Politics
Obama hints at deal for undocumented Caribbean immigrants
US President Barack Obama has hinted that he may accept a deal offering undocumented Caribbean and other immigrants legal status rather than full citizenship. In a CNN interview, Obama said, “If the speaker (of the House of Representatives) proposes something that says right away: Folks aren’t being deported, families aren’t being separated, we’re able to attract top young students to provide the skills or start businesses here and then there’s a regular process of citizenship, I’m not sure how wide the divide ends up being.”
Obama went on to say, “The question is, is there more that we can do in this legislation that gets both Democratic and Republican support, but solves these broader problems, including strengthening borders and making sure that we have a legal immigration system that works better than it currently does.”
The president also said that under his immigration reform plan, illegal Caribbean and other immigrants would still have to go through “a very long process of earning citizenship” by learning English, paying back taxes and going “to the back of the line.” During his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Obama urged the US Congress to enact immigration reform that will allow the more than 10 million immigrants without legal status, including Caribbean nationals, to apply for temporary legal status and, eventually, United States citizenship.
His address was welcomed by Caribbean American Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke, who had written to him on several occasions, urging him to suspend deportation of Caribbean immigrants. “A policy of comprehensive immigration reform will also support our economy by preventing the exploitation of workers who lack legal status despite, in some instances, living in the United States for almost their entire lives,” Clarke told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).
