Obama, on the Counterattack

The U.S. president takes up immigration reform on the wings of his regained popularity.

After the capture and death of Bin Laden, Obama has retaken the political initiative and recovered the reformist agenda that he possessed when he first arrived at the White House. Using the new margin of confidence that the polls offer, on Tuesday he journeyed to El Paso, on the border with Mexico, one of the areas of the country with the greatest migration pressure. There he spoke openly about the need to reform laws that affect immigration and to regularize foreigners that reside illegally in the United States, the majority of them of Hispanic origin. If successful, the measure would affect some 11 million people.

This is Obama’s second attempt to bring forward an initiative included in his agenda as a candidate; the first took place shortly after his victory, and it was unsuccessful despite the fact that the Democrats had the majority in Congress. That is not the case today, so it is possible that immigration reform may return to run aground. But Obama needed to connect with that substantial part of his electorate that represents Hispanics. The initiative, however, does not follow a simple electoral calculation.

According to surveys, Americans now appear more sensitive to reform than the first time that Obama tried it. As with other transcendental occasions, the president made an effort in El Paso to present the regularization of foreigners, not as an untimely novelty, but rather as an extension of the best tradition of his country. He referred to America as a nation of immigrants and highlighted the importance of incorporating them as citizens so that, just like in the past, they can develop their abilities in the best conditions.

The immigration reform that Obama has undertaken contrasts with the counter-reform, which follows the initiatives of Berlusconi and Sarkozy in response to the crises unleashed by the arrival of the displaced Lampedusa from Libya, that was announced yesterday by the Conservative government of Denmark, after reaching an agreement with the extreme right. It is the first time that a European partner unilaterally suspended the Schengen Treaty, and it looks like it will not be the last.

Obama has not given into the most radical wing of Republicans. The Danish government, like other European ones, is doing it with the extreme right. Time will tell what strategy will show to be most effective in combating the growing populist and xenophobic impulses.