Immigration Reform Not an Urgent Issue for President Obama

08 May 2010

In a speech last week at a Cinco de Mayo reception in the White House’s Rose Garden, President Obama implied that immigration reform is not a priority agenda item. When asked about the issue of immigration, the president said, “I want to begin work this year, and I want Democrats and Republicans to work with me – because we’ve got to stay true to who we are, a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.” The President, however, did not provide any feedback when asked about a timetable for new major immigration legislation.

When the time comes for immigration reform, the President will face an uphill battle. Republicans’ focus is solely on securing national borders, and Democrats are split about the urgency of meaningful reform. Two leading blue-dog democrats, Nebraska’s Ben Nelson and Arkansas’ Blanche Lincoln, have commented that they would like to see the issue of immigration reform put off until 2011.

Two weeks prior, a small group of Democrats in the Senate completed a new immigration reform proposal; however, the proposal is not in a form that is ready for a vote and a vote will not happen, according to one Democratic aide, until there is confirmation that Republican lawmakers will go along with the legislation.