On June 8, President Barack Obama will meet with Congressional leaders to discuss immigration reform legislation. (Politico, May 20, 2009). In the past, President Obama has supported “comprehensive immigration reform,” which has included amnesty for the more than 12 million illegal aliens who are living in the United States. (Luuliyo Online, May 20, 2009).
During a meeting with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus this past May, President Obama promised to hold a forum on immigration reform. (WSJ Washington Wire, March 18, 2009). As FAIR previously reported, “according to senior administration officials, Obama will speak publicly about the immigration issue in May.” (FAIR’s Legislative Update, April 13, 2009). Despite President Obama’s statement that “transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing,” and his promise to run a more transparent government, the immigration meeting will not be public. (Obama Transparency Memorandum). Instead, it will be held behind closed doors, outside of the view of the American public which has strongly opposed amnesty in the past. This initial closed-door meeting in June appears to be in lieu of a public forum on the immigration issue.
The meeting will take place at the White House and will include “a small bipartisan group of lawmakers from the House and Senate, including party leaders and people who have worked on immigration issues.” (Luuliyo). Among the lawmakers invited to the meeting are two Democratic Members of the House of Representatives from California: Zoe Lofgren of San Jose, who chairs the House Immigration Subcommittee, and Xavier Becerra of Los Angeles, who is regarded as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s point person on immigration matters. (KPCC Radio, May 21, 2009). Both Lofgren and Becerra are outspoken supporters of amnesty. (See FAIR’s Congressional Voting Report for the 110th Congress).
The White House meeting comes at a time when nearly 14 million American workers are out of a job and desperately looking for work. (Luuliyo). The last time that Congress considered amnesty, in June 2007, unemployment stood at 4.6 percent and 7 million Americans were out of work. However, today’s unemployment rate stands at 8.9 percent, and 13.7 million Americans are out of work. (See FAIR’s Amnesty & Joblessness Report, May 2009). Amnesty would allow the estimated 8.3 million illegal aliens who are in the workforce to keep the jobs they never should have had, instead of freeing those jobs up for the American workers who need them. In addition, amnesty would give those 8.3 million illegal aliens the ability to begin openly competing for other jobs, in a time when America’s labor market is already demonstrating a lack of available jobs.