Obama to Push Immigration Reform Bill Despite Risks

[jefferson_dem]

Obama to Push Immigration Reform Bill Despite Risks
By JULIA PRESTON

While acknowledging that the recession makes the political battle more difficult, President Obama plans to begin addressing the country’s immigration system this year, including looking for a path for illegal immigrants to become legal, a senior administration official said on Wednesday.

Mr. Obama will frame the new effort — likely to rouse passions on all sides of the highly divisive issue — as “policy reform that controls immigration and makes it an orderly system,” said the official, Cecilia Muñoz, deputy assistant to the president and director of intergovernmental affairs in the White House.

Mr. Obama plans to speak publicly about the issue in May, administration officials said, and over the summer he will convene working groups, including lawmakers from both parties and a range of immigration groups, to begin discussing possible legislation for as early as this fall.

Some White House officials said that immigration would not take precedence over the health care and energy proposals that Mr. Obama has identified as priorities. But the timetable is consistent with pledges Mr. Obama made to Hispanic groups in last year’s campaign.

He said then that comprehensive immigration legislation, including a plan to make legal status possible for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, would be a priority in his first year in office. Latino voters turned out strongly for Mr. Obama in the election.

“He intends to start the debate this year,” Ms. Muñoz said.

But with the economy seriously ailing, advocates on different sides of the debate said that immigration could become a polarizing issue for Mr. Obama in a year when he has many other major battles to fight.

Opponents, mainly Republicans, say they will seek to mobilize popular outrage against any effort to legalize unauthorized immigrant workers while so many Americans are out of jobs.

<SNIP>

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/us/politics/09immig.html?_r=1&hp?xid=rss-page&pagewanted=print

[Vinca]

1. OMG, this is going to send the wingnuts over a cliff. I can't wait!

:rofl:

[underpants]

2. Three points

1. The Repubicans clearly haven't learned anything from stirring this up and having it come back in their faces by having the "Minutemen" do what no one expected which was to actually do something. The Republicans aren't used to their people actually doing anything. They killed themselves in the last two elections by making all Latinos kissing cousins of terrorists.

2.The problem is (sorry for dehumanizing it like this) an inventory problem. We don't know WHO is in this country. There is no real concern with potentially contagious disease as the right tried timidly to insert into the debate. There is also no real national security problem-terrorists don't trudge through the desert they fly into LaGuardia. What we need is a system of reporting for those who do want to enter the country and a technological upgrade would go a long way in this area (they are still working with paper files).

3. the real threat here (that the opponents don't want to mention) is that if the "illegals" have a legal standing and can "get out of the shadows" they may just organize as a labor force having dramatic influence on the economy AND exposing much of the non-executive class as having bought into a lie making them look like fools.

For more information see
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/underpants/27

[denem]

3. The game plan of breaking the GOP

into the party of white southern males continues. GOP reps who supported reform in the past will back off. GOP hawks will go over the top.

In 2008, the DNC run ads in Spanish, with clips from Rush, ending with: 'They're not like us, they don't like us.' Expect a wealth of new material next round.

John McCain: "You people!" Indeed.

[underpants]

4. Despite the deep recession, there is no evidence of any wholesale exodus of illegal immigrant worker

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1811660,00.html
Wednesday, Jun. 04, 2008
A Pew Hispanic Center report released on Wednesday morning indicates for the first time that the sinking economy has caught up with the Hispanic workforce with a vengeance. The main culprit, says report author Rakesh Kochhar, is job loss in the Latino-heavy construction sector.

First, the numbers: the Hispanic jobless rate — immigrant and native-born alike — climbed to 6.5% in the first quarter of '08 (non-Hispanics are at 4.7%). Compare that to late 2006, when Hispanic unemployment rates got closer than ever before to non-Hispanic rates, at 4.9% to 4.4%. Latinos have lost a lot of ground, particularly the immigrants among them. Their immigrant unemployment rate is 7.5% now; for those who have arrived since 2000, it's 9.3%.

The report doesn't distinguish between illegal and legal immigrants, but it's known that illegal workers are overrepresented in construction, the industry that has taken the the biggest lumps. Over 220,000 Hispanic immigrants lost construction jobs in the last year. Some of those workers found jobs in the service sector or in health care, but overall, it's a grim picture. "We've been hearing about construction hitting the skids for some time," says Kochhar. "But it wasn't really until the second quarter of 2007 that the workforce was affected. It was delayed for them, but now it's coming hard and fast."

So are undocumented workers headed home? Perhaps — though it's not that simple. In a naturally free labor market, high unemployment would prod many immigrants to just pack themselves up and go back home. This is called "self-deportation," the Holy Grail of everyone from hardhearted nativists to compassionate immigration reformers. It avoids the unseemly mess of raids and detention centers. It's more humane, it's cheaper, it's more effective.

[Romulox]

5. This is the same thing W. pushed back in 07. Massive unemployment isn't going to make it easier

to pass this time.

"Opponents, mainly Republicans"

Guess again. Many, many, many working Americans oppose this too. :hi:

[denem]

6. No but framing the GOP as anti-hispanic will be a LOT easier,

win or fail. More DNC Spanish ads in 2010, with some choice GOP quotes.

[Romulox]

7. As I just mentioned, it ain't just Republicans who are against Amnesty. nt

[earthside]

8. Including this progressive environmentalist.

Illegal immigration as a part the rising U.S. population should be of great concern to everyone one because of global climate change.

The last thing that this planet needs is more people living with the carbon footprint of the average American.

Besides there is a reason that ex-Bush and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce support "immigration reform" that effectively opens the southern border -- low, cheap, exploitable, union-busting labor.

[denem]

9. But who do you think politically will carry the can?

= !Democrats

[asphalt.jungle]

10. "The last thing that this planet needs is more people ..."

they are already here and not going anywhere. what is your suggestion for the 12 million undocumented living and working here? immigration reform won't come without tighter border controls. the status quo isn't working from an environmental perspective.

[Romulox]

11. Right. This is merely ANOTHER bullet point on the cheap labor agenda. nt

[AzDar]

12. A waste of political capital.

Jeezus.

[treestar]

13. The POTUS sure has gumption ,first Israel and now this

And he's right - it will help the economy - the average American doesn't get it or understand it, having a shallow view of the economy - but he can get it through and it will be for their own good.