Oh My, Obama: Immigration Reform, Too?

After his presidency, Barack Obama should be fully prepared to become a professional juggler. The economy. Health care. Education. Energy. Now immigration reform. And that’s a partial list.

According to White House officials quoted in the New York Times, President Obama has added immigration reform to his list of things to do in 2009. He wants a path for illegal immigrants to become legal and a policy that controls immigration and makes it an orderly system.

The president has at least two categories of critics when it comes to immigration reform. First, there are those who say he already has way too many balls in the air. In addition to the issues mentioned above, Iraq and Afghanistan haven’t gone anywhere. Second, there are those who disagree with Obama on his approach to immigration reform and will fight him tooth and nail. To be sure, it’s one of the most divisive issues there is.

One thing sometimes overlooked by this second category is that dealing appropriately with illegals already in the country isn’t the only immigration reform issue in play. U.S. immigration rules make it difficult (some would argue virtually impossible) for companies to legally hire immigrants and move them into the country. For example, many of the world’s best engineers aren’t American citizens. They’re not about to sneak across the border, but they do want to enter the country legally and perform much needed services for high-profile tech companies. They rarely can because of restrictive immigration policies. 

When a candidate, Obama expressed confidence that he could do many things at once. We’re about to see whether his confidence can translate into action. It’s true that he’s juggling a lot of issues. It’s also true that all these issues, especially immigration, need fixing.