At this time last year, the Obama administration waxed rhapsodic about plans for comprehensive immigration reform in 2013,1 leaving immigration practitioners cautiously optimistic that this would be the year.2 Even though Obama’s 2012 campaign pledge to produce immigration reform mimicked unfulfilled promises from the 2008 campaign,3 the GOP had been pummeled in the 2012 election over anti-immigration rhetoric;4 hence, there would be sufficient impetus on both sides of the aisle to pass bipartisan legislation.
But even longer term hope for a comprehensive package has waned at this point in response to stalemate discourse at the political level. Bickering over whether reform should be comprehensive or piecemeal has slowed congressional momentum and pushed immigration lower and lower on the list of priorities. Moreover, the distractions of the cataclysmic implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the failures of American fiscal strategy, and even tensions with Russia over its anti-gay propaganda law in anticipation of the 2014 Sochi Olympics have usurped the spotlight in the 24-hour news cycle.
