As many of my readers know I’m a member of the board of directors of HIAS, the oldest refugee resettlement agency in the United States. HIAS’ statement on the lack of progress on immigration reform reflects the opinions of most of the major religious communities in the US – Christian, Jewish, Muslim and others. In fact, it is difficult to find any religious community in the US that has supported an enforcement-only approach to immigration legislation. Here is HIAS’ latest statement on the immigration reform bill:

HIAS Troubled by House's Plan to Block Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Washington - Officials at the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) are deeply troubled by recent reports that House Republicans are abandoning a year's worth of progress on comprehensive immigration reform, and instead plan to pass enforcement-only measures that ignore the essential role of rational immigration policy in securing our borders.  In doing so, the House has effectively blocked any possibility of reaching a compromise with the Senate, which passed a bi-partisan comprehensive immigration bill (S. 2611) that includes both enforcement measures and opportunities for earned legalization and a path to citizenship for immigrants already in the U.S., as well as a guestworker program for newly arriving immigrants.

Just one week after returning from the August recess, Speaker Dennis Hastert, along with other House Republican leaders, announced that the House Republican Policy Committee will hold a public forum today on immigration field hearings held during the month-long August recess. "It's alarming to us that the House spent millions of taxpayers' dollars to hold these biased hearings only to come back to Washington, dig in their heels, and take us back to square one," says Gideon Aronoff, President and CEO of HIAS.  "We have come too far to throw in the towel on comprehensive reform."

As Congress plays politics with the immigration debate, religious leaders from around the country and across faiths will join together today in a telephonic press conference to call on Congress to stop the delay and pass comprehensive immigration reform. Religious leaders, including Rabbi Scott Sperling from The Union for Reform Judaism and the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez Jr. from the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, aim to remind the House and Senate that our broken immigration system is an urgent dilemma of moral and social significance. "The interfaith community wants Congress to know that they're paying attention," says Aronoff.  "Congress cannot neglect the human consequences of our broken immigration system or the role of sound immigration policy in protecting our borders."

HIAS supports the approach taken by the Senate-passed legislation, which diverges from the enforcement-only approach taken by the House when it passed H.R. 4437 late last year.  HIAS has led the Jewish community effort over the last several years to promote comprehensive immigration reform that is consistent with Jewish religious and ethical values of welcoming and protecting the stranger, and the Jewish community's interest in promoting border security policies that can actually work.

Only three weeks remain before Congress closes up shop to hit the campaign trails for the November elections. "All the pieces of the puzzle are there, and there's still enough time for the Senate and House to work together to put those pieces together," says Aronoff.  "Congress has a good approach on the table and support from the American public to pass comprehensive immigration reform.  The time to act is now."    

Despite sporadic reports of behind the scenes negotiations on an immigration deal, the odds are now virtually nil that anything will happen before the election.

Press accounts report that the House of Representatives will not bother to negotiate with the Senate to reach a compromise and will instead pass a new bill by month’s end that will be more limited in scope than H.R. 4337, the ultra-harsh immigration enforcement bill that contained controversial provisions like one that made it a felony to be an undocumented immigrant and also a crime to provide humanitarian assistance (food, medicine, transportation assistance, etc.) to such an immigrant. The bill will only deal with enforcement issues and will not address items like having a workable guest worker program or dealing with the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country.

While the House may be able to get a bill like this passed, the odds of a similar bill passing in the Senate are a lot slimmer since support for comprehensive immigration reform is much stronger in that body.

The irony is that the GOP’s failure so far to pass a bill is playing well politically for Democrats running a campaign against a “Do Nothing” Congress and, thus, increasing the odds that the Republicans will lose their majority in the House in the November elections. That would actually make it very likely comprehensive reform will happen early next year. So why the tough House line? Because there are enough House Republicans where being an immigration hardliner plays well to effectively block any kind of agreement in the party on the issue. And rather than having an actual negotiation with the Senate where differences with the President and moderates in both bodies would become the major news. The decision not to pass an immigration bill is, in short, the perceived lesser of two evils for the GOP.

While Republican leaders are publicly stating that they need additional time to work on comprehensive reform, Democratic leaders are saying otherwise. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi had this to say:

“There is plenty of time to do that bill. Everybody knows the bill. It is not about time. It may be about the bill. It is not about time. It may be about something else, but it is not about time. We could have done something this week.”

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid criticized President Bush, a support of comprehensive immigration reform, for failing to rein in the party crazies:

Unfortunately, recent press reports indicate that Republican Congressional leaders have no intention of getting down to work and fixing our broken immigration system. The bottom line is that if President Bush does not rein in the radical anti-immigrant right wing of his party, there will be no comprehensive reform. It is time to stop playing with our national security and start working for the American people. It is time for a new direction."