Four Part Immigration Plan

President Obama Outlined A Four Part Plan 

January 30, 2013. Las Vegas, NV 

On January 29, 2013, President Obama announced a four part immigration reform policy. One day after the United State Senate announced their own immigration reform plan, the executive branch provided a plan to overhaul immigration in the United States. 

Due to the national security implications and the fact that more than 15 million people are in the United States illegally, immigration reform has become a hot topic in the country. A plan that will eliminate illegal immigration, address the aliens that are in already in the country illegally and provide a method to track guest workers, is desperately needed. 

Pathway to Green Card and Citizenship

The most controversial component of Obama's four part plan is a pathway to citizenship for people that are in the United States illegally. Republicans argue that any plan that would allow illegal aliens to gain citizenship would reward people for breaking the law and would be unfair to people who followed the law when they immigrated. 

Under the proposal from the White House applicants would have to undergo criminal background checks and learn English to obtain a green card and become a citizen. Additionally, everyone who entered the United States illegally would have to pay all the taxes they owed and a fine for breaking the law. 

The pathway to citizenship described by President Obama was not called amnesty however it is essentially the same thing. This has been a sticking point for immigration reform opponents. The reality is that there are millions of people in the United States that entered illegally. Many of those people that entered had children here in the United States, those children are U.S. citizens. Even if the government could identify every illegal immigrant, there would be huge economic and ethical issues with deporting them. 

Any successful effort to reform immigration in the United States must include a component that provides a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens. It appears that some type of immigration reform is going to pass into law this year. I will stay abreast of developments and continue to write about it as time goes on. Tomorrow I include a post about the other elements of President Obama's immigration reform plan.