Immigration Agenda

Forget jubilancy over Obama’s heath care victory, as tens of thousands rally on Capitol Hill shouting about the next major subject on the political agenda: Immigration. “Immigrant advocacy groups met with Obama a little more than a week ago to remind him of his promise to overhaul the system, including forging a path to citizenship for the 11 million now living here illegally. Their message, punctuated by Sunday’s meet-up, was not subtle: Get off the dime or lose the support of the growing Latino electorate. We’ve long favored a comprehensive approach to immigration reform — one that ensures our borders are safe, our labor needs are met and our workplaces operate fairly and legally. But Obama could be forgiven if he’d hoped to catch his breath before charging back into that battle. The last attempt to fix the system went down in flames in 2007, when the U.S. unemployment rate was less than 5 percent and employers were howling that they couldn’t find enough workers. Even then, many Americans were openly hostile to the idea of legalizing those who’d broken the law to get here.”