Dear Readers: 

This week marks the historic inauguration of President Barack Obama. The fact that he is the first African-American to hold the highest office in the land is what most people will remember. I also will be thinking about the fact that the new President is the son of an immigrant from a developing country who spent part of his youth as an immigrant himself when he lived in Indonesia.  

The new President can also give considerable credit to immigrants for his election. Polls showed that a massive shift in the Latino vote in four states with large Latino populations – New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Florida – may have turned those states blue in 2008.  

Add two other factors and 2009 looks very good for immigration reform. First, the Democrats, clearly the more pro-immigration party, added significantly to their majorities in both Houses of Congress. Second, public opinion polls are showing a dramatic decline in anti-immigrant sentiment over the last year even as the economy has suffered. In the summer of 2007, immigration ranked the second most important issue in the eyes of the public, just after the war in Iraq. And it was not a pro-immigration wave that led to the rise of the issue. By late 2008, the issue no longer even ranked in the top 10.  

Perhaps people realized they had “real” issues to worry about like the financial crisis. Or perhaps we were seeing an “Obama” effect where people suddenly are feeling a lot more tolerant as a country. Whatever the reason, it is therefore not surprising that Majority Leader Harry Reid indicating in a recent interview that immigration reform would happen quickly and would not be terribly difficult. That may be be a tad optimistic, but it certainly looks like the conditions are ripe for change. 

If there is any initial indicator of how Congress will act, perhaps we saw it this past week when the House overwhelmingly voted to extend children’s health insurance under the SCHIP program to immigration kids. In the past, anti-immigrant members of Congress were vocal in opposing the bill. This time, barely a word was heard from them. 

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Finally, as always, we welcome your feedback. If you are interested in becoming a Siskind Susser client, please call our office at 901-682-6455 and request a consultation. We are a national immigration law firm and work on a broad range of immigration matters for clients locating across the country. 

Kind regards,