Politics
Lawmakers, Advocates Remain Divided on Immigration Reform
As Chicago deals with the aftermath of aggressive immigration enforcement, some advocates say reform is needed now more than ever.
Both Republicans and Democrats say that the system needs change, but for decades, they haven’t agreed on how to fix it.
While some say there aren’t enough legal pathways for people to become citizens, others argue for tougher restrictions to discourage illegal immigration.
There hasn’t been major immigration reform since 1986, when then President Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act into law. It legalized millions of undocumented immigrants while also introducing new employment verification requirements, making it illegal for immigrants to work without authorization.
There have been some attempts at policy change in recent years. Last year, Congress attempted to pass a bipartisan border security bill that would have cracked down on illegal immigration. But the effort failed after a Republican filibuster.
President Donald Trump used the lack of policy change to his advantage on the campaign trail. He has blamed Democrats for so-called open-border policies, despite the Biden administration’s efforts to secure the southern border and ban migrants from getting asylum protections if they cross the border illegally.
Trump is making good on his promise to voters to crack down on illegal immigration and deport undocumented people — a move that has drawn sharp criticism from his opponents.
State Sen. Andrew Chesney (R-Freeport) said the current atmosphere around immigration enforcement is the product of years of pushback from Republicans about current policies.
“The clean-up of the Biden administration’s open-border policies has created a little bit of controversy,” Chesney said. “We are a nation of laws, and they need to be enforced. When they are not enforced, you are now asking the new administration to enter into communities and correctly evict those that are in this country illegally.”
The lack of concrete solutions at the federal level has fueled some disagreement locally, despite state laws protecting immigrants. Some Republicans in Springfield like Chesney are pushing to repeal the Illinois TRUST Act, which prevents local law enforcement in the state from collaborating with federal immigration agents.
Chesney said the current laws don’t do enough to reduce illegal immigration and the TRUST Act makes law enforcement harder.
“Gov. Pritzker rolled out the red carpet for illegal immigrants,” Chesney said. “Where we’ve seen the challenges is when it comes to coordination on removing those criminal aliens in our communities.”
Supporters of the TRUST Act say it protects public safety by making sure people feel comfortable calling the police without worrying about being targeted by immigration agents.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is tightening limits on refugees and asylum seekers admitted to the United States. Next year, refugees will be limited to 7,500 — the lowest-ever cap — and will primarily be made up of Afrikaners, or White South Africans descended from Dutch colonizers.
Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, said applying for refugee or asylum status can be a lengthy, yearslong court process, which helps neither case workers nor migrants. He said he’s pushing for policy changes that would help asylum seekers determine whether they have a strong case and whether it’s worth making the journey to the U.S.
“The number of immigration judges and the number of asylum officers is so inadequate to the number of people making claims to asylum,” Soerens said. “I would say the solution to that is not to just give up on asylum, which is largely what the Trump administration has done.”
Soerens suggested lawmakers revisit past proposals that would allow immigrants who have overstayed their visas or entered the country illegally to pay a fine to be eligible for amnesty. He said reform should focus on making it easier to immigrate legally while addressing border security.
“Congress has sort of abdicated their responsibility to reform a system that has not been functioning well for a very long time,” Soerens said. “We’ve seen Republican presidents like George W. Bush and Democratic presidents like Barack Obama try to resolve that with actually very similar policy proposals. How you solve this is not a huge, confusing question.”
