President Obama Meets to Determine Immigration Reforms
Posted on | June 26, 2009 | No Comments
The President is meeting today June 26th with Congressional Leaders to get Immigration Reforms on his agenda for later this year. Aides to Mr. Obama say he does not intend to get out in front of any proposal until there is a strong bipartisan commitment to pass it. That stance has the potential to paralyze the process, since lawmakers are looking to him to use his bully pulpit, and high approval ratings, to help them fend off any political backlash among their constituents.
“His position is very clear: he thinks we need comprehensive immigration reform,” David Axelrod, a senior adviser to the president, said in an interview. “But that’s not something that’s going to happen simply on his volition.” In recent days, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, has said he believes there are enough votes to pass a comprehensive bill this year.
But Republicans have refused to put their political capital at risk without some assurances that Mr. Obama will spend some of his own.Aides to Mr. Obama say he does not intend to get out in front of any proposal until there is a strong bipartisan commitment to pass it.If the outlook is unclear in the Senate, it is even more so in the House, where at least 40 Democrats represent conservative districts.
John T. Morton, assistant secretary of homeland security, talked about some of those changes, including new guidelines that make employers, rather than workers, the target of workplace raids, as well as expanded humanitarian-release rules to keep parents detained on immigration charges from being separated from small children. Immigration advocates say that administrative changes are not enough and that Hispanics, a crucial voting bloc, are holding Mr. Obama to his commitment to winning a comprehensive overhaul.
Stay tuned to this site for weekly updates on this important issue. John Lee Carrico.
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