Year in review: Top moments that defined immigration reform for 2014

Congress began this year with hopes of passing an immigration reform bill, but those hopes quickly faded. And now Congress is ending the year without getting anything done on immigration.

SEE ALSO: Will the Supreme Court decide immigration policy?

The only action on immigration this year came from President Barack Obama. He bypassed Congress and announced a series of executive actions on immigration. Here’s a look at some of the top immigration moments of 2014:

January: GOP manifests immigration reform principles

House Republicans unveiled a list of principles for immigration reform at their annual retreat in Maryland. Their plan includes allowing undocumented immigrants to gain legal status — not citizenship — as long as they meet certain requirements, such as passing rigorous background checks, paying back taxes, and developing proficiency in English and American civics. Under the plan, however, young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children are able to earn citizenship.

February: Hope fades for immigration reform

Just when it seemed the House would finally get the ball rolling on immigration reform, the issue stalled in February when House Speaker John Boehner said it would be difficult to get a bill passed because Obama and his administration couldn’t be trusted to enforce whatever legislation was approved. Some immigration advocates saw this as a sign that House Republicans would not pass any immigration reform legislation this year, and they began to pressure Obama to offer administrative relief from deportation.

June: Obama vows to act on immigration

Tired of waiting for House Republicans to act on immigration, Obama announced he planned to take matters into his own hands. He vowed to begin “a new effort to fix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own, without Congress.” He directed Department of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson and the Attorney General Eric Holder to identify by the end of the summer additional actions the administration could take within existing legal authorities to “fix as much of our immigration system as we can.”

Summer: Influx of unaccompanied minors

Throughout the summer, an unprecedented number of children crossed the southern border without a parent or guardian. Many of them came from Central America, fleeing gang violence and abuse. Some also came to reunite with family members already living in the United States. A total of 68,434 unaccompanied minors were apprehended at the border by the end of the 2014 fiscal year, compared to 38,759 children the previous year. The surge prompted the Obama administration to take action to reduce the number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border.

September: Obama delays action on immigration

Obama decided to delay taking executive action on immigration until after the November elections, amid calls from some Senate Democrats to delay action. The president explained he did it because the influx of unaccompanied minors coming across the border shifted the politics on immigration, and he wanted more time to explain to the American people why he was taking action. Meanwhile, some political pundits said part of the reason why he delayed action was to save vulnerable Senate Democrats from losing their seats in the midterm elections. The delay frustrated many Latinos who had been calling on Obama to grant deportation relief to millions of undocumented immigrants.

November: GOP wins control of Congress

Pundits believe that part of the reason why Obama delayed action on immigration was to help a handful of Senate Democrats win re-election and keep a Democratic majority in the Senate. But as the election results show, that strategy didn’t work and Republicans went on to clinch control of the Senate. Starting in January, Republicans will control both chambers of Congress—and there’s little hope that they’ll pass any immigration reform legislation.

November: At last Obama takes action on immigration

In a prime-time televised address to the nation, Obama announced his long-awaited executive actions on immigration. His actions seek to ramp up border security and improve the legal immigration system. Perhaps the most controversial part is the president’s plan to expand relief from deportation to millions of undocumented immigrants, including the parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. Though the president’s actions leave out some immigrants who have been in the country for many years, polls show Latinos overwhelmingly support the president’s move on immigration.

December: Republicans vow to fight Obama’s actions on immigration

Republicans in Congress wasted no time in saying Obama exceeded his constitutional authority by acting on immigration on his own. Some Republicans pushed for the House and Senate to pass a  spending bill that included provisions to block Obama’s executive actions on immigration. But Republican leaders decided it was best to wait until next year to fight Obama’s immigration actions. They passed a spending bill that only funds the Department of Homeland Security through February, setting up a fiscal fight over Obama’s immigration executive actions early next year.

SEE ALSO: Bitter divisions after Obama’s executive action on immigration

(function(d, s, id) {

var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];

if (d.getElementById(id)) return;

js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;

js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&appId=313098648827735&version=v2.0”;

fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);

}(document, “script”, “facebook-jssdk”));

The post Year in review: Top moments that defined immigration reform for 2014 appeared first on Voxxi.