At least it’s been recognized that immigrants are important to the economy. This is the most recent nuance added by President Barack Obama in his speech about the hype over immigration reform, an issue left unresolved by George W. Bush’s administration and which became a point of the previous Democratic presidential campaign.
No wonder there are those who think that President Obama has raised this issue again precisely to set up his candidacy for re-election in the midst of domestic chaos and the highly publicized and controversial operation that brought about Osama bin Laden’s end. Although the operation was met with some approval, the immigration discussion may be an attempt to divert attention from the disfavor the White House received after the assassination from those whose pity remained focused on the bombings in Libya and the killing of Gaddafi’s son and three grandchildren.
With this speech, President Obama is trying to secure the vote of the so-called “Hispanics.” Illegal immigrants — a majority of whom are Latinos — have waited decades for immigration reform while they seek to legalize their stay in the U.S. The question has re-entered the fray after Obama’s speech in Texas, which took place in a border town where hundreds of Latin Americans, particularly Mexicans overwhelmed by poverty, have lost their lives or been arrested in their desperate attempt to find better opportunities in the North.
The immigrants’ contribution to the economy, unrecognized in various projects for naturalization that have been passed by Congress, has been acknowledged by Obama for the first time as he placed importance on the national economy.
“Immigration reform is an economic imperative. And reform will also help to make America more competitive in the global economy,” he asserted as he called on the country to pursue “smart economic” reform.
This has also raised the discussion regarding low-paying jobs that immigrants will perform and that the average American does not want.
Just as a wave of protests brought together Anglo-Saxon unions, so illegal residents united as they have took note of the significance of their labor during the campaign against deportations and for documentation in 2006, when they refrained from work for a full day to demonstrate the importance of their labor in an imitation of the film “A Day Without a Mexican.”
At the time in 2006, then president, George W. Bush, proposed a bill to legalize those who had been in the country the longest and who had fulfilled many difficult requirements. The proposal seemed more like a strategy to divide a growing movement that was looking strong and was causing a shudder in American society.
However, not everyone believes in the sincerity of the call made by the current U.S. president. He not only moved the problem to the economic field, but he reintroduced this problem only after having satisfied racist Republican demands that called for reinforced border controls.
Barack Obama recognized illegal workers’ contribution only after adding 20,000 Border Patrol agents along with 1,200 National Guard soldiers and unequipped planes that have, in fact, been unable to stop the illegal arms trafficking that has been partly responsible for the increase in violence in Mexico. More than 80,000 immigrants were victims of the massive raids and deportations in the last two years.
Nor is what he proposes a panacea. For illegal immigrants, naturalization would mean admitting to having broken the law, recognizing the obligation to pay taxes and cover fines, and accepting the responsibility of learning English and submitting to a long and cumbersome criminal investigation.
Besides, few believe that immigration reform can even be reached with the president lacking a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives after last November’s resounding defeat.
Welcomed, despite everything, in sectors near illegal immigrants, the re-emergence of the discussion over immigration reform, which many consider to be a hint of Obama’s sights on re-election, has provoked the request for at least a timetable of this debate that will hopefully result in some long-awaited answers.
Cynical, corrupt, and racist. Obama learned importing, breeding, and naturalizing Hispanics to rig elections from other Chicago style politicians, like Rod Blagojevich and Dick Durbin. As indicated by his stonewalling on the New Black Panthers intimidation scandal, he is more than likely an anti-white racist eager to push whites into minority status.