Obama pivots to immigration

January 27, 2013 6:34 pm - Financial Times

Obama pivots to immigration

By Geoff Dyer in Washington

Immigration reform will take centre stage this week with President Barack Obama giving a major policy speech to relaunch his push for reform while a bipartisan group of senators is also expected to release its own ideas for new legislation.

Amid the fiercely partisan discussions over fiscal issues that have dominated Washington since the election, there are indications of solid cross-party support for some form of immigration reform, with several leading Republicans urging the party to back significant changes.

The centrepiece of any new legislation is likely to be the establishment of a mechanism for the estimated 11m illegal immigrants currently in the US to obtain legal status.

However, previous reform efforts have foundered despite enjoying strong support, and the tense atmosphere between the White House and some congressional Republicans could yet present an insurmountable obstacle.

Mr Obama, who pledged to introduce new legislation during the election campaign, will give a speech on immigration reform on Tuesday in Las Vegas, the first major policy address of his second term.

Bob Menendez, the New Jersey senator who met the president on Friday to discuss the issue, said Mr Obama had made it clear that it was “a top legislative priority for him in this session of the Congress” and that creating a pathway to “earned legalisation” would be a central part of any immigration reform bill.

Mr Menendez is part of a group of six senators from both parties expected this week to introduce their own set of ideas for what a reform package will contain. On the Republican side, some of the groundwork has already been laid by Florida senator Marco Rubio.

“There’s a new appreciation on both sides of the aisle including, maybe more importantly on the Republican side of the aisle, that we have to enact comprehensive immigration reform,” John McCain, another of the Republican senators in the bipartisan group, said on ABC’s This Week.

Mr McCain added: “Look at the last election. We are losing dramatically the Hispanic vote, which we think should be ours, for a variety of reasons, and we’ve got to understand that.”

One of the dilemmas for the White House is that although Mr Obama has promised to push new legislation, the chances of it being passed by Congress will be reduced if he is too closely associated with the proposals.

In an interview with The New Republic, Mr Obama said he still believed there was some prospect of bipartisan compromise on key issues over the next year. “I’ve always believed that there are a bunch of Republicans of goodwill who would rather get something done than suffer through the sort of nasty atmosphere that prevails in Washington right now. It’s not a fun time to be a member of Congress,” he said.