FOCUS AMERICA Büro Washington Dr. Almut Wieland-Karimi 1023 15 th Street NW,# 801 Washington, DC 20005 USA Tel.:+1 202 408 5444 Fax:+1 202 408 5537 fesdc@fesdc.org www.fesdc.org Nr. 2/ 2006 American Immigration Reform: A Fierce Debate Aaron Erlich, Georgetown University  Congress is badly split between those who favor a“comprehensive” approach to dealing with immigration reform, including legalization of the unauthorized population and a low-skilled temporary worker program, and those who favor“enforcement only” reform. Both camps, however, favor heavily reinforcing the southern border, which is seen as a post-9/11 security imperative.  The stock(between 11.5 and 12 million) and flows(approximately 850,000 per year over the last five years) of unauthorized immigrants are at all-time highs. Business continues to demand more immigration, however, and 94 percent of unauthorized men work, indicating that they are being absorbed into the economy.  Congress is facing increasing pressure from constituencies in the midwest and the southeast, which have only recently begun to see large-scale unauthorized immigration, to resolve the problem.  While the Democrats present a united front on immigration reform, the Republican Party, for ideological and electoral reasons, is split between those who favor a comprehensive approach and those who favor an enforcement-only approach.  The House passed an enforcement-only bill. The Senate’s current bill, which will be taken up again May 16, provides for graduated legalization provisions for many unauthorized immigrants, a robust temporary worker program, and a large increase in the number of employment-based permanent visas. It seems unlikely, however, that any legislation will be signed into law this year as a result of the great difference between the House and the Senate bills and the upcoming mid-term elections. In the United States, debate over immigration reform goes to the heart of its identity as a nation. Indeed, unlike Germany, since its founding, the United States has conceived of itself as a nation of immigrants. Today in the United States, everyone, no matter their political persuasion, believes that the current American immigration system is badly broken and does not meet the needs of the 21 st century. On Capitol Hill, the debate is now split between those who support what is termed “comprehensive” immigration reform and those who support an“enforcement only” approach; everyone supports more border enforcement. Backers of comprehensive immigration reform argue that enforcement alone will not resolve the problem of unauthorized migration flows and will siphon money away from other important policy initiatives such as fighting terrorism. Therefore,