Obama: Immigration Reform and the Drop in the Polls

These are the hardest days that an American leader has had during his first year in the White House. For the first time, Barack Obama has dropped below 50 percent in public opinion, according to CBS. Obama barely has a 46 percent approval rating.

Americans are furious at the president for job loss — unemployment is 10.2 percent, with another 17 percent who are underemployed — public spending, the fact that the United States is involved in two wars and that health care reform, while approved, is not yet a reality.

And above all, the biggest complaint against the Obama administration is the 700 billion dollars in economic stimulus given to the big banks, which are not only reporting a loss of 120 billion dollars, but have not used the money to stimulate the economy and ease the mortgage market as the administration hoped, and instead have used the funds to pay millions of dollars to the bankers themselves.

Meanwhile, the White House is fighting for a reform system that would permit the government to impose much greater regulations on the banks, with the goal of protecting the public, which the banks and the financial system are fighting tooth and nail.

The Promise of Immigration Reform

On December 15th, 2009, New York congressional Democrats Joseph Crowley, Nydia Velasquez and Anthony Weiner met with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus to accompany Congressman Luis Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois, in publicly presenting the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity (CIR ASAP) Act of 2009.

Although the bill has not yet been presented to Congress, it already has the support of 90 representatives, according to Congressman Gutierrez in a telephone conference with Queens journalists. New York Senator Charles Schumer has promised to present the reform before the Senate and has said he is very hopeful.

Historically, immigration has brought great benefits to the United States, a country built by immigrants. But today there is a steely opposition to undocumented immigrants and anything that has to do with them.

I do not have to travel very far to see what is happening. In Hungtinton [sic], the town where I live, there is a true pitched battle over undocumented immigrants. This has been a particularly cold winter, with temperatures that have ranged between 10 and 18 degrees below zero [centigrade].

On the outskirts of town a dozen undocumented immigrants are living in shacks made of sticks, cardboard and plastic. The Reverend Allan Ramirez, a pastor in the county, took pity on them last weekend when the authorities destroyed their huts and ordered them to leave the area.

Ramirez asked his congregation to help the illegals, and brought food, blankets and clothes for them, in the company of a group of charitable individuals. But another group of people insulted them and told them that they should leave together with the illegals.

In my neighborhood, the polemic is similar and has been repeated in my home. At home, my American in-laws of Italian and Russian descent have spouses from ten countries—from Japan to Ethiopia, as well as Ireland, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Guatemala—who practice Buddhism, Judaism, Catholicism and Islam.

Based on this, tolerance is the rule. But now with the economic crisis and the shortage of jobs everything has changed, and some of the youngsters — children of immigrants — shout that the illegals should leave, that they don’t want to see them. This is something that I never expected to hear from people so close to me whom I love so dearly.

I greatly fear that Obama will not be able to move immigration reform forward. I hope I am wrong. Eleven million undocumented immigrants deserve the opportunity to live legally in the land of Uncle Sam.