News
Obama to come good on immigration promises?
Many commentators had lent weight to the common belief that promises President Obama made to reform the US immigration system during his first year would become unworkable due to the need to focus efforts on the current recession.
However, remarks made during April, a recent meeting and announcements expected this month suggest President Obama is a man of his word.
In April, the Obama administration reiterated its intention to tackle comprehensive immigration reform this year, with statements of commitment to pre-election promises from Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid. These met with positive responses.
"We applaud the White House... for their commitment to passing comprehensive and meaningful immigration reform this year," Angela Kelley, director of the Immigration Policy Centre (IPC) in Washington, DC, said after the statements of intent from Obama's administration. "The United States, now more than ever, needs workable solutions that fix our broken immigration system, support our economic recovery, and allow honest and hardworking people to become lawful and contributing members of our society.
"Comprehensive reform will have to... reduce the enormous backlog of applications for family reunification, which impose lengthy waiting times on individuals abroad who are trying to rejoin their families in the United States...And it will have to consider appropriate legal limits on immigration that rise and fall with the labour needs of our economy, rather than arbitrary numerical caps that bear no relationship to labour demand."
In addition to the promising words from his team, the President himself is expected to make a major speech about immigration this month. Subsequently, it is thought that the Obama administration will work with congressional leaders to determine what shape immigration legislation will take before it is put to the vote in the autumn.
The first significant step on the road to President Obama's promised immigration reform came on 30th April, when the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security held a legislative hearing called 'Comprehensive Immigration Reform in 2009, Can We Do It and How?' The committee heard testimonies from several political heavyweights, including Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 too 2006, who commented: "The quantity of temporary H-1B visas issued each year is far too small to meet the need, especially in the near future as the economy copes with the forthcoming retirement wave of skilled baby boomers."
Following the hearing, on 2nd May, Senator Charles Schumer, the chairman of the Subcommittee stated: "I believe that this year, we can pass comprehensive, strong, fair immigration reform."
All that remains to be seen is where this road to comprehensive immigration reform will lead, and what shape the reform will ultimately take.
Further articles on American immigration and much more can be found in Emigrate magazine, available now from a selection of retailers across the country.
08 July 2009