by Moses Apsan, Esq.
Washington DC - It took the passage of Arizona's draconian anti-immigrant law to finally push the president to commit action on a bill that could fix our broken immigration laws.
On Thursday, President Obama, provided his latest opinion on comprehensive immigration reform.
"The continued failure of the federal government to fix the broken immigration system will leave the door open to a patchwork of actions at the state and local level that are inconsistent and as we have seen recently, often misguided," Mr. Obama wrote.
The President then pointed to a democratic proposal discussed in the Senate as "a very important step in the process" of fixing our broken immigration system.
A significant part of the proposal calls for increasing border security benchmarks before anyone of the 11 million people illegally in the country can obtain legal permanent U.S. resident.
Illegal immigrants who desire to live in the country may qualify for eagle residency in eight years, if they admit they had broken the law, pay back taxes and fees, and pass a criminal background check.
President Obama confirmed in his paper statement, his intent on stronger border security measures and tougher penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants. He also stressed that those living in the U.S. illegally "get right with the law," by paying penalties and taxes, learn English, pass criminal background checks and "admit responsibility before they are allowed to get in line and eventually earn citizenship."
The President wrote "The outline presented today includes many of these elements, The next critical step is to iron out the details of a bill. We welcome that discussion, and my Administration will play an active role in engaging partners on both sides of the aisle to work toward a bipartisan solution that is based on the fundamental concept of accountability that the American people expect and deserve."
“What has become increasingly clear,” Mr. Obama said, “is that we can no longer wait to fix our broken immigration system, which Democrats and Republicans alike agree doesn’t work.”
