PRESIDENT BARACK Obama plans to move this year to introduce comprehensive immigration reform, which could allow up to 12 million undocumented immigrants, including thousands of Irish citizens, to remain in the United States legally.
White House director of intergovernmental affairs Cecilia Munoz said the president would address the issue publicly next month and bring legislators and interest groups together this summer to discuss legislation.
“He intends to start the debate this year,” she told the New York Times.
Mr Obama promised during his election campaign to take action on immigration during his first year as president and expressed support for offering the 12 million undocumented a path to citizenship.
At a town hall meeting in Costa Mesa, California, last month, he acknowledged that the issue was an emotional one but insisted that the US had to protect its borders while addressing the plight of the undocumented.
“People who have been here for a long time and put down roots here have to have some mechanism over time to get out of the shadows, because if they stay in the shadows, in the underground economy, then they are oftentimes pitted against American workers,” he said.
“Since they can’t join a union, they can’t complain about minimum wages, et cetera, they end up being abused, and that depresses the wages of everybody, all Americans. So I don’t think that we can do this piecemeal.”
Two years ago, a bipartisan immigration reform bill, sponsored by senators Edward Kennedy and John McCain and backed by former president George Bush, was derailed by a passionate campaign against offering “amnesty” to the undocumented.
Anti-immigration campaigners said yesterday that the economic recession would make Americans even less sympathetic to the idea of giving 12 million immigrants the legal right to stay in the US.
Any new comprehensive immigration reform can expect little support from Republicans and some conservative Democrats could also come under pressure to oppose it.
Both parties are conscious, however, of the growing political power of Hispanic voters, two out of three of whom backed Mr Obama last November.
The White House will seek to avoid repeating the failure of the 2007 bill by stressing the importance of improved border enforcement and promising to prosecute employers who hire illegal immigrants. Mr Obama made clear last month that the undocumented cannot expect a simple amnesty but would have to fulfil a number of conditions before they can remain legally in the US.
“You have to say, look, you’ve broken the law; you didn’t come here the way you were supposed to. So this is not going to be a free ride. It’s not going to be some instant amnesty. What’s going to happen is you are going to pay a significant fine. You are going to learn English,” he said.
“You are going to go to the back of the line so that you don’t get ahead of somebody who was in Mexico City applying legally.”
Democratic strategists acknowledge that immigration is such a polarising issue that, by seeking to introduce legislation this year, Mr Obama risks undermining his major initiatives on other issues such as health care and education.
Mr Obama also said yesterday that the US government would purchase 17,600 new fuel-efficient vehicles from American automakers by June 1st.
Mr Obama said the vehicles, part of the US government fleet, would be purchased from General Motors, Chrysler and Ford, all of which had an existing contract with the federal government’s General Services Administration.