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By Brad Bernstein
President/Immigration Attorney, The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein

If you’re waiting for any kind of immigration reform, as we all have for longer than we ever expected, you better be prepared to be patient for at least another few more months.

I’ve been convinced for quite a while that nothing, except maybe some sweet-sounding lip service, will happen until the November elections are over and done with.

Only then will left-leaning politicians show a little guts and dare touch that political third rail.

If I’m reading the political tea leaves correctly, the election results will bring in a lot of new faces and a lot of conservative ones, which, I don’t have to tell you, doesn’t bode well for comprehensive immigration reform.

So, here’s what I think will happen: at best, in that brief, lame-duck window between the old and new Congress, only a sliver of immigration reform will get passed – just like the last time pro-immigration reform passed (i.e., section 245i extension) after the 2000 elections, when Congress was in a lame duck session before George Bush came into office.

You see, lame duck sessions, are like truth serum, as voted-out politicians with no further political aspirations and those politicians retiring for good can actually vote their conscience, if not their hearts and souls, rather than give into mere politics and simply tote the party line.

My guess is that the level of immigration reform we’ll see at the end of this year will be just enough to quasi-satisfy Obama’s constituency, yet not enough to enrage those sitting on the fence.

In other words, passing something like the DREAM Act – and that’s it.

I wish I felt differently.

I wish I had better news for you.

I wish a lot of things about immigration.

But wishing won’t make it so.