CNNPolitics.com
– CNN's Dan Lothian and Lisa Sylvester contributed to this report
WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Barack Obama is set to begin tackling the politically contentious issue of immigration Thursday, hosting a bipartisan group of congressmen at the White House for what the administration is calling the "launch of a policy conversation."
The meeting, which was delayed twice as economic issues took center stage, is designed to be an "honest discussion of issues where we can identify areas of agreement, and areas where we still have work to do," according to the White House.
The meeting comes less than a week after the president reiterated his commitment to passing comprehensive immigration reform that paves the way for citizenship for millions of undocumented workers.
On Friday, Obama told a Hispanic audience that the "fair, practical and promising way forward" is to strengthen border security, clarify the status of those who are here illegally, and require illegal immigrants to pay a penalty and taxes.
He also said undocumented workers should learn English and "go to the back of the line behind those who played by rules" in terms of applying for citizenship.
"The American people believe in immigration, but they also believe that we can't tolerate a situation where people come to the United States in violation of the law," Obama said in an address to the eighth annual National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in Washington.
"Nor can we tolerate employers who exploit undocumented workers in order to bring down wages," he added.
While immigration reform is a top priority for the president's first term, the nation's continuing economic woes top his list of domestic priorities.
"The president has consistently said that he wants to start the (immigration) discussion later this year because our immigration system is broken," White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said earlier this year. "But the economy comes first."
In downplaying the immigration issue, the White House may also be acknowledging the political complexity associated with the issue. Former President George W. Bush made comprehensive immigration reform a priority in his second term, but failed to win congressional approval.
Similarly, the Obama White House may not yet have the support it needs in Congress to pass a comprehensive reform measure.
"Currently, where we sit, the math makes that more difficult than the discussion," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday.
Several pro-immigration reform groups are nevertheless pushing the administration to make a stronger effort this year, in part because next year's mid-term elections could make major reform even more difficult.
Politically, Obama has been walking a fine line, trying to appease pro-amnesty Hispanic groups who backed him in the election while at the same time trying to win over broader public and congressional opinion by taking a tougher stance on enforcement.
Among other things, the administration earlier this year changed the focus of worksite enforcement raids away from targeting undocumented workers, and instead on employers who break immigration laws.
"The president has some time," said Mark Krikorian from the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that favors tighter immigration restrictions.
"I can't guess if he has six months or a year where he can keep kicking the can down the road before he pays a political price from one side or the another. But at some point his time runs out."
6.25.2009
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Don't anybody tell you that illegal immigrants are good for the economy? For businesses who harbor the cheap labor and make huge profits a guaranteed--YES! But certainly not for the US taxpayer, who supports the illegal worker? Summoning up the tax situation the Heritage foundation after complex analysis for 2004, conveys "that for low-skill immigrant households paid only $10,573 in taxes. Thus, low-skill immigrant households received nearly three dollars in benefits and services for EACH DOLLAR in taxes paid. The federal government operates over 60 means-tested aid programs. The largest of these are Medicaid; the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC); food stamps; Supplemental Security Income (SSI); Section 8 housing; public housing; Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF); the school lunch and breakfast programs; the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) nutrition program; and the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG).
ReplyDeleteMany means-tested programs, such as SSI and the EITC, provide cash to recipients. Others, such as public housing or SSBG, pay for services that are provided to recipients." Another fallacy is that illegal immigrants cannot apply for any federal benefits, but even those programs have been abused with fraudulent documents.
Then their is the classic illegal female who slips past the undermanned border patrols, pregnant with child under the current misguided law, becomes an instant burden on the US taxpayer. Quoted as, " Illegal immigrant households do contain some 3 million children who were born inside the U.S. to illegal immigrant parents. These children are U.S. citizens and are eligible for, and do receive, means-tested welfare of every category." Assuming all Americans, even liberals and so called progressives want to know more, they should venture to the non-profit organization The Heritage Foundation under the headline, "
The Fiscal Cost of Low-Skill Immigrants to the U.S. Taxpayer by Robert E. Rector and Christine Kim Verify the extraction tool from the workplace of foreign labor and the 8th Amnesty is enacted against the peoples wishes, the next irreversible ultimate problem is OVERPOPULATION. Another headline that must interest the avid reader from the same source AMNESTY WILL COST US TAXPAXPAYERS $2.6 TRILLION DOLLARS. If E-ill produce is OVERPOPULATION. Steve Reiss, points a disturbing fact, not disclosed by our government. If the current immigration bill being debated by congress passes it will be the 8th AMNESTY in 21 years. NUMBERSUSA has answers.
MAYBE THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT INVASION DOESN'T GET YOU ON THE PHONE. BUT A FUTURE OF OVERPOPULATION SHOULD?
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Whether or not amnesty will cost $2.6 trillion, it is objective fact that the Iraq war accomplished nothing and cost $3 trillion even by conservative estimates. I was one of the ones who opposed the war for just about every possible reason: humanitarian, economic, political, social, spiritual, and philosophical, but my views were crushed by the political juggernaut of fear. If we as a nation bore this cost to accomplish nothing except to do harm, to destroy the political goodwill we enjoyed as a country, to send thousands home in a box or dismembered or psychologically traumatized by the sheer horror of what we were doing, what possible reason do we have as a nation to oppose a policy that would create a pathway to a better life for so many individuals and families? There can be nothing more patriotic, democratic and free than massive reform of US immigation policies and a pathway to amnesty for people here to contribute.
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