Obama’s Ruse and the Shifting Views of Republicans: Will the US Let Immigrants Be?
http://watchingamerica.com/News/233284/obamas-ruse-and-the-shifting-views-of-republicans-will-the-us-let-immigrants-be/
Obamas Ruse and the Shifting Views of Republicans: Will the US Let Immigrants Be?
Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland
By Mariusz Zawadzki
Translated By Maciej Lepka
1 February 2014
Edited by Gillian Palmer
A glimmer of hope shone for the families of 12 million immigrants without papers in the United States. The Republican Party, which has been against giving them legal status, is changing its mind. The party, however, is driving a hard bargain.
Ronald Reagan was the last U.S. president to give amnesty and grant American citizenship to paperless immigrants. Barack Obama is eager to follow in his footsteps, which has resulted in the preparation of an extensive, 800-page-long immigration bill project. It was important to Poles as well, since it contained provisions on the abolition of visas.
Unfortunately, the project did not go through Congress. Even though the Senate originally approved it, Republicans, who have the majority in the lower house, decided they would not even consider it.
For years, they were against amnesty, claiming that it would be immoral and encourage all those desiring the American dream to sneak through the border and swim through the Rio Grande, along with drug smugglers. And why not, Republicans would point out with irony: After a few years, you will be forgiven, anyway! Obama's 2012 presidential-election opponent Mitt Romney considered so-called self-deportation the best solution to the problem of paperless aliens: " ... people decide they can do better by going home because they can't find work here because they don't have legal documentation to allow them to work here."