Obama to face critical immigration test early

Ianus · 12-31-2008, 07:23 PM

The Hill is reporting that the President elect will face immigration early in his tenure.

Quote:

President-elect Obama will likely make several tough decisions on immigration policy during his first few months in office, even if he postpones wide-ranging reform until later in his first term.

Obama will be under pressure from interest groups to review or drop several administrative policies aimed at curbing illegal immigration, which President Bush enacted after he failed in 2007 to persuade lawmakers to pass broad legislation that would have put millions of immigrants on a path to citizenship.

“I think immigration is shaping up to be an issue that he is going to face a consensus of pressure,” said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum. “There is no reason a number of administrative actions can’t be put into place in the first 100 days.”

Immigration was not one of the top policy objectives laid out by Obama during the campaign. But labor, business and immigrant-rights groups sense an opportunity to push their agenda after Hispanic voters broke in large numbers for Obama and helped him win four battleground states: Colorado, New Mexico, Florida and Nevada. Noorani wants to see legislative movement on an overhaul of the country’s immigration laws by Thanksgiving of 2009.

The Obama transition team did not respond to requests for comment.

I think Mr. Noorani is right on the timeline,anything after that could potentially be more difficult to pass legislatively.

geronimo610 · 12-31-2008, 08:28 PM

I agree, either Obama will bust open the can of worm and pass immigration bills or he'll never get around to opening it till second term.

Let's hope that he'll decide to do the right thing and push for dream. it's probably early next year or never.

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Obama to face critical immigration test early