Finally what we have been waiting to hear from the man himself ever since the second presidential debate took place. In an interview Obama has said that if he is re-elected, he will “force a grand bargain with Republicans to reduce America’s debt” and most importantly that he will “achieve comprehensive immigration reform” all within the first year of his second term.
As much happiness as his professed commitment to the immigrant community may bring us, we must be wary of the fact that he promised this back in 2008 and was not able to keep it. Of course, the conditions the president had to deal with back in 2008 with our nation’s finances in free fall and a major housing debacle made it quite difficult for him to focus his attention elsewhere, however, he did pass Obamacare during that period of time. That is why it is worth mentioning those facts because we ought to be aware of them so as to keep things in perspective.
Be that as it may, we are quite happy to at least know he still supports a revamping of the immigration system and we are satisfied in knowing that he will do his best to fight to achieve this aim. He highlighted the complicated task he is setting himself up for by saying: “It will probably be messy. It won’t be pleasant.” But “I’m confident we’ll get immigration reform done next year…Should I win a second term, a big reason I will win a second term is because the Republican nominee and the Republican Party have so alienated the fastest-growing demographic group in the country, the Latino community. And this is a relatively new phenomenon.
George Bush and Karl Rove were smart enough to understand the changing nature of America. And so I am fairly confident that they’re going to have a deep interest in getting that done. And I want to get it done because it’s the right thing to do and I’ve cared about this ever since I ran back in 2008.” He has already proactively worked toward attaining notable advancements in this regard, we now hope that at least this time around, if he wins, he can finally make immigration reform come full circle.
