VOA慢速英语2014 保守共和党人反对移民政策

 

AS IT IS 2014-06-30 A Fight Over Immigration in the Republican Party 保守共和党人反对移民政策

Traditional and conservative members of the Republican party differ on immigration policies. The two sides had strong differences even before large numbers of Central American children began entering the United States illegally over the past few months.

Experts believe there are about 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States now. Last year, the Democratic-controlled Senate approved legislation that would, over many years, permit many of them to become U.S. citizens. But the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has yet to act on the bill.  And House leaders say they have no plans to do so.

VOA National Correspondent Jim Malone has been reporting on U.S. immigration policies for many years. He says the differences between Democrats¹ and Republicans mean Congress is unlikely to approve a new immigration law anytime soon.

“We’re at the point now where it looks as though any efforts to enact² sweeping³ immigration reform -- where we talk about a path to citizenship⁴ for the 11 million or so estimated illegals in the country now -- that looks to be dead for this political year.”

Jim Malone says Tea Party supporters so strongly oppose letting illegal immigrants stay in this country that they will try to defeat anyone who disagrees. Recently, a little-known Tea Party candidate who opposes citizenship for illegal immigrants defeated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a primary election in Virginia. It was the first time in American history that a House majority leader had been defeated in a primary election.   

“You know when you see that, that makes a politician revert⁵ to, kinda one word, which is ‘fear,’ and it’s gonna cause them to really be very careful in what they support.”

1 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 enact   

vt.制定(法律)；上演，扮演

参考例句：

• The U.S. Congress has exclusive authority to enact federal legislation.美国国会是唯一有权颁布联邦法律的。
• For example,a country can enact laws and economic policies to attract foreign investment fairly quickly.例如一个国家可以很快颁布吸引外资的法令和经济政策。

3 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

4 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

5 revert   

v.恢复，复归，回到

参考例句：

• Let us revert to the earlier part of the chapter.让我们回到本章的前面部分。
• Shall we revert to the matter we talked about yesterday?我们接着昨天谈过的问题谈，好吗？