Implementation and enforcement of the immigration laws have a significant impact on both the national security and economic interests of the United States and also have implications for individual civil liberties of those who are present in our country. The last major overhaul of the immigration laws was enacted in 1996 and there is widespread agreement that our immigration system is in dire need of reform.

After lengthy negotiations and weeks of floor consideration, Senate action on comprehensive immigration reform legislation ended on June 28th without passage of a final bill. A motion to invoke cloture, necessary to cut-off debate, was rejected by a vote of 46-53 and shortly thereafter Majority Leader Reid once again pulled the bill from the Senate floor. While Senators from both parties expressed the need to return to this critical issue at some point in the near future, many believe that major reform will now not be possible until after the 2008 elections.

Text of S. 1639

Roll Call Votes (through 06/06/2007)

ABA Letter on S. 1348(S. 1348 was revised and renumbered as S.1639 in the course of the Senate debate)

Fact Sheet: ABA Supports Comprehensive Immigration Reform

ABA Action in the 110th Congress

• Letter to House sponsors of STRIVE
• Written statement outlining a number of steps that should be taken to address the lack of meaningful access to legal information and legal representation experienced by many immigrants in detention (House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism)
• Letter regarding Detainee Transfer Standard (Department of Homeland Security)
• Letter regarding petition for rule-making to promulgate regulations governing detention standards for immigration detainees (Department of Homeland Security)

Other Action

• H.R. 1645, the Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy Act (STRIVE Act), was introducted by Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Jeff Flake (R-AZ) on March 22, 2007
• Cornyn Amendment #312 to S.4, the Improving America's Security Act of 2007. The motion to invoke cloture failed 46-49. (ABA Generally Opposed the Cornyn Amendment)
• H.R. 6095, the Immigration Law Enforcement Act, was passed by the House with a vote of 277-140 on September 21, 2006. (ABA Opposed H.R. 6095)
• H.R. 6094, the Community Protection Act, was passed by the House with a vote of 328-95 on September 21, 2006. (ABA Opposed H.R. 6094)
• S. 2611, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, was passed by the Senate with a vote of 62-36 on May 25, 2006. (ABA Generally Supported S. 2611)
• H.R. 4437, the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act, was passed by the House with a vote of 239-182 on December 16, 2005. (ABA Opposed H.R. 4437)

• The ABA supports comprehensive immigration reform that includes temporary worker programs for undocumented laborers and necessary future workers that include a path to lawful permanent residence, labor protections, identity and security checks, and protections to ensure that U.S. workers are not disadvantaged; opposes elimination of administrative and judicial review of removal decisions and limitations on judicial review in the federal courts; and opposes criminalization of civil violations of immigration law and state and local enforcement of immigration laws.


• The sweeping immigration reforms enacted in 1996 went too far, hurting legal immigrants, asylum seekers, and non-citizen children. Remedial legislation is necessary to restore fair administrative hearings, judicial review, discretionary relief, individualized custody determinations, and to restore public benefits for legal permanent resident aliens and refugees that were not restored during the 105th Congress.


• Legal immigration should be based on family reunification and the economic and cultural interests of the United States. Proposals to reduce visa numbers for family reunification and employment-related immigration would have a detrimental impact on American families and businesses, and therefore should be opposed. Farmworkers presently working in the United States should be accorded legal resident status and their wages and working conditions need to be improved.


• Naturalization is an important process for integrating eligible lawful permanent residents into the mainstream of American life. Although the process should be improved to ensure the required criminal record checks and achieve a six-month processing goal, the current eligibility requirements should be retained.


• The Attorney General should have the authority to grant humanitarian relief from deportation in appropriate cases.


• Counsel should be appointed at government expense for unaccompanied children in immigration proceedings, and children who cannot be released to family should be housed in family-like settings.


• Immigration detainees should be detained only in extraordinary circumstances and in the least restrictive setting. Alternatives to detention should be developed.

The ABA supports legal immigration based on family reunification and employment skills, due process safeguards in immigration and asylum adjudications, and judicial review of such decisions. The ABA also supports the appointment of counsel at government expense to unaccompanied children in immigration proceedings, the restoration of public benefits to legal immigrants and refugees, and improving the wages, working conditions and legal status of farmworkers in the United States. The ABA opposes laws that require employers and persons providing education, health care, or other social services to verify citizenship or immigration status.