Immigration Law

Obama Pledges to Work on Immigration

By Robert Kraft

As reported by the Dallas Morning News, President Barack Obama renewed his campaign promise to tackle the immigration system in a meeting with Hispanic lawmakers Wednesday. The current economic crisis has sidetracked immigration reform so far, but some of us are optimistic that it will be addressed in the near future. Here are excerpts from the story:

Obama also told the lawmakers that he will travel next month to Mexico to discuss immigration and escalating violence from drug cartels with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, White House officials said.

During the campaign, Obama supported a comprehensive overhaul of immigration policy, including creation of a possible path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who are otherwise law-abiding.

Obama has yet to tackle the issue, as his administration has grappled with the economic crisis and an increasingly crowded agenda in his two months in office.

But immigration legislation is on the agenda and moving forward, said Hispanic lawmakers who attended the West Wing meeting. The caucus consists of Democrats and one independent.

Obama told the group that he will work on immigration in a method similar to other major policy initiatives. There will be a public forum on immigration, possibly within the next two months, to unveil key principles of overhaul legislation.

Full post as published by Immigration Law Answers Blog on March 19, 2009 (boomark / email).