I am generally diametrically opposed to everything the Obama administration does. However, Friday's Obama immigration reform, which halts the deportation of undocumented aliens who came in the country as children, was in my opinion the needed thing to do. Here is why I think so.I am very close to a young woman who was simply brought to the United States by her mom when she was 3 years of age. She has lived in this country since that time and has never gone back to her native land. She went to elementary school, middle school, and consequently graduated from high school in the United States. She even married her high school sweetheart. They had a child together, but she divorced him when she learned he was unfaithful to her.
She is now 24 years of age. She actually is going to school in order to become a nurse, works fulltime, and is a single mom raising a five year-old boy. She has never been in trouble with the law and unlike some people who happen to be blessed to be born in the united states - like individuals involved in the Occupy Wall-Street movement - she does not complain about her situation and is grateful to reside here. Most of all, she loves the united states and dreams some day to become a citizen.
During the past year she proceeded to satisfy her wish and submitted the correct documents with the assistance of an immigration attorney, but the judge denied her application. She and her lawyer filed an appeal which was also denied. Currently, she is on her 2nd and last appeal. If she were to have lost this appeal, she would have been scheduled to be deported in November. This simply means she would have been obligated to leave the only nation she has ever known. She might have been instructed to go to a country where she knows no one and doesn't speak the language. What's more, she might also have been separated from her son as the child's dad would probably have battled for custody. As a consequence of President Obama's immigration reform, she doesn't have to dread deportation anymore, no matter if her appeal is again denied.
On a political stand point, Obama's immigration reform is definitely a success for Democrats and a failure for Republicans. This reform may at some point open a back door to citizenship for all these young immigrants who will in all probability become Democratic voters. Regardless of whether they have more in common ideologically with conservatives than liberals, they will know that it is actually a Democratic president who offered them the gift of citizenship while he was opposed by Republicans.
Francis Neima was born in Africa. He came in the United States to study Engineering and Physics. He lives in Florida with his wife and two year old daughter. His surprisingly easy-to-understand eBook, Portrait of a Liberal, describes in details how liberals like President Barack Obama are changing immigration in the United States.
