‘Assimilation’ a flash point in immigration debate

A sheriff’s deputy stopped a car outside Ajo, Ariz., where local officers try to enforce national drug and immigration policies while also policing the town. /  Alex Wroblewski for The New York Times
A sheriff’s deputy stopped a car outside Ajo, Ariz., where local officers try to enforce national drug and immigration policies while also policing the town. / Alex Wroblewski for The New York Times

By Tarin Parti | POLITICO

It’s not border security. It’s not “amnesty.”

But it is another flash point for conservatives when it comes to comprehensive immigration reform: how to make newly naturalized immigrants fit in better in America.

These conservatives prefer the term “assimilation” for the provisions in the current Senate bill described as “integration.” Although the bill requires immigrants to learn English and civics to get a green card, conservatives are angry about the lack of emphasis on patriotic principles and the cost. They’re pushing for what they consider improvements to the bill’s language.

Those assimilation requirements were a big part of the immigration bill that faltered under President George W. Bush, and conservatives want the Gang of Eight’s bill to be much stricter on the issue. That bill will hit the Senate floor this week and could bring some of the most sweeping changes to immigration reform in decades.

Continued: 

Related: Boehner begins to sketch immigration plan

Near the Border, a Few Deputies Are Outnumbered by Drugs and Bodies (photo above)

 

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