In a July 1 speech before legislators, business and labor leaders, and immigration advocates, President Barack Obama lent some new momentum to the stalled and fractious effort to reform the U.S. immigration system.1 Calling the current system “fundamentally broken,” Mr. Obama urged members of Congress to work across party lines to fix its flaws. Though he criticized the polarization that has long characterized the immigration debate, he acknowledged the frustration felt by advocates on all sides of the issue and proposed a program of moderate reform that would balance the concerns of both border security and immigration proponents alike.
The president’s statement was consistent with his longstanding support for immigration reform, and was perhaps the most vigorous and pointed action his administration has thus far taken on an issue that has been placed on the back burner for many months. The speech came at a time of new urgency for comprehensive reform, as the federal government was poised to enter the vociferous debate on Arizona’s controversial statute criminalizing the unlawful presence of foreign nationals and empowering police to check the immigration status (“Papers, please!”) of individuals “reasonably suspected” of being undocumented.2
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