress in recent years.

In fact, CBS noted that like previous comprehensive immigration bills, the proposal faces major difficulties.

For starters, it comes on the eve of a presidential campaign in which, for now at least, the issues of migration and border security serve as a focus of attention for the right wing, which sees them as a practical demonstration of the weakness of the president, Democrat Joe Biden.

In particular, as they did 40 years ago, Republicans question the idea of legalizing undocumented immigrants without first enacting stricter policies to deter the arrival of immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The immigration issue is recurrent, especially in Republican allegations about the border and the arrival of presumed undesirables. The current “scare” began with Donald Trump’s election campaign in 2016 when he took advantage of the arrival of the first “caravans” from Central America to promote measures to close the border.

Now, on the eve of a new campaign, Republicans are again preparing to utilize the conflictive situation created on their southern border with the end of “Title 42,” the law that allowed the entry of immigrants or asylum seekers to be prevented for health reasons.

But at the same time, academic groups, including some conservatives, claim that the benefits of immigration outweigh the costs and are urging a solution to the situation of the 11.3 million undocumented residents in the U.S., around half of which are of Mexican origin.