Impatience is a Virtue Essay

Submitted By bffli101
Words: 839
Pages: 4

Katie Shepherd
Dr. Carlson
END-1103-22
Writing Project 3
Impatience is a Virtue

“The year on Capitol Hill that just ended was bracketed by fiscal crises resolved, if at all, only at the margins. It was characterized more by thwarted ambitions and unfulfilled promises than any measure of success” (Cranford 18).
These last and current Congresses have had a plethora of inadequacies when it came, and continues to come, to progress. One of their most glaring failures is the scarcity of action when it comes to immigration reform. There is also an absence of regard for the level of impact this lack of action can have. The reason the lack of immigration reform is such a glaring topic is that Congress continues to propose and promise reform, but ends up pushing back deadlines, until eventually earlier this month John Boehner, Speaker of the House, made a statement “that Congress will not overhaul the immigration system this year” (Carney 328). Not only has Boehner now openly admitted that Congress probably won’t do anything about it until next year, but even Obama is saying that he is confident that immigration reform will happen by the end of his term. This statement helps solidify the prospect of Congress continually pushing deadlines back, until eventually it’s 2016 and we haven’t seen any improvement. The only way for Congress to be able to move forward and make progress with the reform is if The House and the Senate are able to meet in the middle with their terms. With the length of the current stalemate on the matter however, that possibility seems to be moving further and further away. The main cause of the current stalemate is both sections’ inability to come to an agreement on the terms that should be set when it comes to immigration reform. The root of the disagreement is the question of whether or not to grant full citizenship to immigrants after an allotted amount of time. The Senate has outlined terms that require a certain allotment of time to be completed along with some minor requirements. The House, while it may seem to be pretty darn close to the same thing, the terms that they have set up will make it exceedingly difficult for an immigrant to become a fully naturalized citizen. For example, “Last year’s Senate bill, which included a 13-year-long process for illegal immigrants to reach citizenship, wasn’t even considered by the House, where five limited immigration measures were approved in committee but never reached the floor” (Harrison 330). In the words of Alex Nowrasteh, “It’s sort of like a ‘green card light,’ with the exception that you can never take that extra final step to naturalize (qtd. Harrison 330).” The problems that this indecision is causing don’t seem to be giving Congress any extra motivation to speed up their process. One being that the GOP’s refusal to do anything in the situation is beginning to hurt their political figures as well as the supporters of their entire party. “The stalemate has left traditional GOP constituencies, including business leaders in industries such as retail, construction and agriculture, increasingly irate” (Carney 328). While it is noted that both sides are to be blamed for said stalemate, in the long run this is really hitting the GOP hardest. They are the ones who rely