The Midterm Elections are now over, meaning that many changes have been made in the US government. Voters across America decided it was time for a change and made significant changes in the United States Senate and House of Representatives, as well as the electing new Governors in some cases. In the Senate, the Democrats outnumber the Republicans by a count of 51-49, becoming the majority party, as the Republicans lost 6 seats. With 10 seats still undecided, the House of Representatives is now comprised of 229 Democrats and 196 Republicans, and no matter what is the result, democrats are going to be the majority party in the house too. Also, 28 of the State’s governors belong to the Democratic Party and 22 belong to the Republican Party. Overall, democratic party has regained the majority control of both the Senate and the House. The changes in the composure of the U.S. Government will most certainly affect bills already in each house, such as the Immigration Reform Bills.

Both the Senate and House of Representatives had passed immigration reform bills, with the Senate passing the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 (S. 2611) and the House of Representatives passing The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 (H.R. 4437). Nothing has been done with these two bills, as both the Senate and House wished to wait after the elections to continue with the issue.

With the new makeup of the Senate and House, it appears that there will be changes in the immigration landscape in the coming months. The Democratic Party appears to be a supporter of comprehensive immigration reform, as it wishes for families to be reunited as quickly as possible. Also, the Democratic Party wishes to make changes to the citizenship process, especially for those who have been in the United States for a long time. Furthermore, the Democratic Party does not have anti-immigrant tendencies like many in the Republican Party. In the last few months, a House of Representatives controlled by the Republicans, blocked a broad immigration reform bill which intends to legitimize 12 million undocumented immigrants in the US, despite the Senate had already passing it and Bush’s support of it.

President Bush is a supporter of the comprehensive immigration reform and is optimistic that there will be new legislation passed concerning immigration. This is the case because both the President and the new Congress have some common ground on this issue, one of the few issues they do. This will make it more likely that the President and the New Congress make some compromises and concessions to get immigration reform legislation passed.

Despite this, other matters can make getting comprehensive immigration reform legislation passed in the near future difficult. One of the major platforms the democrats ran on in the midterm elections was concerning the war on Iraq. Since there will be a great deal of legislation and action focused on Iraq in the coming months, the immigration legislation may be placed on hold a little while longer.

In order to make sure that Congress acts on the immigration issue as soon as possible and passes broad, comprehensive immigration reform, as opposed to narrow reforms, it is imperative that you write to your representatives in Congress. By contacting your Senator or Representative, three important things happen. First, Congressmen will recognize that the issue at hand is significant and will heed your opinion, especially during an election year. Second, your letters and e-mails will serve as evidence to your Congressman to show to the rest of Congress exactly what the public opinion on an issue is. Finally, by contacting Congress, you are educating them on key issues and giving them another perspective to look at an issue from.

It is not necessary that for you to be a US citizen to address your concerns on immigration reform to Congress. ANYONE can address such issues to Congress. Of course, if you can have your employer or family members who are citizens send correspondence to Congress which will be even better.

You can find the Senators that represent you at this link: http://senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

You can find who represents you in the House of Representatives at this link: http://www.house.gov/

For a sample letter that you may use to send to senators or representatives: http://capwiz.com/aila2/issues/alert/?alertid=9100046&type=CO