President Barack Obama has raised hopes of the United States being able to enact historic immigration reforms by the end of the summer this year, but reports of rift over some aspects of the omnibus legislation are giving rise to doubts in some quarters over his optimistic timeline.
The legislation will not only deal with the issue of a path to earned citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants, including about 300,000 Indians, but also address the issue of expanding H-1B visas and faster green cards.
“If we have a bill introduced at the beginning of next month as these Senators (of an eight-member bipartisan panel) indicate it will be, then I’m confident that we can get it done certainly before the end of the summer,” Obama said in interviews to two Spanish-language television networks on Thursday.
The group of four Democratic and four Republican Senators is about to miss the March-end deadline that it had set for itself for unveiling its comprehensive immigration reform bill, giving rise to speculation of an impasse over some aspects, notably a new visa plan for low-skilled workers.
On Friday, The Washington Post reported that a worsening dispute between labour and business groups over this new guest-worker programme has emerged as the most serious obstacles to a bipartisan deal, threatening to delay the bill.
Obama, however, termed this a “resolvable” issue and not one that would doom the proposed legislation. He sees a strong possibility of the bill being unveiled when the Congress reconvenes on April 8 after the Easter recess.
“I’m actually optimistic that when they get back they will introduce a bill. My sense is that they have come close and my expectation is that we’ll actually see a bill on the floor of the Senate next month,” he said in his interview to Univision.
In similar remarks to Telemundo, Obama said: “The most important thing is that we are seeing a strong compromise to resolve the problem. I’ve got my own legislation, I’m prepared to step in, but I don’t think that’s going to be necessary.”
What precisely the “Gang of Eight”, as the bipartisan group is being called, is going to propose on various aspects remains to be seen, but in the run-up a clash has broken out between the US Chamber of Commerce and AFl-CIO, the labour conglomerate, over the visa plan for low-skilled immigrant workers.