Will Obama Make Good on His Promise to Tackle Immigration Reform?

by Alex DiBranco · 2010-01-04 15:07:00 UTC
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As the son of an immigrant himself, Barack Obama's campaign for president caused a lot of excitement -- as did his vow to address America's broken immigration policy in his first year in office, a move that helped him secure 67% of the Latino vote

Well, now he's got the job. And given that inauguration day was January 20th, 2009, unless he's about to pull a comprehensive immigration reform rabbit out of his hat in the next two weeks, it seems that he's going to miss the 365 day mark. But a recent LA Times article reports that Obama's battle for immigration reform has only been delayed, not abandone

The White House is rattling its spears for a two-track approach to immigration reform: looking like a tough guy by beefing up border security, in the hope that this will distract Republicans from the provisions for a citizen path for undocumented immigrants. Unfortunately, this approach has crashed and burned in the past. Republicans have proved big on allowing guest workers at big business's beck and call, not so much having those "guests" stay for dinner -- or citizenship.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) wants to help Obama keep his delayed promise: in December, he introduced a measure for comprehensive immigration reform, saying "we have brought him the road to success here with this bill." Gutierrez calls the CIR ASAP act "pro-family, pro-jobs and pro security." Those are everybody's favorite things right?

Obama needs to put on some sturdy shoes and start walking that road, no matter what elephants try to block the way.

Photo courtesy of MikeWebkist's Flickr photostream.

Alex DiBranco is a Change.org Editor who has worked for the Nation, Political Research Associates, and the Center for American Progress. She is now based in New York City.
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