As President Obama yesterday outlined his proposals for immigration reform and praised a bipartisan group of senators for their plan, there was growing conviction among other lawmakers that they will fight any efforts to pass major reform legislation — leading to hope and also skepticism down in Mexico that anything will change.
The president’s plans, outlined in a speech at a high school in Nevada, were not a surprise, containing most of the elements of a proposal he issued last year. They included a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, tightening security on borders, cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants and temporarily issuing more visas to clear the overwhelming backlog of people applying for legal status in the country.
“Most Americans agree that it’s time to fix a system that’s been broken for way too long,” Obama said to an audience composed of about 2,000 high school students, many of them Hispanic.
But one of the features of the plan by the bipartisan group of senators was that the path to citizenship wouldn’t be triggered until the administration tightened border security.
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, a member of the bipartisan group, told The New York Times he was “concerned by the president’s unwillingness to accept significant enforcement triggers before current undocumented immigrants can apply for a green card.”
Read the full story on Atlanta Black Star – https://atlantablackstar.com/2013/01/30/as-obama-reveals-immigration-plans-opponents-gear-up-for-fight/
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