Recently published details of Obama’s plan to change the current immigration policies is said to serve as an alternative to Congress’ plans rather than a back up plan.
The president’s plan may give immigrants the opportunity to obtain residency in eight years.
“The plan would provide for more security funding and require business owners to check the immigration status of new hires within four years. In addition, the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants could apply for a newly created “Lawful Prospective Immigrant” visa, under the draft bill being written by the White House,” said Alan Gomez of USA Today.
Gomez added, “If approved, they could then apply for the same provisional legal status for their spouse or children living outside the country, according to the draft.”
As easily as Gomez covered the plan, White House officials moved to recall the true relevance of the plan on Feb. 18 after the uproars from Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
In response to Obama’s recent push for new immigration policies in his current term, Ryan explained Obama’s eagerness as nothing more than an act to the many Hispanic voters that aided his reelection.
Ryan told ABC’s “This Week”, “[The plan] tells us that [Obama is] looking for a partisan advantage and not a bipartisan solution.”
He noted the bipartisan group of eight Republicans and Democrats agreed to a general outline for an immigration plan to provide a better solution last month.
“There needs to be an American solution to immigration rather than Republican or Democrat so this recent debate between the parties may cause more chaos than resolution,”said Randal Robinson, a senior human performance major.
This newly leaked plan serves as a point of confusion in the immigration debate because Congress has also been developing their own bills for immigration policies in recent months.
The president is now working in competition with Congress even though he once supported the manner in which Congress was handling new immigration legislation in his first term.
Speaking at Del Sol, a majority Hispanic high school in Las Vegas, Obama said, “If Congress is unable to move forward in a timely fashion, I will send up a bill based on my proposal and insist that they vote on it right away.”
Despite Obama’s stance, the White House repeals the notion that the plan is nothing more than a draft, while the president publicly criticizes Congress’ timeliness to give rise to the nation’s concerns with immigration.
Speaking to the Las Vegas public a day after Congress’ bipartisan group announced their plan, “This time, action must follow. We cannot allow immigration reform to get bogged down in an endless debate,” said Obama.