President Obama is prioritizing comprehensive immigration reform, uniting bipartisan support to address the status of 11 million illegal immigrants while emphasizing stricter enforcement. The proposals include legal pathways for undocumented immigrants, improved border security, and better visa processes for skilled workers in STEM fields to ensure U.S. competitiveness. Efforts also include provisions for undocumented youths under the DACA policy and a bipartisan bill drafted by eight senators for a comprehensive immigration overhaul.

1. US READIES FOR MAJOR OVERHAUL OF IMMIGRATION LAWS AFTER 25 YEARS
WASHINGTON: In the second term President Obama is going in great speed to tackle
immigration issues on a top priority. After Ronald Reagan undertook some drastic reforms
in immigration in 1986, no other President has been successful in going the whole hog with
an ambitious agenda of immigration reforms combining accommodation, enforcement and
encouragement of meritorious external talent.
With the Bipartisan Immigration Bill President Obama has signaled that he means business
and wants to shape a concrete immigration policy that is linked to the future of America in
terms of its economic growth and competitiveness. Therefore the new Bipartisan Bill caries
with it a solution to the vexing problem of 11 million strong illegal immigrants by taking
them to a road map of main stream legitimacy.
Important Objectives
The Obama Administration has made clear that grant of legal status to illegal immigrants
will go hand in hand with a no-nonsense stance on stricter enforcement.
The important proposals of the reform Bill are
•
Bringing illegal immigrants to the ambit of a legal system after making them
acknowledge that they have broken the law
•
Harder border enforcement
•
Being strict with employers who hire illegal immigrants
•
Creating a structure to verify the legal immigration status of new workers
Republicans Changing
What is significant with the bipartisan exercise is that Republicans are also supporting new
United States immigration policy reform with the focus on bringing skilled workers into the
U.S. workforce than doing mere reunification of families.
Rationale of Reform
There is consensus that the cumbersome visa and citizenship process for skilled foreign
workers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) need to be refined. It is
indispensable to ensure that the US retains its competitiveness in the global economy and
halt any reverse brain drain.
The U.S. visa system has prolonged waiting periods lasting years because of rigid quotas.
The United States issues 1,40,000 green cards a year for employment-based immigrants

2. but there is an embargo that no more than 7 percent can go to applicants from any one
country.
Generally applicants from India and China outnumber other countries and face lengthy
waits. As a result these workers can't start companies, buy houses, or grow roots in their
communities during the waiting periods. So they have to leave the United States
immediately--without notice--if their employer lays them off. Rather than live in fear and
stagnate careers many are going back home.
Illegal Immigrants
The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act--known as the DREAM Act
was framed as a significant tool to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented
youth who immigrated as children with families to the United States.
The bill was stalled in Congress in 2010. On June 2012, President Obama announced that
the federal government would not deport undocumented youths under DACA policy. The
policy entails offering the immigrants two-year work permits with no limits on renewal.
Finally in 2013, the urge for immigration reform came to fruition in the form of a bipartisan
Bill drafted by a group of 8 senators with a comprehensive immigration reform plan that is
now awaiting the Congress nod.
ITIG
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Website: http://www.immigranttaxgroup.org/obama-immigration-policy/