Immigration News: Proposal for Citizenship for Undocumented Immigrants to USA

With Republican members of congress now signalling, for the first time in five years, that the party will take a serious stance on immigration reform, statistics now reflect that it was a leading contributing factor towards Obama’s re-election for a further four years.

One of the key policies put forward by President Obama was the, albeit long-stalled bill, the DREAM act, which would grant a route to citizenship for undocumented immigrants bought to the USA at a young age.

After a divisive congressional debate on immigration reform in 2006 and 2007, a wall was said to have been built between Republicans and the Hispanic voters. This was reportedly furthered by Mitt Romney’s hard line strategies surrounding immigration, which encouraged the idea of ‘self-deportation,’ an encouragement to employ tough immigration laws in order that immigrants would be forced to leave on their own terms.

Recent tracking polls targeted at the US Latino population regarding margin show that President Obama held victory over Mitt Romney by 73 percent to 21 percent. This is an improvement over Obama's 2008 performance when Latinos backed him 67-31 percent over Republican John McCain producing the largest Democratic margin since 1996.

In terms of organisation and action, however, many were disappointed with the failure of Obama to keep to his word and make immigration reform a first-term priority, with greater focus placed on steps towards solving the struggling economy.

Obama was questioned about increased unemployment rates among Latino voters and a lack of progress on immigration reform during his first term. He was then able to energise Latino voters, especially due to his implementation of a program over the summer months which provided a temporary remission from deportation to young immigrants.

Despite Romney’s attempt to moderate his rhetoric in order to generate greater support from the Latino community, his efforts were seen to have been too little too late for the 2012 election. It was Mitt Romney’s downfall, compared with Obama’s capturing of those crucial votes, which marked the rise of President Barack Obama to victory last week.

With a record Hispanic turnout, the future of the USA under Obama’s lead is expected to be one which builds upon America’s as a nation, historically, of immigrants. In the future, sights are set for a solution which considers the immigrant population’s best interests, and conducts an overhaul on stagnant and conflicting policies.