News Update - February 22, 2010Political Calculus is Why President Obama Should Make a Massive Move Towards CIRThe White House announced two weeks ago that the President remains committed to passing a comprehensive bill on immigration which would include resolving the statuses of more than 10 million undocumented immigrants, increase border enforcement, and crack down on employers exploiting undocumented workers. However, there is in many corners the growing belief that this is lip service in light of his weak position and other priorities, and only thrown out to the public to continue the support of Hispanics and other minorities who came out strongly for his election and would prove instrumental in the upcoming November midterm elections. If such is the thinking of the Administration, it should be re-evaluated in favor of a massive legislative move towards Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR). In terms of political calculus, a tepid effort by the White House will be seen as betrayal by the groups to whom the immigration issue is key. They would not be tempted to the polls in November. A massive effort on the other hand would energize these groups and put the Republicans in the unenviable position of either cooperating or further gaining the long term distrust of these groups who are proving to be important players in elections. It is becoming clear that the immigration issue means much more to these groups than to Americans, the majority of who are for immigration reform anyway. The President should remember that in the past election, Hispanics favored him by 67% to 31% over Mr. McCain, and Asians by 62% to 35%. They are waiting to hear more from him than lip service.† The author is a 26+ year practitioner of immigration law based in New York City. He was awarded the Sidney A. Levine prize for best legal writing at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1977 and has written extensively on immigration over the past years for the ethnic newspapers, World Journal, Sing Tao, Pakistan Calling, Muhasha and OCS. He has testified as an expert on immigration in civil court proceedings and was recognized by the Taiwan government in 1985 for his work protecting human rights. His article, "The Bush Temporary Worker Proposal and Comparative Pending Legislation: an Analysis" was Interpreter Releases' cover display article at the American Immigration Lawyers Association annual conference in 2004, and his victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case of first impression nationwide, Firstland International v. INS, successfully challenged INS' policy of over 40 years of revoking approved immigrant visa petitions under a nebulous standard of proof. Its value as precedent, however, was short-lived as it was specifically targeted by the Administration in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004. ‡ This article © 2010 Alan Lee, Esq.
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Copyright © 2003-2012 Alan Lee,
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