President Obama has previously indicated that he will hold off in taking any further executive action in the immigration arena to give Congress a chance to vote on and pass new immigration laws designed to fix our broken immigration system. As the summer passes the half-way point, it becomes clearer that Congress does not wish to tackle this issue, especially in light of the sudden influx of undocumented children crossing the southern border.
This situation is similar to a mediation. When a mediator is assigned to resolve a case before it goes to a Judge, one of the first points made by the mediator is that the outcome of the dispute is in the hands of the people involved unless and until they make it clear they cannot come to a consensus. At that point, the decision is removed from the participants and the Judge decides on his or her own. In the immigration scenario, the participants in Congress have the opportunity to forge together and comprise on a plan to introduce comprehensive immigration reform or, at a minimum, fix the most crucial parts of the current immigration law that begin the path to reform. If Congress cannot reach an agreement, the President will take on the role of the Judge in the example, and make his own decision using his executive powers. Knowing this, Congress members still hold fast to their positions with no signs of compromise and casting blame on each other for the current immigration problem.
In a recent speech in Los Angeles, United States Representative Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) mentioned that he was confident that President Obama would move forward with executive action to grant legal status to the millions of undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States. Gutierrez made this comments after meeting with the president. The surge of children over the southern borders have taken the immigration debate to a higher level.
President Obama has made it clear that he believes the people arriving through the southern border should be deported back to their countries. First, they must receive a hearing before an Immigration Judge. Manyh will apply for political asylum. Governor Rick Perry says that a meaningful discussion of immigration reform cannot commence until our border is secure. Gutierrez and members of the Hispanic Congressional Caucus met with President Obama and made it clear that this was their only hope for justice.
