The Immigration Conundrum and Why Obama's Speech Won't Lead to Major Reforms

Save for a miracle, President Obama's nationally televised speech on immigration, broadcast Tuesday, won't lead to comprehensive reform anytime soon. It will, however, advance the conversation on one of the most explosive issues facing the United States today, which the vast majority of Americans believe needs serious fixing.

"There has been fear and resentment directed towards newcomers, especially in hard economic times," Obama said, characterizing the problem. "So we've seen a lot of blame and a lot of politics and a lot of ugly rhetoric around immigration."

The president made a moral and economic case for offering a path to citizenship (that includes punishments) for America's roughly 11 million unauthorized immigrants. It's "not just the right thing to do," he said. "It's smart for our economy." He also proposed easing up the process for skilled workers to immigrate, because "we don't want the next Intel or the next Google to be created in China or India." The blueprint he unveiled was broadly similar to President Bush's plan that was defeated in 2007.

Obama's speech was in no small part about doing damage control with Hispanics, a crucial Democratic-leaning voting bloc that feels betrayed by Obama's broken promise to push for immigration reform during his first year in office. He blamed Republicans -- not unfairly -- for declining to consider any broad overhaul of the system.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sahil-kapur/the-immigration-mess-and-_b_860338.html