Senators and President Meet: Observations from an Immigration Lawyer

There was a lot of concern amongst those focused on the subject of immigration reform, when President Obama barely mentioned the subject in his State of the Union address. I’m in the midst of immigration issues in my law practice in San Francisco.

On March 11, 2010, the President met with Senators Graham and Schumer, who are both very involved in immigration reform. Together they have a bill in the works. The issues include securing the border and establishing a biometric Social Security card. The biometric card is a high tech form of I.D. that all U.S. citizens may eventually carry.

Two other issues that would greatly affect immigration lawyers and those with whom they are working would be the creation of a temporary worker program and a method for dealing with undocumented immigrants who are already in the country.

The President, it’s been reported, was friendly but also noted that he needed time to review all of the issues. The reform legislation is sweeping and the Senators are concerned that with health reform being hotly debated and various groups opposing some of the immigration reforms that the process will slow down or immigration reform will be completely knocked off course.

This immigration lawyer sees that important immigration reform could be delayed a year or more. Obama also met with immigration supporters and labor leaders and with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and religious leaders on these issues. There are many different forces at work that will determine how those in the San Francisco area and other parts of California are affected.

President Obama noted, “Today I met with Senators Schumer and Graham and was pleased to learn of their progress in forging a proposal to fix our broken immigration system.” He added, “I look forward to reviewing their promising framework, and every American should applaud their efforts to reach across party lines and find common sense answers to one of our most vexing problems.”

If reform does go through, it will have an impact on just about every area of American life and it will give those who want to come to this country and those already here but undocumented, some new positive alternatives. It will certainly have an affect on my immigration law practice in San Francisco. I’ll continue to diligently monitor and report on developments in immigration law reform in this blog.

Please contact the Ranchod Law Group with offices in San Francisco, San Jose Bay Area and Sacramento California, if you have any questions regarding immigration reform or present immigration law. We represent clients throughout the fifty states. To schedule a consultation contact us at 415-986-6186 or at info@ranchodlaw.com.
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