Who has the most impact on illegal immigration policy?

Immigration reform has become one of the most popular and controversial topics in politics today. Issues within the immigration reform include things like border security, deportation, creating a pathway for citizenship, benefits given to illegal immigrants, and how actions taken for or against these immigrants will affect our nation’s economy. So who has the most power to influence the lawmakers who are in charge of coming up with solutions to our immigration problems? Is it the public’s opinion, special interest groups, or our political parties? In my opinion, special interest groups have more impact on immigration policy than the public’s opinion or political parties. They hold so much power for a number of reasons, three of which include money, lobbying activities, and the fact that they can influence public display to sway public opinion.

One of the main reasons that special interest groups have so much more influence in government than the general public is the amount of money that they are able to raise and donate towards certain parties and causes; an amount far exceeding anything that an individual or general public group could collect. According to Kevin Bogardus, the author of an article from thehill.com, “In 2012, the Chamber reported nearly $103.9 million in lobbying spending,” and “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent more than $50 million on lobbying last year as it pushed for action on immigration reform.” That’s more than 150 million dollars in the last two years! Money like that has huge effects in influencing government. Even when these groups aren’t donating themselves, they are gaining support and funds from corporations to help champion their cause. This is exemplified in the following paragraph from opensecret...

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...roups have such an immense amount of power to influence the public’s opinion. Special interest groups have access to media appearances and important committee testimonies. What people often don’t think about is that the media support and committee testimony that they are getting is often coming from groups who share the same opinion as these groups and want to see their “cause” furthered. Because of this bias, all of the “pros” to the legislation they are either trying to enact or repeal are shown, but very few of the “cons” are. This swaying of the public’s opinion has a huge effect on how much support they receive, and therefore how much their voice matters in government. If special interest groups can communicate what they want effectively and get a large portion of the general public as well as a few corporations behind them, they will be much more successful.