Obama faces test over immigration

Ianus · Ianus

I wonder if Obama & Democrats will have no choice but to place immigration in their first 100 days since this article mentions E-verify will expire sometime in March.

Quote:

Critics of such policies hope Mr Obama takes swift action to end them, particularly the raids, which they blame for demonising illegal immigrants and fuelling a growing xenophobia.

And they take comfort in the words of Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, who said last month there are plans to move ahead with comprehensive reform in the next session of Congress.

“We’ll do that,” he said.

Still, many believe the more likely scenario is that the new president will approach the subject carefully, trying at once to appease cash-strapped Americans worried about the economic impact of amnesty and the civil rights groups who have long fought for it.

Experts said his first real test will come in March, when Congress decides whether to reauthorise funding for a controversial programme known as “E-verify”, which checks the legal status of new recruits and is used by about 80,000 companies on a voluntary basis.

The programme is scheduled to become mandatory for federal contractors in 2009, a point of contention between groups who support it and civil right groups who say the system is error-prone.

Mr Obama supports the programme, but has also called for improved accuracy.
Joseph Chamie, the director of research for the Center for Migration Studies in New York, said the E-verify battle is just one in a long line of immigration policy skirmishes that Mr Obama will inherit as president.

“This is not a short-term issue,” he said. “It is not going to be over tomorrow morning.”

lilbawler2001 · lilbawler2001

Quote:

A post-election poll conducted on Nov 5 and Nov 6 by Zogby International showed that 57 per cent of voters believe offering amnesty to illegal immigrants would harm American workers and put a strain on the nation’s resources.
The poll, commissioned by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington-based lobbying group that opposes amnesty and supports tighter control of immigration, reinforces a widespread sentiment that illegal workers steal jobs from ordinary Americans, drive wages lower and drain social services.

Such views conflict with those of many special-interest groups, who contend that foreign labourers take on jobs that Americans themselves are unwilling to. The majority views are also at odds with the interests of businesses that benefit from cheap labour.

The article lost me when they quoted an anti-immigrant group's poll.

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Obama faces test over immigration