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LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
In the post-election, post-immigration bill passage aftermath, the attention of immigration policy-watchers is turning to the issues of the interpretation and implementation of the new law as well as the direction of immigration legislative activity in the 105th Congress which will be sworn in next month.
According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has set a target date of 23 December 1996 for the publication of proposed regulations that would carry out the provisions of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 ("IIRIRA"). The INS has set a target date of 27 February 1997 for publication of interim final rules. We will be reporting on these proposed rules in our next issue if they are released on the target date. We will also post the regulations on our web site's documents collection (www.visalaw.com/docs/).
The future of legislative activity in the Congress is not entirely clear after analyzing election results. Pro-immigration legislative efforts in the House of Representatives should be a little easier since the Republican majority was cut in half to just 22 seats. In the Senate, on the other hand, the Republican majority was actually widened. But the Republicans did not achieve a filibuster-proof majority which means that even as a minority party, Democrats can still make it very difficult to pass certain pieces of anti-immigration legislation. As for the crucial question of the makeup of the House and Senate immigration committees, oddsmakers are betting that Arizona Republican Senator Kyl, the current senior Senator on the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, will take over from Alan Simpson as chairman. Ohio Republican Senator DeWine and Michigan Republican Senator Abraham are also likely to remain on the subcommittee. Democratic Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts will remain as the ranking minority member on the committee. Other Democrats who are likely to remain are Finegold of Wisconsin and Feinstein of California. Senators Leahy and Biden may leave to take other senior committee positions. Seven seats on the House Judiciary Committee remain to be filled. Four will be filled by Republicans and the remainder left for Democrats. Texas Republican Lamar Smith will remain as committee chairman, but the ranking minority member is not yet known since Democrat John Bryant is retiring from Congress. According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Representative Nadler, a Democrat from New York with a very pro-immigration record may take the position, though Representive Boucher from Virginia has seniority and may take the slot.
Pro- and anti-immigration advocates alike are likely to push for a "technical corrections" bill in the next Congress to address problems in IIRIRA. According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association's Advocacy Task Force analysis of the prospects for a pro-immigration bill, "it will be difficult to secure passage of a technical corrections bill that is anything beyond mere technical clarifications" unless pro-immigration advocates launch a strong grassroots campaign and are able to identify additional moderate Republicans in the 1996 freshman class of Congress.
House Immigration Committee Chairman Lamar Smith has stated his intentions to push for a legal immigration bill in the 105th Congress since most of the legal immigration provisions in IIRIRA were stripped out of the bill earlier this year. Odds are, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association, there will also be a serious effort to pass bills in the areas of citizenship requirements, birthright citizenship, and public education for illegal immigrant children.
Finally, expect to see a litany of lawsuits challenging various provisions of the new law as well as the interpretive regulations. At the forefront of these actions are the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the American Civil Liberties Union which are coordinating their litigation efforts.
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