Welcome to America? Immigration reforms offer new hope

It has taken years of painstaking negotiation to come to this: a bipartisan agreement on comprehensive immigration reform – a deal drawn up by four Republican and four Democratic senators known collectively as the Gang of Eight.

Under the proposed changes, eleven million undocumented migrants who arrived in the United States illegally or overstayed their status will get a path to legal status.

There are plans to spend another $6.5m on extra border security, and to clamp down on companies which hire illegal workers: supporters say this should help drive wages up for all employees, including low paid Americans.

Those who do get legal status will be able to claim federal benefits, including welfare and help with purchasing health insurance: a financial commitment which has troubled some defecit-cutting conservatives.

Obama backs reforms

Hours before the test was published, President Obama threw his weight behind it, while Senate majority leader Harry Reid swiftly embraced what he called a “very strong bill”, promising to do everything he could to make sure it went through.

From the start, however, debate was delayed by the tragedy in Boston – and the bombing continues to cast a shadow over proceedings. As a hearing into the sweeping changes began in the Senate on Monday, a furious row broke out.

Leading Democrat Charles Schumer got embroiled in a heated exchange w with rival Republicans – accusing opponents of the new legislation of exploting the Boston Marathon for their own poltiical gain.

On Friday, GOP Senator Chuck Grassley called for a re-think in the light of the attack, given that both suspects were born outside the United States. “How can individuals evade authority and plan such attacks on our soil?” he asked.

“How do we ensure that people who wish us harm are not eligible for benefits under the immigration laws, including this new bill before us?”

The leading Democrat on the committee, Senator Patrick Leahy, was furious. “Let no-one be so cruel as to try to use the heinous acts” of the Boston bombing “to derail” the reforms, he declared.

But for supporters of the changes, there may be more worrying concerns. Senator Rand Paul, a leading member of the right-wing Tea Party movement, was instrumental in throwing conservative weight behind the push for comprehensive reform.

We should not proceed until we understand the specific failings of our immigration system. Senator Rand Paul

Many more moderate Republicans had already began to lobby for change, after their party’s painful defeat in the 2012 presidential elections, blamed in large part on their failure to win any kind of significant support in the Latino community.

Getting the charismatic Florida senator Marco Rubio on side was a major coup for the immigration reformers: he has been widely tipped as a potential Republican presidential contender in 2016, and so far has resisted a backlash from conservatives who have accused him of selling out.

But now Mr Paul says the Boston bombings have given him second thoughts, calling for more hearings and more security precautions to be in place before any vote takes place.

“We should not proceed until we understand the specific failings of our immigration system”, he warned. Losing his backing could scupper the chances of bipartisan agreement on the Gang of Eight deal.

Another influential conservative, Erik Erikson, has also announced he is no supporter of change, calling the reforms unworkable and too complicated. And he accused some Republican staffers of stirring things up: “attacking other conservatives who disagree with them as racists, slavery supporters, bigots…etc”.

It is all fuel for those determined to resist change, like Republican senator Jeff Sessions, who argues that it would result in thirty million new workers flooding the market. “This proposal would economically devastate low-income American citizens and current legal immigrants”, he claimed.

Fixing a broken system

But the Boston bombing is not just being viewed as cause for delay. For the White House, it underlines the need for change, as spokesman Jay Carney put it on Monday: “One of the positive effects of immigration reform…is that it will enhance national security.”

For Marco Rubio, it is at the very least a reason to investigate whether there are any flaws within the current system: in a statement, he said it underlined the need for a lengthy, transparent process of discussion. “But we still have a broken system that needs to be fixed.”

If only the Senate debate itself was as measured.

Felicity Spector writes about US politics for Channel 4 News