Hispanic immigration reform on top, again

Obama, Congress flirt with tackling immigration reform
By Frank Davies, Mercury News Washington Bureau, 06/14/2009

WASHINGTON — Immigration reform, an intractable issue that has frustrated presidents and Congress for years, is making a comeback as a hot topic here. Whether it makes it into legislation is another matter.

The Obama administration and Congress already have an ambitious to-do list for the next few months, including health care reform, climate change legislation and a Supreme Court confirmation.

But Obama plans to take time from those priorities this month to meet with groups advocating for changes in the immigration system, including a path to legal status for an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. He will be joined by key members of Congress who will handle the issue.

The meeting was supposed to occur Wednesday, but has been postponed because White House officials are scrambling to get a war spending bill through Congress. Immigration advocates Friday were disappointed at the delay, but said they still expect Obama to commit to a major push on the thorny immigration issue.

"So far there's been a serious flirtation but not a marriage proposal," said Angela Kelley, vice president at the Center for American Progress, a think tank closely aligned with Democrats.

Obama won overwhelming Latino support in the 2008 election, in part because he promised to push for an immigration overhaul that would include a legalization plan. Now it's time to deliver, said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, the San Jose Democrat who chairs the immigration subcommittee in the House.

"He has to do more than say, 'I'm for it.' It's essential for him to put some personal effort into this," said Lofgren, who will attend the White House meeting.

If nothing gets done on immigration reform this year, "Latino voters will blame him, because the president created the expectation we will see results," she added.

Advocates for various reforms say they are optimistic because of several factors, including Obama's victory and the disarray among Republicans, who worry that they will lose Latino voters for years if they resist changes.

"We sure blew it the last time on immigration reform," Ed Gillespie, former Republican National Committee chairman, told a tech group last week. If Congress takes up the issue in a serious way this year, "that would be an opportunity to make up some lost ground."

Because of the lack of jobs and tighter enforcement, the flow of illegal immigrants has slowed dramatically, U.S. and Mexican officials say. The undocumented immigrant population has not grown since 2006, according to the Pew Hispanic Survey and Doris Meissner, a former top immigration official with the Migration Policy Institute.

That may have taken some heat out of the issue. In a January survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 63 percent of the public — 5 percent higher than in 2007 — favored "providing a way for illegal immigrants already in the U.S. to gain legal citizenship."

A broad coalition of business, labor, church and immigrant groups is pushing hard to get the attention of Congress, as is the Center for American Progress, headed by Obama adviser John Podesta.

Advocates are making an economic pitch that bringing undocumented workers "out of the shadows" and requiring them to learn English and pay fees and fines to gain legal status will add to the rolls of taxpayers. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that legalization would increase net revenue by $65 billion over 10 years.

Opponents of immigration dispute those arguments, maintaining that the economy can't sustain large numbers of illegal immigrants.

"With the state of the economy it's just ridiculous to hear some employers say they still need foreign labor," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which seeks to limit immigration.

He predicts more "attrition through enforcement," with a growing number of undocumented workers returning to Latin American because of a lack of U.S. jobs and tougher enforcement.

Many in Congress are reluctant to tackle the issue again after three years of failure and debates that turned angry and emotional. In 2006, when thousands of immigrant advocates held street rallies from San Jose to Boston, the Senate passed a comprehensive bill, only to see it die in the House.

The Senate tried again in 2007, but the effort fizzled, and in 2008 no one in Congress wanted to take up the issue during an election year. Lofgren said House Democrats are wary of dealing with immigration unless the Senate grapples with it first.

A comprehensive bill would likely include provisions of great interest to California, such as an increase in visas for highly skilled workers and a guest worker program for farmworkers. Rep. Mike Honda, a Campbell Democrat, is pushing a measure making it easier for legal immigrants to bring in family members, including same-sex partners.

"Any bill would have to include many elements to work," Lofgren said. "At the same time, you don't want to include things that would sink it. It's a tricky balance."

ON THE WEB Reliable data on immigration is often hard to come by. One dependable source is the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute at www.migrationinformation.org.