In 2013, a group of eight senators, 4 democrats and 4 republicans sponsored a comprehensive immigration bill which if enacted would have made it possible for up to 11 million undocumented immigration to gain legal status and eventually citizenship. To balance out the bill, it would also have increased border security by adding up to 40,000 border patrol agents, and a more extensive use of the E-Verify system to ensure that employees had a legal right to work in the United States. The bi-partisan group of senators included Democrats Charles Schumer, Dick Durbin, Michael Bennet, Robert Mendez plus Republicans John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, and Jeff Flake. The bill as written, was a comprehensive bill including all aspects of the immigration process from enforcement on the borer to legal immigration reforms. The controversial reforms that would allow 11 million undocumented immigrants to go through a legalization process, were conditional to a number of border enforcement measures which had to first be put into place. The law stipulated that before any illegal residents could apply to become lawful permanent residents, the Department of Homeland Security had to certify that the Border Security strategy was operational, including 700 miles of fencing, 38405 new border patrol agents, and a working E-Verify system. Other aspects of the bill such as changes to the immigration categories and Visa programs were to be scaled up gradually over time.
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York officially introduced the bill on April 16, 2013, but the "gang of eight" had already started to work on it when President Barrack Obama applauded their efforts during his State of the Union Address (February 2013). President Obama promised that if they could send him a "comprehensive immigration reform bill in the next few months", he would "sign it right away". To a cheering audience of congressmen, President Obama said that "America will be better for it", and encouraged them to get it done. "Let's get it done. Let's get it done". President Obama believed that "Now is the time to get it done" and he repeated that too for emphasis. Obama cited an increase of border patrol agents and a reduction of illegal crossings as evidence that much progress of strengthening border control had already been made.
"Our economy is stronger when we harness the talents and ingenuity of striving, hopeful immigrants. And right now leaders from the business, labor, law enforcement, faith communities, they all agree that the time has come to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Now is the time to do it. Now is the time to get it done. [Applause] Now is the time to get it done.President Obama said that "illegal crossings" was a the lowest levels in 40 years. Clearly, he was trying to prime the pumps, to push the focus of the immigration bill from border security and to legal immigration reform including a legalization process for undocumented workers or "amnesty". But, was it true that illegal crossings was a the lowest levels in 40 years. Because of the nature of illegal border crossings, it is impossible to measure how many people illegally cross the border, instead the number must be estimated. One way to do that is to look at the number of apprehensions each year by the Border Patrol agents. Numerically, in 2011 the total number of deportations reached it's lowest level since 1973. The number of deportations peaked in 2000 at over 1.8 million, and then fell over the next 11 years to just over 700,000. In 1973, there were just over 585,00 deportations. But this is only part of the story, there is no attribution of the decrease in illegal border crossings to stronger border security, something Republicans considered to be a first priority before amnesty could be considered. In December of 2012 John Morton, the director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made this case when he announced that his agency had removed over 400,000 illegal aliens that year. In 2012, the Obama administration used these numbers to claim that they had broken enforcement records, but more than half of the removals they counted would not have been attributed to ICE in previous years. One of the big changes was that, "removals" now included immigrants who were apprehended at the border and sent back even if they had only been held for a day or less. Thus, the increase in removals, did not represent stronger border enforcement, but rather different methods of record keeping. In addition in 2011, Border enforcement programs were set up to prosecute more cases as "removals" rather than "returns". A removal carries a much harsher punishment, where the individual is not allowed to enter into the United States again for three years or face criminal charges. These programs were set up as a deterrent to repeated crossing attempts, but had a side benefit of boosting then number of removals by ICE.
Real reform means stronger border security, and we can build on the progress my administration has already made: putting more boots on the southern border than at any time in our history and reducing illegal crossings to their lowest levels in 40 years.
Real reform means establishing a responsible pathway to earned citizenship, a path that includes passing a background check, paying taxes and a meaningful penalty, learning English, and going to the back of the line behind the folks trying to come here legally.
And real reform means fixing the legal immigration system to cut waiting periods and attract the highly skilled entrepreneurs and engineers that will help create jobs and grow our economy.
In other words, we know what needs to be done. And as we speak, bipartisan groups in both Chambers are working diligently to draft a bill, and I applaud their efforts. So let's get this done. Send me a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the next few months, and I will sign it right away. And America will be better for it. Let's get it done. [Applause] Let's get it done."
I do not use these figures to debate the effectiveness of Obama era programs to strengthen border security, but rather to identify some of the arguments being made against Obama's claims. Without evidence that the border was being strengthened, the gang of eight faced an uphill battle. Debate on the Senate floor began on June 7, 2013 and more than 5000 amendments were offered or voted upon. On June 27th, the bill as amended passed in the Democratic-controlled Senate by a vote of 68-32, and was sent to the House, where the Republicans had a majority. The House of Representatives refused to act on the bill, and it died. In a statement released by the Congressional Republicans on January 30, 2014, they rejected the Senate's comprehensive immigration stating that there were serious problems with our immigration system, that can not be solved by a "single, massive piece of legislation that few have read and even fewer understand". The Republicans added that "We must secure our borders now and verify that they are secure. In addition, we must ensure now that when immigration reform is enacted, there will be a zero tolerance policy for those who cross the border illegally or overstay their visas in the future". They refused to accept the Obama administration's claim that the border control has been sufficiently strengthened, and accused the administration of "only selectively enforcing our nation’s immigration laws".
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=102826
https://americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/guide-s744-understanding-2013-senate-immigration-bill
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_Security,_Economic_Opportunity,_and_Immigration_Modernization_Act_of_2013
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_of_Eight_(immigration)
https://cis.org/Report/Deportation-Numbers-Unwrapped
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/31/us/politics/text-of-republicans-principles-on-immigration.html
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:At_US-Mexican_border_in_November_2011_with_Customs_and_Border_Patrol.jpg
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