President Obama plans to push Congress to move on an ambitious overhaul of the immigration system by proposing the changes in one comprehensive bill, administration officials and lawmakers have said.
The overhaul would include a path for citizenship for most of the 11 million illegal immigrants in the US, The New York Times reports. The issue is one of the administration's top priorities.
Read More: No deportation of Immigrants arrested for minor crimes say authorities
Irish lobbyists will be pushing hard for inclusion of the E3 visa scheme, a 10,000 per year non immigrant work visa program already granted to Australia.
“We will definitely be fighting hard for our undocumented and those who want to emigrate legally," said Ciaran Staunton, President of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform.
Officials have said that Obama and Senate Democrats will resist efforts by some Republicans to break the changes into smaller, individual issues by separately addressing young illegal immigrants, migrant workers, and highly skilled foreigners.
Read More: Over 72,0000 undocumented immigrants apply for deportation relief
Obama's plan for immigration overhaul, which he is expected to lay out in the coming weeks, will "include fines, the payment of back taxes and other hurdles for illegal immigrant who would obtain legal status." The plan "would also impose impose nationwide verification of legal status for all newly hired workers; add visas to relieve backlogs and allow highly skilled immigrants to stay; and create some form of guest-worker program to bring in low-wage immigrants in the future," reports The New York Times.
A bipartisan group of senators have been meeting to write the bill and hope to introduce legislation as early as March, holding a vote in the Senate and House before August.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.seanomelb | Jan 17, 2013, 06:01 PM EST
How many Americans work in the fields bonjouryall??Maybe it's because of the lousy pay!!! BTW the safety net pay in the U.S. is equivelent to what teenagers earn in McDonalds in Australia(Safety net in Aus. is $620 per week).
anglo-norman | Jan 16, 2013, 08:27 PM EST
seanomelb- SAD
bonjouryall | Jan 16, 2013, 07:58 PM EST
It seems that seanomelb has bought into Bush's notion that immigrants only take jobs Americans' don't want. That's just a carryover from the plantation mentality. Get dark skinned people to do the menial work for real cheap rather than pay a fair wage.
feeneycj | Jan 16, 2013, 05:55 PM EST
Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder for anyone to get a job. But we should at least legalize the immigrants who intend to stay. Obama will provide a path for illegals to get citizenship, then once they are citizens he will tax the heck out of them. A win-win for Obama.
feeneycj | Jan 16, 2013, 05:55 PM EST
Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder for anyone to get a job. But we should at least legalize the immigrants who intend to stay. Obama will provide a path for illegals to get citizenship, then once they are citizens he will tax the heck out of them. A win-win for Obama.
feeneycj | Jan 16, 2013, 05:55 PM EST
Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder for anyone to get a job. But we should at least legalize the immigrants who intend to stay. Obama will provide a path for illegals to get citizenship, then once they are citizens he will tax the heck out of them. A win-win for Obama.
feeneycj | Jan 16, 2013, 05:48 PM EST
Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder for anyone to get a job. But we should at least legalize the immigrants who intend to stay. Obama will provide a path for illegals to get citizenship, then once they are citizens he will tax the heck out of them. A win-win for Obama.
feeneycj | Jan 16, 2013, 05:48 PM EST
Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder for anyone to get a job. But we should at least legalize the immigrants who intend to stay. Obama will provide a path for illegals to get citizenship, then once they are citizens he will tax the heck out of them. A win-win for Obama.
feeneycj | Jan 16, 2013, 05:48 PM EST
Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder for anyone to get a job. But we should at least legalize the immigrants who intend to stay. Obama will provide a path for illegals to get citizenship, then once they are citizens he will tax the heck out of them. A win-win for Obama.
feeneycj | Jan 16, 2013, 05:48 PM EST
Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder for anyone to get a job. But we should at least legalize the immigrants who intend to stay. Obama will provide a path for illegals to get citizenship, then once they are citizens he will tax the heck out of them. A win-win for Obama.
feeneycj | Jan 16, 2013, 05:48 PM EST
Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder for anyone to get a job. But we should at least legalize the immigrants who intend to stay. Obama will provide a path for illegals to get citizenship, then once they are citizens he will tax the heck out of them. A win-win for Obama.
feeneycj | Jan 16, 2013, 05:47 PM EST
Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder for anyone to get a job. But we should at least legalize the immigrants who intend to stay. Obama will provide a path for illegals to get citizenship, then once they are citizens he will tax the heck out of them. A win-win for Obama.
seanomelb | Jan 16, 2013, 05:35 PM EST
They are already their megK311 doing jobs Americans would not do because it was beneath their false dignity. you make no sense
MegK311 | Jan 15, 2013, 10:40 PM EST
There are so many Americans out of work so why do we need immigrants at this time. Lets put Americans back to work before bringing more people into the country. I am an immigrant and I am not against immigration but there are more important things we need to deal with at the moment like getting the unemployed jobs.
seanomelb | Jan 15, 2013, 04:14 PM EST
Correct katiejerk!! he promised a lot but a hostile racist lower house thwarted every move he made.
pilib04 | Jan 15, 2013, 09:05 AM EST
For those who forgot there was an election and not only did a absolute majority vote for the President, but Democrats won the majority of votes cast for the United States House of Representatives as well as the Senate. Gerrymandering permitted Republicans to keep control of the House, but it does not contradict the fact that the American people supported the Obama and Democratic agenda. A major part of the Obama campaign was immigration reform. Even the GOP leaders are backing away from the type of xenophobia displayed on this board.
Seanmor | Jan 15, 2013, 08:57 AM EST
Now that we are in the midst of a severe economic recession which has left 200,000 veterans jobless and homeless, our senators and congressmen should give these unfortunate ones who honorably served the nation a much higher priority than is being suggested for illegal aliens who continually violate our laws by living here unlawfully.
wjb1tex | Jan 15, 2013, 08:40 AM EST
"seanomelb | Jan 14, 2013, 04:44 PM EST If the GOP wish to reach out to the latinos they should embrace Obamas plan to prove they are serious about the latino vote"------------------------------------------- Eisenhower gave amnesty to millions of Mexicans and in the next election lost the Hispanic vote by the widest margin ever. Republicans can embrace the Obama plan and no one will remember that they did. It will always be Obama did it over the objections of the Republicans.
seanomelb | Jan 14, 2013, 10:26 PM EST
bonjouryall!! does that incude non-Christian and/or dark Europeans??? or is the question to hard for you.
bonjouryall | Jan 14, 2013, 09:27 PM EST
Most white Americans have been convinced by liberals that "diversity" i.e. darker skinned people are better. Why settle for a pale imitation? But Obama may throw a bone to the Irish so we all should be happy with that. Personally, I think liberals are very prejudiced and I would welcome unlimited crossovers between America and all the European countries.
Seanmor | Jan 14, 2013, 08:27 PM EST
Jimsales: Sadlyand unfortunately your short comment is largely true.If members of both Houses who deal with Obama's immigration reform were to fully recognize the many contributions immigrants from Ireland have made to this nation over the centuries, the new Immigration Bill would open the door wide for Irish immigrants once again. I could write many pages on this subject, but I'll only mention that the first Sunday I was in basic training as a marine recruit in Parris Island, I met another recruit who said he'd prefer to be fishing in the River Maigue (near Croom),as he often did in his younger days. He later became a machinegunner in my company at Camp Lejune, NC.
merefalow | Jan 14, 2013, 07:15 PM EST
11million votes,just like that,with a wave of a pen,not a bad stratedgey for gaining perpetual office for a one time minority.how long before it will happen in europe.
seanomelb | Jan 14, 2013, 05:54 PM EST
Jimmy!jimmy!jimmy! you've got to do better than that.
Jimsales74 | Jan 14, 2013, 05:00 PM EST
The only way that Obama will help the Irish is if they start speaking Spanish AND convert to Islam.
seanomelb | Jan 14, 2013, 04:44 PM EST
If the GOP wish to reach out to the latinos they should embrace Obamas plan to prove they are serious about the latino vote. Everybody should pay tax and the billions garnered from illegal latinos helps keep the overall tax lower and a bonus for you Fenneycj9always look on the brght side of life).
TisEyerish | Jan 14, 2013, 03:37 PM EST
This is NOT the direction we should be going in. All illegals, no matter what country they are from, should immediately be deported. Wake up, America, your homeland is being destroyed from within.
feeneycj | Jan 14, 2013, 10:55 AM EST
Obama will provide a path for illegals to get citizenship, then once they are citizens he will tax the heck out of them. A win-win for Obama.
bunchesofun | Jan 14, 2013, 10:05 AM EST
I would dearly love it if we would allow more visas for people from Ireland and the UK and less from middle eastern and Asian countries.