The President is ready to accept a piecemeal approach to passing immigration reform if the GOP is ready to let all pieces of the bill pass through. In an interview with Wall Street Journal Business Leaders forum, he made it clear that he preferred the Senate version of the bill; however, he is ready to support the piecemeal approach advocated by the Republican Leaders in the house.
Obama made it clear that as long as the core values are delivered, he doesn’t care if the Republicans chop the bill into pieces. However, he asserted that he didn’t want the easy parts such as agricultural jobs pass while leaving behind other tougher issues.
The Executives at Wall Street Journal CEO Council considered immigration reform their top priority believing it would provide an instant impetus to the US economy. Obama believes the Congress would pass the bill by the end of the year.
Shortly after the President finished the address, Rep. Paul Ryan said the bill would not get done this year as there wasn’t enough time to debate upon it. He further added that it was irresponsible to rush into the bill just because it is the end of the calendar year.
Ryan gave a ray of hope to Democrats when he said that some GOP House members supported the pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented. However, he said the House wanted to intentionally make the pathway to citizenship tougher and longer to encourage future immigrants to immigrate legally. The Senate Bill provides a 13 year pathway to citizenship.
The House GOP is reluctant to take up the piecemeal approach as of now as they feel that the piecemeal approach would lose out to the Senate Bill in the House-Senate conference committee to resolve bill disagreements.
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According to Michelangelo Landgrave of policymic, although, the immigration reform is dead, there is still a solution to the problem of legalizing the undocumented. The solution includes the expansion of North American Trade Agreement to include the labor market. If this system is implemented, citizens of any nation involved in the trade agreement would get to travel freely, work and live in the US.
Under the NAFTA provisions, individuals who are registered workers can also become naturalized US citizens. This way immigrants a fiscal cost to the US welfare system would also not arise. Such individuals would also need to pay their own private health insurance. It would also prevent mass immigration to the US.
Immigrants in the US are mostly from Latin American countries including Mexico. Since, these individuals would retain their home citizenship the pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented would not arise. Seasonal farm workers would be able to travel easily back to their home country after the season ends. This way the agricultural labor shortage too would be addressed. Similar would be the case for other workers. Employers too would have access to more labor.
There are similar agreements elsewhere in the world such as the Schengen Area covering Europe, the common travel area in the UK and Ireland and many Central American countries. There would be major adjustments needed in this plan; however, such examples prove this can work if implemented well.
A policy directive was issued Friday stating that some undocumented relatives of U.S. service members can now secure legal status. This nine page long memorandum is followed by the series of changes in the nation’s broken immigration system made by President Obama since he took office. The department already had the power to stop such deportations; however, the latest memo defines its scope and functions.
USCIS officials will now have the power to parole in place immigrant parents, spouses and children of the current U.S. service members, veterans and reservists. According to the change, these individuals can now apply to secure legal status in the United States.
The President is now making minor changes to the broken immigration system since the hopes of overhauling the immigration law are non-existent this year. As a presidential candidate, Obama had pledged twice to pass immigration reforms. He has repeatedly announced that immigration reform is his top priority.
The President had asked the USCIS to deport serious criminal offenders and at the same time introduced the DACA program for kids brought into U.S. illegally and grew up here. The Democrat controlled Senate passed the immigration reform bill which the GOP controlled House is not ready to take up for a vote. House GOP has criticized the administrative changes.
All the White House can now do is introduce minor administrative changes in the immigration policies.
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The Comprehensive Immigration Reform is dead this year. House speaker John Boehner clearly stated this Wednesday that the House will not negotiate with the Senate to solve differences between the Senate Bill and the House Bill.
John Boehner does not intend to go for conference on this issue. In addition, the conservatives are afraid of adopting the piecemeal approach towards immigration reform fearing that a House-Senate conference committee would demand a compromise where the Senate bill might win.
The House piecemeal immigration bills mostly will deal with border security and other issues but not a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented. The Democrats are pushing for immigration reform while the Republicans are not in the mood to embrace the idea at all.
Boehner earlier said that the House won’t take the Senate immigration bill up for a vote which has support in the House with limited GOP support. The support of majority of House Republicans is needed for any bill to pass including one from the House-Senate conference committee. However, his Wednesday’s statement has made it clear that the GOP is not ready to even consider this step let alone pass it in the House.
Playing the cards carefully, the White House press secretary Jay Carney welcomed the GOP’s step to devise their own version of immigration reform. The White House has been urging Boehner to let the House process with its own version of comprehensive immigration reform.
Despite being sidelined by issues such as Syria, Obamacare and Budget problems, President Obama has been pushing for immigration reform. The President has already net with business and religious leaders to push for it.
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