House Republicans, led by Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), have decided to pursue a piecemeal approach to immigration reform, unlike the more sweeping Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 introduced by the bipartisan Senate “Gang of Eight” this week. Though some prominent Republicans like 2012 vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan (R-WI) have publicly supported the senate bill, House leaders are aiming to tackle immigration reform one bill at a time, beginning with agricultural guest worker programs and workplace enforcement.

A piecemeal approach is expected to benefit House Republicans, many of whom do not have large immigrant or Latino populations in the districts they represent, by allowing them avoid addressing a controversial pathway to citizenship for the nearly 11 undocumented immigrants currently in the country. Instead, the series of reform bills would likely focus on guest worker programs, workplace enforcement and border security—all issues important to Republican base.

The differing approaches in both chambers of Congress could lead to a stalemate. Senators Schumer (D-NY) and McCain (R-AZ) have indicated that a piecemeal approach would not pass the Senate, and many House Republicans have come out against the Senate bill. Ultimately, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who has thus far remained above the debate, will decide which approach the House will take.

While a House CIR bill has not been released, the Senate Judiciary Committee is set to amend and vote on their bill by May 9.

Leani García works in the Policy Department at Americas Society/Council of the Americas.

Our current immigration system is overly punitive and costly, according to AS/COA’s Richard André. In a blog, André argues for smarter enforcement in the immigration reform bill that is expected to be introduced in the Senate on Tuesday. Over $2 billion of taxpayer money is spent annually on detention and the arbitrary use of solitary confinement. This figure does not account for the children that are placed in foster care, or families who rely on public assistance after the head of the household is deported.

The current draft of the bill contains a path to citizenship, which could take up to 15 years, with a cutoff date of December 2011. This would bar immigrants who arrived in the country after that date from applying for citizenship. This path to citizenship will be dependent on specific enforcement benchmarks. The ability of the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the country to begin the citizenship process will be dependent on border patrol’s ability to have 100 percent surveillance of the border, apprehend 90 percent of undocumented immigrants crossing the border, national compliance with E-Verify for businesses, and a better way to track exits at airports and seaports.

With Marco Rubio’s renewed support for the “Gang of Eight” bill, it remains to be seen what compromise Democrats and Republicans will strike between a path to citizenship and smart enforcement once the bill reaches the Judiciary Committee, and ultimately the Senate floor.

Read more analysis.

Immigrants are now more assimilated, on average, than at any point since the 1980s, and post-recession immigrants are more assimilated than those who arrived before the recession, according to a Manhattan Institute for Policy Research report released on March 25. The 20-page policy briefing, titled “Measuring Immigrant Assimilation in Post-Recession America,” uses data that the Census Bureau collected in 2010 and 2011 to show that cultural differences between recently arrived immigrants and the U.S. born are lower than they’ve been in a generation.

The report uses three indicators from the assimilation index to determine immigrants’ levels of assimilation:

• Economic factors, which include employment and education;
• Cultural factors which include English fluency and intermarriage; and
• Civic factors, which include citizenship and military service.

The report found that changes in assimilation post-recession are primarily due to a slowdown in the arrival of immigrants from Mexico and a shift and increase in immigration from Asia, the bursting of the housing bubble, and an increase in immigrants who are more culturally and economically similar to U.S. born than immigrants arriving a decade earlier. The report also found that due to the economic recession and slow economic recovery since 2009, the flow of immigrants and historical patterns of assimilation have been altered, perhaps permanently. While the immigration debate has focused primarily on undocumented immigrants who largely migrate from Mexico and Central America, by 2011 the number of Mexican immigrants and the number of immigrants from all Asian countries were roughly equal. Additionally, the lower population growth rate in Mexico indicates that even if unemployment levels in the U.S. drop, “the era of rapid immigration from Mexico is already behind us.”

The Manhattan Institute for Policy Report comes after a poll by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution revealed that 63 percent of Americans polled support a path to citizenship, including 53 percent of Republicans. Given large bipartisan support and an increase in assimilation, an issue that has historically been important to Republicans in regards to proposed reform, there is reason to believe that a comprehensive immigration reform bill will come to a vote before the end of 2013.

Leani García works in the Policy Department at Americas Society/Council of the Americas.

Parts of an immigration proposal drafted by the White House that tackles border security, employee verification, and a path to residency for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. was made public by USA Today on Sunday. The proposal, which expanded upon the general guidelines that President Obama proposed in Las Vegas and in his State of the Union address last Tuesday, includes an unspecified increase in funding for border security and enforcement, a requirement that businesses verify the immigration status of their employees within four years of hire, and the ability for undocumented immigrants to achieve legal resident status within eight years. To achieve permanent residency, the White House bill would create a “Lawful Prospective Immigrant” visa, which, if approved, would allow the spouses and children of the immigrants to apply even if they reside outside the country.

While there has been pushback by some members of the bipartisan Senate Group known as the Gang of Eight, most notably from Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) who stated that if the proposal were presented to Congress it would be “dead on arrival,” White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough insisted that the proposal was simply a backup plan if the bipartisan negotiations “up on Capitol Hill break down.” Republicans believe that the White House proposal would make the immigration situation worse by failing to secure the border and by rewarding those who entered the country without authorization before those who have utilized the existing immigration process. Others, such as former Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan (R-WI), have suggested that the White House is looking for “a partisan advantage,” despite its open support of a bipartisan solution.

Although David Axelrod, former senior adviser to President Obama’s re-election campaign, has called the leak a mistake, local activist groups have been supportive of the White House proposal and the continued pressure on Congress to produce bipartisan legislation. They are especially encouraged by the provisions for family reunification visas, which many fear would be eliminated in favor of work visas in the Senate bill.

Leani García works in the Policy Department at Americas Society/Council of the Americas.