The Nation's Plunging Economy and Comprehensive Immigration Reform in 2009

Ianus · 02-11-2009, 07:45 PM

This article mentions what the Obama administration is currently doing on immigration & also what possible action he might take.

Quote:

For now, Obama has kept mum on the matter, repeating on his transition Web site his pledge for “comprehensive immigration reform” and resurrecting an effort involving a multi-pronged approach to fix the immigration problem that failed to pass in Congress the past two years. Even Obama's “immigration transition team” — two law professors, Tino Cuéllar of Stanford University and Georgetown's Alexander Aleinikoff — is keeping quiet. Neither replied to repeated requests for an interview for this article.

Immigrant advocates who have met with them said Obama's advisers are not responding to media inquiries because they're still in fact-gathering mode, meeting with activists and politicians to eventually come up with a detailed strategy.

“They told us they're just listening and taking recommendations for now,” said Oscar Chacón, whose National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities drew 15 immigrant advocacy group leaders from across the country for a meeting Wednesday with Cuéllar and other Obama advisers. Though he was not promised any commitments, Chacón — a Salvadoran who entered the country illegally in 1980 but later gained U.S. citizenship — said he remains confident that immigration reform will be enacted because the advisers agree it's an issue linked to other must-fix problems....

..........Beck's argument, particularly invoking American workers as a case against unauthorized immigrants, will become the revamped restrictionist mantra, noted a veteran observer of national immigration politics.

Their focus will change from beating the drum of illegality to protecting the average American worker from competing for jobs with unauthorized immigrants, said Demetrios Papademetriou, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based nonpartisan think tank. Even if he still wanted an all-inclusive massive overhaul, the economic climate will not allow it, and Obama will likely back two smaller measures with the caveat of keeping his promise to advocates and return later to seek bigger changes, he said.

These narrower proposals could include two bills with bipartisan support that have lingered for years without approval: The DREAM Act, giving as many as 1 million students who are in the country illegally a chance to go to college or join the military and eventually gain permanent residency, and AGJOBS, a bill creating a new temporary agricultural worker program.

“There's no way he's going to be able to deliver on a comprehensive package,” Papademetriou said. “At best, he'll try for a down payment to assure people he's doing his best under current circumstances.”