For President Obama, the top priority for 2014 is immigration reform. He stated that he wanted to get immigration reform done in 2013. As the year has come to a close, he believes that he will sign a reform bill in 2014.
President Obama, now vacationing in Hawaii, signed a bipartisan budget deal and a military bill into law last week. These bills were passed by the U.S. Congress with bipartisan support. This proves that both the parties will work together.
In 2006, George W. Bush pushed for immigration reform but a reform bill did not pass the U.S. Congress. The U.S. Senate in June passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill but the conservative Republicans in the House are not willing to take up that bill and vote on it. They are against the part of the Senate bill that would offer a path to U.S. citizenship for the undocumented immigrants living in America.
The House will not take up the Senate’s comprehensive bill and any movement in the chamber will be piecemeal. Bills that the House would pass may not include a path to citizenship for the undocumented immigrants but might include only a path to legal status. President Obama will support the smaller bills the House Republicans come up with as long as those bills include all the provisions that the Senate bill includes.
However, reports show that a majority of Americans are in favor of the Senate bill. Polls show that around 73 percent of Americans would support a reform bill that strengthens border security, expands non-immigrant visa programs and offers the country’s undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship in America.
President Obama believes that the House Speaker John Boehner would move the Senate immigration reform legislation forward in 2014. The bill that President Obama supports and that was passed by the Senate is a broad bill. It would boost our economy, secure the border and expand work visa programs. Most of all, it would permit the residents who are out of status and who are living illegally in America, to apply for citizenship. President Obama wants the House to pass this bill that includes all the main components of comprehensive immigration reform.