Heating Up

The debate on immigration reform is heating up all across the country this week, with thousands of people taking to the streets to pass the law in Arizona last week and Congress having serous talks about how to deal with the push for immigration reform.

At the national level, the President has provided two opposing statements within the last two days. On Friday while aboard Air Force One, the President stated that, "Congress might not have the appetite for an immigration overhaul." However, more recently the President has stated that the immigration reform is "an important step" and that a lack of federal action on passion new legislation would leave room for "a patchwork of actions at the state and local level that are inconsistent and, as we have seen recently, often misguided."

The Democratic members of Congress have also showed two sides of their intentions, unveiling a framework for a comprehensive immigration reform bill, but not committing to a specific date for accomplishing reform. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) however, believes that, "Failure to act on immigration reform will mean that our broken system and ineffective laws will continue to weaken our national security and hurt our workers and fall short of the most basic standard of justice" (further underlining the message sent out by the president). The essential gist of the proposed bill would be to secure our boarders first before dealing with the illegal immigrants already here, as well as punishing employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants with jail time or harsh fines. Unfortunately for democrats, not a single republican has opted to support the bill, leading to what House Republican Leader John Boehner states is "not a chance" for an immigration reform bill to pass this year.

Meanwhile out on the streets of major cities all across the USA., thousands of people came out to support immigration reform in a positive light, frequently carrying signs and banners denouncing the bill passed in Arizona which many regard as "racist." Many of the protesters are advocating that Washington D.C. is taking too long and not giving an easy enough way for citizenship for illegal immigrants. Others are simply fed-up with the utter lack of direction from the federal government itself, stating promises that Obama made during his election that he has yet to keep.

Whatever happens in the next few weeks should be interesting. With all of the mixed messages flying around in Congress and from the President, as well as the steady increase in volume from protesters having had enough of waiting, the future is wide open to just about any kind of reform... Or lack thereof.