Description

Immigration on the Public Mind: Immigration Reform in the Obama Administration

This essay examines the Obama administration’s developing strategy for responding to immigration issues. By looking at the writings of members of a policy working group that advised the president during the presidential campaign, the author constructs an interpretive framework for discussing the form immigration policy might take. If these are guides for how the group advised President Obama on immigration reform, then the Obama administration might focus on the following key points: (1) providing options and/or opportunities for undocumented immigrants to get on the “pathway to citizenship”; (2) effective methods for border security that do not necessarily criminalize immigrants; and (3) employer sanctions for those that violate the law and/or abuse immigrant workers.

President Obama, immigration, reform policy

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 35, No. 4 (2008): 4-11