President Obama tells Mexico he will begin seeking immigration reform later this year
Monday, August 10, 2009
By Carl Braun
Examiner.com
President Obama, Felipe Calderon & Stephen Harper
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Guadalajara, Mexico---US President Barak Obama began a two day summit here with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Discussed were efforts to combat the H1N1 swine flu epidemic, trade and the coup in Honduras. What generated the most interest however was Obama promising to deliver an immigration reform package early next year.
"We have a broken immigration system," he said. "Nobody denies it. Continuing on the current path means tensions with Mexico, danger for those trying to cross into the United States illegally, unfairness for those trying to immigrate legally, exploitation by unscrupulous employers, the depression of U.S. wages and other ills," Obama added.
"It's not fair, and it's not right, and we're going to change it, {It is} "important for us to sequence these big initiatives in way that they don't all crash at the same time," he said. Obama also indicated that House Democrats and Republicans have already begun the immigration reform discussion but also mentioned that Healthcare and Financial System reform will take priority.
"I anticipate before the year is out we will have draft legislation along with sponsors in the House and Senate ready to move this forward," Obama said, acknowledging that "this is going to be difficult." A core part of his plan would be to provide illegal immigrants a way "to achieve a pathway to citizenship so they don't have to live in the shadows. I'm confident we can get it done," he noted
Critics believe any plan forthcoming form the Obama administration would amount to nothing less than "amnesty" for lawbreakers. If President Obama thinks getting his healthcare package through Congress is tough, he has no idea what he is in for by allowing "Amnesty" to rear its ugly head once again. He is reportedly softening up the opposition by implementing new policies within the Department Homeland Security aimed at limiting law enforcement's ability to arrest illegal border crossers. A failure to get Universal Healthcare passed will likely stall the immigration debate even further.
Carl Braun is an analyst for the Homeland Security Policy Institute Group and he's logged 5,000-plus hours on the border. He has written several books including his most recent on Border Insecurity, “Above All Else”
. Contact Carl at Carl.Braun@BPAUX.org.
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