Michael Bennet and the Immigration Compromise That Failed

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/27/us/politics/michael-bennet-immigration.html

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Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado may be best known for being part of the so-called Gang of Eight: four Democratic and four Republican senators who negotiated a comprehensive immigration proposal in 2013.

Here’s some background.

The bill developed by the Gang of Eight passed the Senate but died in the House, which was controlled by Republicans.

It included: A path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who passed a background check, paid a fine and back taxes, and learned English; an expanded visa program for agricultural workers and an expedited path to permanent residency for student visa holders who earned certain advanced degrees; and funding for a 700-mile border fence, new border-monitoring technologies and about 20,000 more Border Patrol agents.

Mr. Bennet often cites his work on the bipartisan bill and its failure to get a vote in the House as evidence that the federal government is broken and in need of a reboot.

Mr. Bennet is not alone in bemoaning the federal government’s dysfunction. But as he can most likely attest, Congress has only become more partisan since the failed attempt at immigration compromise in 2013.

So, finding a way to pass a comprehensive immigration proposal may very well be more difficult now than it was six years ago. And even back then, the grand compromise Mr. Bennet helped devise did not become law.