Lawyers are not necessary for immigration law- or at least that is what presidential candidate Mr. Romney thinks. Well, I guess I should watch out for my job if he gets elected!
What can we expect from each of the candidates according to tonight’s debate?
Mr. Romney has a big focus on skilled immigrants and entrepreneurs. He wants to staple green cards to every foreign student’s passport. Generally this would be and is music to my ears since I am a big supporter of the STEM and Start-Up Act (as my regular readers would know). However, self-deportation? Who wants to self-deport themselves to a country in which they have never lived? He will not support any amnesty he says and criticized president Obama for failing to introduce legislation in his first term.
President Obama on the other hand reminded people what he has done already- he reminded people about the lower fees introduced for immigration forms, he reminded people that there is better border control, and he reminded us that he has done whatever he can administratively on his own. He reminded people that Mr. Romney does not support the Dream Act and that the person behind Arizona’s new immigration laws is one of Mr. Romney’s advisors. And that even President Bush was a proponent of Comprehensive Immigration Reform.
While both agree comprehensive immigration reform is necessary to fix the system, who do you believe will actually reform the system in a way that brings benefits to the greater good of the country and people?
As an immigrant and a recent US citizen myself (who is looking forward to voting for the first time!), I am still trying to understand how this political system works. And, from what I can understand, if Congress doesn’t help get a bill through, presidents can’t seem to do much on their own. It is for this reason I applaud President Obama for taking administrative actions, such as prosecutorial discretion to allow people with US citizen families who are not a threat to society to be low priority for deportation, for people in same-sex relationships to be treated as relatives, to allow undocumented young people to receive deferred action and get employment authorization, to introduce Start-Up America and help people get self-employed H1bs. So I don’t blame president Obama for the lack of comprehensive immigration reform. I think he needs another term to be able to bring lasting change, for the better, on the immigration front.
In my view, the immigration part of the debate at least was a score to the president!
*Copyright 2012 by Watson Immigration Law. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.