Is the Obama Administration preparing to torpedo plans for comprehensive immigration reform this year in exchange for a series of lesser interim reforms? I'm trying to read the tea leaves and am really curious about something Vice President Biden said on his recent Central America trip.

"It's difficult to tell a constituency while unemployment is rising, they're losing their jobs and their homes, that what we should do is in fact legalize (illegal immigrants) and stop all deportation," Biden told a news conference in the Costa Rican capital.

"We believe, the president and I, that this problem can only be solved in the context of an overall immigration reform," Biden said, asked about the chances of extending temporary migrant protection programs.

"We need some forbearance as we try to put together a comprehensive approach to deal with this."

I've never heard the term "forbearance" used in the immigration context before. Dictionary.com says it means "an abstaining from the enforcement of a right". I know banks use the term when they allow a borrower to put off making payments on a loan.

Perhaps Biden is talking about ending work site raids for a while, something that many observers think will happen. But does this really do much other than end some of the disturbing images we've seen on television? Unless we get in to a Great Depression situation (where the unemployment rate was about triple the current rate), we're not likely going to be in a situation where nearly enough Americans are available to replace the millions of immigrants currently working around the US without proper documentation. And G-d help us if that becomes the case since the jobs filled by these folks are bottom rung positions and this would certainly not bode well for the long term prospects of an economic superpower.

But perhaps the Vice President also means looking at a policy that offers a very limited form of relief to those millions of workers beyond a raid moratorium until the economic situation in the country is better. Former House Immigration Subcommittee Minority Counsel Nolan Rappaport and I wrote an article recently calling for a relief similar to Temporary Protected Status for those workers that would provide a short term employment card that would also allow for travel in and out of the country. And that's it. No path to a green card or citizenship. No right to bring over relatives. Just some interim relief until economic times are better and Congress is ready to deal with something more comprehensive.

This might also explain why the DREAM Act was just reintroduced. Is the AgJobs bill and maybe an employment immigration reform measure benefiting STEM workers coming as well? Perhaps the plan is to do something short of full scale reform that will include some of the key reforms on the table for the last few years. Perhaps these proposals would be bundled with some key reforms that the enforcement advocates want to see such as permanently reauthorizing e-Verify and requiring its use by US employers and getting a social security no-match system in place. US employers are more likely to be able to handle massive changes like these if workers have employment documents as noted above.

The question may be whether immigration activists on both sides of the debate are willing to compromise and accept proposals short of what they've envisioned? Will they decide that there is still a good chance to get a whole deal? Will they decide the status quo is a better alternative than partial reform?