Immigration at forefront as Obama meets with Hispanic lawmakers

President Barack Obama meets with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Jan. 25, 2013. / Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

Putting action behind his words, President Obama held an initial meeting at the White House with Hispanic leaders of Congress on immigration reform, indicating that the issue will, in fact, be a top priority during his second and final term.

"The President made it clear he will continue to lead on this issue, and that he looks forward to working with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and other key Members of Congress in a bipartisan process to move this debate forward at the earliest possible opportunity," the White House said in a statement following the Friday morning meeting.

Mr. Obama will travel to Las Vegas next week to meet with immigration advocates and gather public momentum on the issue.

Participants walked away confident that the president is dedicated to passing broad immigration legislation. "The President is putting his full weight and attention behind getting a bill signed into law is tremendously helpful," Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said after the meeting. "The President is the quarterback and he will direct the team, call the play, and be pivotal if we succeed."

"After today's meeting, it's clear that President Obama is determined to fix our long broken immigration system," Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., said. "The President expressed a great sense of urgency and that comprehensive immigration reform, including an earned path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, is his top legislative priority."

After winning reelection with a record number of Hispanic votes - Mr. Obama beat Mitt Romney by more than 40 points among Hispanics - the president has promised to reform the immigration system, even mentioning the issue in his inaugural address.

"Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country," the president said on Monday.

Recognizing the importance of the growing voter bloc, Republicans have also begun changing their tone on the issue and have begun talking about immigration reform, with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., taking the lead. He has begun working and publicly talking about possible ways to fix the broken system. Addressing one of the most controversial parts of the issue, Rubio told conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin that undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. should have to wait several years before being able to apply for citizenship.

In a previous interview with the Wall Street Journal, Rubio said he would like to introduce a "comprehensive package of bills" that address different aspects of immigration, including a guest worker program, high-skilled visas and workplace enforcement.

But former Gov. Jeb Bush, R-Fla., who has been an outspoken proponent of immigration reform, wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal yesterday pushing for a large-scale legislation.

[Jamericacon1]

I propose that congress revamp the Diversity Visa Program from its current emphasis where visas are allocated to citizens of countries with historically lower rates of U.S. immigration. The focus would change to allow only undocumented citizens from foreign countries currently living in the United States to apply, regardless of whether they represent citizens of countries who have sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States over the past five years and would not otherwise be eligible to apply for the Diversity Visa program. Those individuals who win a position in the yearly lottery will be required to pay a fee of $5000 for the privilege of becoming a Permanent Resident, that is separate and apart from the fine they must pay when they register as RUR. The lottery must operate as it does now, it must be blind, anyone who is a RUR will be able to apply and have their name put in a random pot applicant. Their names will be randomly drawn and will not be based on any factor except that they are RUR. Therefore every year they will be allowed to enter this drawing without restrictions. The fee of $5,000 can be spread over a period of five years, however no one will be allowed to become Permanent Residents until the total amount of $5,000.00 is paid in full.

The amount of diversity visas available would be increased by an additional fifty thousand per year, to 100,000, however this increase must be offset by a decrease in the amount of visas available in other categories', such as eliminating visas available to brothers and sisters of Permanent Resident and citizens, and a significant reduction or elimination of the Third Preference EB-3 visas available in the Employment based-Immigration. The amount of Diversity visa available in this lottery should be determined by labor conditions, skills shortages, agriculture needs and any other factor the Congress thinks is appropriate, this number could go up or down based on these factors. The Secretary of DHS would be required to certify every year to Congress, the reason for the increase or decrease in the statutory number of 100,000.

By eliminating the category of visas available to brothers and sisters of US citizens and permanent residents and employment based EB-3, you would also be able increase the amount of permanent visas available to immigrants with medical and nursing degrees and other individuals with needed bachelor's or master's degree. Because of the elimination of Permanent Residence visas for brothers and sisters of US citizens and permanent, the Visa Waiver program should be changed to allow brothers and sisters of United Citizens and Permanent Residents to visit the United States through the VWP, allowing them to visit their relatives up to six months without the hassle of getting a visa under normal visa procedures. They would however be subjected to normal background checks and strict requirements that they leave the United States at the end of their authorized stay. Individuals who stay beyond their time would be issued an automatic deportation warrant one hundred and eighty days after the end of their authorized stay, for their arrest and this warrant and automatic removal will also apply to regular visa absconders. The same rule should apply, when an American gets a mere traffic ticket, they are required to show up to court and pay a fine and have their driving record blemished. The same concept should apply to visitors absconding, when they don't leave the United States at the end of their lawful visits, at the end of 180 days beyond their departure time a citation will be mailed to their last address on record requiring them to appear before an immigration judge. If they fail to appear a warrant for their arrest will be issued immediately. One caveat to this citation, just like with a traffic citation, visitors deciding that they wish to comply and leave the United States, can go to any international airport with a departure ticket, pay a fine to the US immigration office at the Airport and be escorted on to their flight home.

Because there will be a limited number of Diversity Visas available yearly, all undocumented immigrants will be required to register their presence in the United States within one year of the passing of the law and pay a fine of $1,000.00. They would be put in a new class of immigrants called Registered Undocumented Residents (RUR). With registration they will be granted differed status and a work permit. However this work permit is not an automatic right to work in the United States, but a right to register with the Department of Labor for jobs the DOL deems there is not adequate United States Citizens or Lawful Permanent Residents available to fill those positions. Therefore no Registered Undocumented Residents (RUR) will be able to take the jobs of American citizens needing a job.

[24lomas]

Let's tell the politicians that we do not want amnesty for illegal aliens. Let's tell the politicians and Obama that those illegals must be deported now. Tell Obama and the politicians that ove 1 million legal immigrants enter this country each year and that number is too high; that number must be reduced. So we do not need more people ( we do not need to give amnesty to illegals). Illegals must go Now.We are sick ant tired of the politician with Obama working for illegals. No they must work for Americans. Go away politicians who want to help illegals. We do not want those politicians. Let's vote them out now. No amnesty for illegals. NEVER. The politicians must do what we want. We want illegals to go. No amnesty.

[Protect_US_Jobs]

We need to Stop ILLEGAL immigration! They're not just doing jobs that Americans don't want. Do they pay taxes? Don't get me wrong most of these people work very hard, but are a drain on the system if they don't pay taxes, have healthcare coverage, learn the language or get paid wages that are in line with their American counterparts. Who's footing the bill for the education of their children and the infrastructure around them? We all know that the health care provided to uninsured illegals here in the states is being averaged into our hospital costs and our insurance premiums, which have PROPORTIONATELY increased along with illegal immigration over the last 20 years? These costs are also being passed along to Medicaid and Medicare, which means that not only are they increasing our insurance premiums, but that we're paying for them again with our tax dollars.

Our tax dollars and insurance premiums should not be used to recoup the cost of healthcare given to illegal immigrants, who shouldn't even be here in our country in the first place.

To the people that disagree, we should ask them should this: If a few illegal immigrants knocked on your door and demanded that you pay some medical bills for them, would you pay them?

Just look around and you'll see who's doing 90% of the residential renovations, construction and property maintenance jobs. That's certainly what we're seeing in the northeast. These are not just jobs that Americans don't want.

Unfortunately the hiring of cheap illegal labor causes a chain reaction. The contractors who hire cheap, uninsured, non-taxpaying, ILLEGAL aliens undercut the contractors who hire US Citizens or Legal immigrants. Even if the contractor wants to continue to employ US Citizens or Legal tax-paying immigrants, they end up replacing their Legal employees with illegals just to be able to get the jobs.

[Housessmart]

THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER MUST SPEAK OUT AGAINST ANOTHER POTENTIAL PATH TO CITIZENSHIP.

The only way that I see to clean up the pandemonium called Immigration enforcement, is a strict and 100 percent mandatory E-Verify? A mandatory E-Verify, perhaps even run by a security company or a charge card company as Visa or Master card and not lax government employees? Spend the money and make it as foolproof as possible and use whatever resources are available. If the U.S. government can make vehicular unmanned probes that can detect a license plate from thousands of feet above us, they can surely build computer software that can detect illegal aliens in jobs meant for Americans and legal residents? E-Verify has expanded its information sources to include State driver's license records, which strengthens the veracity of the program. Florida and Tennessee initiated this innovation allowing USCIS to collect data using their vehicle agencies for worker discrepancies. It is pastime that the Congress enact Lamar Smith's "THE LEGAL WORKFORCE BILL" R-Texas) bill to (Phone: [phone]), as proposed will make E-Verify a mandatory law and will no longer be voluntary. America has come to this paramount point, because of years of corruption by both parties.

An estimated 23 million Americans are still jobless, in part time work or just gave up looking, while millions of illegal aliens still have jobs. This is very sinister situation and those responsible should be held accountable, but never are? With President Obama's ultimatum of another path to citizenship, we could be seeing a repeat of the rampant fraud that existed in the 1986 Amnesty. Like a giant magnet millions of more foreign nationals outside the United States are going to try and break into our sovereign nation. Illegal aliens will funnel somewhere along the border regions or by lying to the Embassy staff in foreign countries to obtain a visa as a tourist. Before any new Comprehensive Immigration Reform we must secure our borders, constructing the two fences to the former plan of President Bush, the 2006 Secure Fence Act.

Lastly, the second bill that must be passed is Steve Kings (R-Iowa) THE BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT (H.R. 140). Contact his main Washington office at (Phone: [phone]) or his subsidiary offices in Iowa. The Birthright Citizenship bill will bring to an end the "Anchor Baby" legal-corruption, meant for the past generation of slaves. By passing this law, we can stop any more DREAMERS' ACT or sponsorship of family members who arrive here under CHAIN MIGRATION. There is no real statistics on the cost, but smuggling young children or unborn into the U.S. pays off for the illegal alien parents, in hundreds of billions of dollars a year—and over decades TRILLIONS OF TAX DOLLARS, including child tax refunds that should never paid in the first place. The IRS has turned a blind eye to this robbery of more taxpayer's money. These two laws should be strongly endorsed right now, to eradicate the corruption in high positions. The insistence from lobbyists that our politicians should not pass these laws, as it would cut into the incredible profits of corporations and businesses, large and small. That is why the 1986 Amnesty became a terrible mess, because millions of foreigners poured into our country as soon as President Reagan signed the bill.

Least we not forget that Obama's people passed the Affordable Care Act, which has endless possibilities for illegal aliens. Supposedly foreign nationals cannot apply for ObamaCare, but I know as well as millions of TEA Party members and a large proportion of average Americans that a loophole will materialize or using procured Social Security numbers or feeder identification that in the endless bureaucratic chaos to follow, they will benefit from it, costing the legal population even more billions?

Even with millions of Americans jobless the labor visa program still brings into this country over a million legal immigrants a year. A limited number come under the highly skilled category of STEM workers, who are top engineers and other heavily credentialed staff for different high level jobs. But the majority comes sponsored by years of immigration corruption going back decades. Immediate family members who are sponsored eventually become the U.S. taxpayer responsibility in the majority of cases.

[Jamericacon1]

I have previously suggested that we change the Diversity Visa Program to now only allow those unlawfully present in the United States to apply for a visa lottery, thats not amnesty. We currently give out 50,000 visas a year to complete foreigners abroad and no one calls that amnesty, why cant we give those slots to those unlawfully present right now. If we give visas to 100,000 people every year we could drease the illegal population signficantly. They would not be alolwed to later in the future bring their brothers and sisters, as we would eliminate permanent resident catigory for brothers and sisters of US citizens and Permanent Residents.

[SlimeBagObama]

Comrade Obama and his wife Natasha won't be able to ban assault weapons so they should move on to another lost cause. They should move back to Moscow.

[ammo17]

this should be easy for this administration they don`t enforce our immigration laws that we have on the books.this nonsense about fiscal cliff,debt ceiling or the country being broke must be lie for him and his cabinet to let 12 million more people to go on welfare rolls,unemployment or welfare we must have a ton of money hidden somewhere.and there must be employess out there who want to hire these 12 million people before the legal citizens of the country.this is the only thing that makes sense to me on this subject.or lets draft the 12 million into the military on their way to citizenship.imagine 12 million illegals with assault weapons,that should make you sleep better at night.

[lucky57e10]

11 Million Amnesty?
Cut Social Security.
Cut Medicare/Medicaid
Cut Food Stamps/Welfare
Raise Taxes
Absolute the next thing out of their "COLLECTIVE" mouths.

[Protect_US_Jobs]

We need to Stop ILLEGAL immigration! They're not just doing jobs that Americans don't want. Do they pay taxes? Don't get me wrong most of these people work very hard, but are a drain on the system if they don't pay taxes, have healthcare coverage, learn the language or get paid wages that are in line with their American counterparts. Who's footing the bill for the education of their children and the infrastructure around them? We all know that the health care provided to uninsured illegals here in the states is being averaged into our hospital costs and our insurance premiums, which have PROPORTIONATELY increased along with illegal immigration over the last 20 years? These costs are also being passed along to Medicaid and Medicare, which means that not only are they increasing our insurance premiums, but that we're paying for them again with our tax dollars.

Our tax dollars and insurance premiums should not be used to recoup the cost of healthcare given to illegal immigrants, who shouldn't even be here in our country in the first place.

To the people that disagree, we should ask them should this: If a few illegal immigrants knocked on your door and demanded that you pay some medical bills for them, would you pay them?

Just look around and you'll see who's doing 90% of the residential renovations, construction and property maintenance jobs. That's certainly what we're seeing in the northeast. These are not just jobs that Americans don't want.

[Protect_US_Jobs]

Unfortunately the hiring of cheap illegal labor causes a chain reaction. The contractors who hire cheap, uninsured, non-taxpaying, ILLEGAL aliens undercut the contractors who hire US Citizens or Legal immigrants. Even if the contractor wants to continue to employ US Citizens or Legal tax-paying immigrants, they end up replacing their Legal employees with illegals just to be able to get the jobs.

[SlimeBagObama]

Liberals think that they should make $25 an hour even though most of them never graduated high school. The unions (mob)are dying for this very reason and I thank God for that.

[jgg000010]

and just how do they fit into the affordable healthcare act?

[Ulgnud]

So are we seeing another Amnesty push for illegal invaders? The only thing broken in our immigration system is that it is not being enforced. Turn off the jobs and handout magnet now. Anyone caught here illegally is subject to permanent barring of citizenship, and streamline the deportations process. Get these people out of here. No more "anchor baby" nonsense either. They are welcome back when they are legal. Period! Obama is more interested in catering to people who don't even belong here, and ignoring the needs and desires of the US Citizens and legal immigrants.

[bilrobi1]

Apparently as is Marco Rubio a Republican.