from Zmag
By Joseph Nevins

In a November 13 speech to the Center for American Progress in Washington, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano made clear that President Obama's administration intends to move forward soon on legislation that would bring about "an immigration system that works." The administration, she promised, "will pursue reforms" true to an American identity as "both a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws." In this way, Napolitano asserted, Congress and the White House would avoid the pitfalls of the "one-sided" reforms of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. "The enforcement part of the equation was promised," she said, referring to portrayals of the 1986 legislation by its proponents, "but it didn't materialize."[1]

Napolitano's announcement seems to have countered much of the conventional wisdom, and even the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, who let it be known that immigration reform—what he has called the "third rail" of American politics—would be off the table during Obama's first four years. According to this view, the administration would likely wait at least until after the midterm elections, if not until a second Obama term, before moving on the matter for fear that the political fallout would hurt the electoral prospects of Democrats.

The administration's apparent new willingness to take on immigration reform might seem like a ray of light in an increasingly bleak landscape for immigrants, especially of the unauthorized variety. But at a time of a deep economic downturn, and with anti-immigrant sentiment strongly in the air, the challenges are daunting, to say the least, in terms of Congress passing legislation aimed at easing the repressive laws and exclusion endured by immigrants.

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