Three years ago, President Obama took advantage of John McCain's shift to the right on immigration issues (a response to the growing voice of the right flank of the Republican Party). Obama appealed to Latino voters with his embrace of immigration reform proposals and a promise to deal with immigration reform in his first year in office.
I don't need to rehash what happened, but, of course, we did not see the promised immigration reform push and only more recently have seen the White House engage on immigration issues. Plus, we've seen tougher immigration enforcement from this President than any of his recent predecessors.
Now the President is coming back with the same strategy. Many would argue that given what has happened, the President's strategy should not work. After all, after three years, virtually no progress has been made. But the GOP field of candidates is doing everything it can to deliver pro-immigration voters on a silver platter to the President. Right now, Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman are the only two relatively moderate candidates on immigration and both have been trying to backtrack on long-stated positions. So while the President can in no way campaign on having made progress on the immigration issue, he's going to try and make it a choice between the lesser of two evils.
About The Author
Greg Siskind is a partner in Siskind Susser's Memphis, Tennessee, office. After graduating magna cum laude from Vanderbilt University, he received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Chicago. Mr. Siskind is a member of AILA, a board member of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and a member of the ABA, where he serves on the LPM Publishing Board as Marketing Vice Chairman. He is the author of several books, including the J Visa Guidebook and The Lawyer's Guide to Marketing on the Internet. Mr. Siskind practices all areas of immigration law, specializing in immigration matters of the health care and technology industries. He can be reached by email at gsiskind@visalaw.com.
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