By CMC –
United States President Barack Obama
WASHINGTON, CMC – United States President Barack Obama has offered a life line to illegal Caribbean immigrants, urging the US Congress to work with him on “comprehensive” immigration reform.
In his election-year State of the Union address on Tuesday night, Obama said he believed “as strongly as ever that we should take on illegal immigration.
“We should be working on comprehensive immigration reform right now,” he said.
“But if election-year politics keeps Congress from acting on a comprehensive plan, let’s at least agree to stop expelling responsible young people who want to staff our labs, start new businesses, defend this country. Send me a law that gives them the chance to earn their citizenship. I will sign it right away,” he added.
Obama reminded Americans that hundreds of thousands of “talented, hardworking students in this country” face another challenge: the fact that they aren’t yet American citizens.
“Many were brought here as small children, are American through and through, yet they live every day with the threat of deportation,” he said.
“Others came more recently, to study business and science and engineering, but as soon as they get their degree, we send them home to invent new products and create new jobs somewhere else,” Obama said.
Leading US Republican Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney said that he favours “self-deportation” when asked about illegal immigrants during Monday night’s presidential debate in Tampa, Florida.
“The answer is self-deportation, which is 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,” Romney said. “We’re not going to round them up.”
Romney was responding to a question about illegal immigrants returning home and applying for citizenship.
He proposed implementing a system in which the US government would issue a card that links to online federal immigration data, so employers will know whether a job-seeker is in the country illegally.
Romney said those without cards would be pushed out of the job market and forced to leave the US.
“If people can’t get work here, they’re going to self-deport to a place where they can get work,” he said.
In 2008, the United States experimented with a trial self-deportation program, but it was cancelled after a few weeks with only eight people volunteering.
Romney also softened his opposition to the DREAM Act during the debate, stating he would support the measure if it focused on military service. He had said earlier on the campaign trail that he would veto the bill.
The DREAM Act calls for a path to citizenship for Caribbean and other youths who immigrated illegally as minors, on the condition that they attend college or serve in the US Armed Forces.
