1. Openers

Dear Readers:

Immigration seems to be back on the radar screen at the White House. The President gave a major address last week which didn’t introduce new ideas – basically it could have been the same speech given by President Bush – except to suggest that if comprehensive immigration reform, the ideal option, were not to happen that perhaps smaller fixes like the DREAM Act or legal immigration reform could move forward. He also suggested that executive action was not in the cards and that only Congress can address immigration reform.

While it is nice to see the White House re-engaged on the subject of immigration, one is left to wonder where the President was two years ago when he had a sizeable majority in both Houses of Congress. The President was largely absent from the debate and he clearly did not expend political capital on this issue the way he did on health care reform. He also doesn’t seem to be willing to risk anything this time. If he were willing to use his executive authority as many are urging, that might signal a seriousness to address the issue.

Instead we are left to believe that the President is worried more about losing Latino voters than failing to keep his promise to reform the immigration system in his first year in office. Recent opinion polls show a drop of as much as 25% in his support in the Hispanic community. These are voters that the polls show care a lot more about immigration reform than the general population and they are voters who tipped a number of elections for the Democrats in 2008 and 2010.

There is a year and a half until the next election. If we are still hearing the President talk about how Republicans in Congress killed immigration reform and if you elect Democrats, everything will be better, then I suspect Latino voters will either vote on other issues. And on other issues, Republican candidates could seem attractive. If instead the President can point to accomplishments in improving immigration (and that means more than just talking about enforcement statistics), we’ll know he was serious and he’ll more than deserve the votes of people who consider themselves pro-immigration.

*****

Readers are reminded that they are welcome to contact my law office if they would like to schedule a telephone or in person consultation with me or one of my colleagues. If you are interested, please call my office at 901-682-6455.

Regards,

Greg Siskind