With a prolonged health care debate sucking up all of the energy in Congress at the moment, there’s still some very good news for common-sense immigration reform, from the New York Times today.
Yesterday, the director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Alejandro Mayorkas, stated that the agency was preparing for the possibility of legalizing millions of undocumented immigrants. The New York Times reports:
The agency’s goal, he [Mayorkas] said, is to be ready to expand rapidly to handle the gigantic increase in visa applications it would face if the legislation, known as comprehensive immigration reform, passed Congress.
Earlier this year, Obama stated that comprehensive immigration reform would have to wait until 2010. Mayorkas’ interview, however, is a reaffirmation of the administrations’ commitment to putting the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants thought to currently reside in the country on a pathway to citizenship.
This is welcome news. Kudos to the Administration for preparing to do the right thing. Now it’s time to get the ball rolling on real immigration reform.
