Why "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" Is Not Comprehensive

“Comprehensive immigration reform" has become the banner around which highly visible efforts to address this seemingly intractable issue now assemble. Yet even as immigration has been drawn by various political entrepreneurs onto the center stage of American politics, the quiet workings of client politics are still very much in evidence. The by-play between these two different types of politics has been evident in connection with foreign agricultural laborers, refugees, and skilled temporary workers. A proposed immigration commission might be the means of buffering immigration policy-making from the drawbacks of both client and entrepreneurial politics.