According to an article on npr.com: “More Hispanics than ever voted, and they voted 2-to-1 for Obama over McCain. Sharry says Latino support was decisive in helping deliver the swing states of Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Florida. And polls show it was the immigration issue specifically some in the Republican Party who demonized illegal immigrants that helped drive Latinos to the Democrats.”
Although it may not the best timing to enact Comprehensive Immigration Reform, President Obama will need to do something to address the issue. I still think that it could be a hot-button political issue if the anti-immigrants have nothing more important to worry about (such as their retirement funds disappearing and their houses being foreclosed upon). This bodes well for the argument that the issue should be addressed sooner rather than later as we are now as far from the next election as we will ever be.
Another problem with a mass earned legalization in these times of relatively high unemployment is that if it is based on a test of the U.S. labor market, many qualified U.S. applicants may apply or layoffs may occur for the positions – which would lead to Labor Certifications failing. Congress would have to probably need to enact a “grandfathering” provision as they did with 245(i) that will preserve the rights of the undocumeted who try to file within the limited time frame to re-file at a later time and benefit from the protections of the law . If not, literally millions of individuals would be unable to legalize and the problems associated with the lare numbers of undocumented individuals in this country will not be resolved.
Ideally, the economy will improve and the unemployment rate will go down within the first few months of an Obama administration and CIR will be enacted. This nation, and many would argue, the world, is dealing with economic issues the likes of which most of us have never experienced. I don’t envy the challenges the new administration will face.
Please visit our law firm’s new website www.immigrantconnect.com.
