The New Push For Immigration Reform

The big new push for immigration reform. We’re looking at what’s on the table and the path ahead.

What a difference an election makes on immigration. Two months ago Mitt Romney lost talking “self-deportation.” Obama won talking Dream Act. The Latino vote mattered.

And suddenly Republicans and Democrats – in the Senate anyway – are talking major immigration reform. Tough but fair, they say. With a path to citizenship. Eleven million undocumented immigrants are watching very closely. So are House Republicans, who aren’t so sure.

This hour, On Point: The big new push for immigration reform. What’s really on the table. Where it may go.
-Tom Ashbrook

Alan Gomez, immigration reporter for USA Today. You can read his latest article here. (@alangomez)

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center of Immigration Studies.

Marshall Fitz, director of immigration policy at the Center for American Progress. (@marshallfitz)

USA Today "From the halls of Congress to the streets of Los Angeles, supporters of a plan to legalize the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants celebrated a rare glimmer of hope Monday as a bipartisan group of legislators outlined a broad plan to overhaul the nation's immigration laws for the first time in a generation."

CNN "Undocumented immigrants would be able to seek legal status without first going home under a compromise framework floated Monday by a bipartisan group of senators, according to a source familiar with the plan."

Los Angeles Times "Senators from both parties are expressing enthusiasm for pushing a comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s immigration system. But while immigration politics appears to have changed in the wake of sweeping Republican rejection by Latino voters last year, the math in the Senate may remain a challenge."