Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress have proposed, and sponsored, legislation that would increase legal immigration, and help undocumented immigrants gai

Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress have proposed, and sponsored, legislation that would increase legal immigration, and help undocumented immigrants gain legal status. The problem is that while the vast majority of Democrats in Congress support such reform, less than 50% of Republicans support it. Just as an example, take a look at the bill that came closest to greatly improving our legal immigration system[1], and helping undocumented immigrants (S.744 of the 113th Congress), which passed with a super-majority in the Senate[2]. It was promoted and sponsored by some very well-known Republican Senators (e.g. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, etc). This bill contained provisions that would have fixed many of issues discussed in this thread, like what these unscrupulous consulting companies are doing with the current system. It would have made it easier for skilled immigrants to get green cards, for foreign students to stay in the country after they graduate, among many many other things. It was a compromise between parties, but yet it was a beautiful bill. But Republicans in the House, lead by then-Speaker John Boehner prevented the bill from even being voted on. If the bill had been allowed a vote, it would have easily passed the House, and become law today. But a minority of the House (i.e. a majority of the Republicans in the House) unilaterally blocked passage of the bill. John Boehner actually said that the Republican party would "be over" if the 11-12 million undocumented immigrants were allowed to acquire citizenship eventually (as the bill would have enabled them to). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_Security,_Economic_Opportunity,_and_Immigration_Modernization_Act_of_2013 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_Security,_Economic_Oppo... [2] https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/113-2013/s168 https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/113-2013/s168