Obama’s draft immigration plan draws flack

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A day after Obama administration’s ambitious immigration plan that can pave way for some 11 million illegal immigrants, including nearly 2.5 lakh Indians, to become legal permanent residents in the US, was leaked, the proposal was labelled “dead on arrival”.

The plan, first reported by USA Today, included an eight-year path to permanent residency, and eventually citizenship, for illegal immigrants. The new legislation have drawn sharp reaction, particularly from the four Republican senators who joined four Democratic senators last month, to form a bipartisan group chalking out the general outlines of a new immigration plan.

A member of the so called ‘Gang of Eight’, Republican senator Marc Rubio termed the bill “dead on arrival”.

“It fails to follow through on previously broken promises to secure our borders, (and) creates a special pathway that puts those who broke our immigration laws at an advantage over those who chose to do things the right way and come here legally,” Rubio said. “It would actually make our immigration problems worse.”

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul said the plan is untenable and so outside of what the country wants that it suggests Obama is not sincere about passing immigration reform.

“The President is torpedoing his own plan. It shows me he is really not serious. The bill won’t pass,” Paul told Fox News.

The department of homeland security in its report released in March 2012, estimated that there were 240,000 illegal immigrants from India in 2011, which are now going to benefit if this new plan is passed.

Among the Asian countries, India is ranked third when it comes to illegal immigrants after China (280,000) and Philippines (270,000). India has registered quite an increase in illegal immigrants, which was about 120,000 in 2000, said the report of the department of homeland security.

However, Mexico alone accounts the maximum 6.8 million illegal immigrants and thus how to secure the US-Mexico border has been a major bone of contention between Democrats and republican, whenever an immigration plan was discussed.

“Without addressing future flow, by giving advantage to those who cut in front of line for immigrants who came here legally, not dealing with border security adequately, that tells us that he’s(Obama) looking for a partisan advantage and not a bipartisan solution,” Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s running mate in the 2012 presidential race, told ABC.