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City Club of Cleveland - The Melting Pot Boiling Point: Immigration Debate in America
Chief, Citizenship & Immigration Services Office of Policy and Strategy, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration
Immigration reform and securing the U.S.-Mexican border have become hot button issues for leaders in Washington. On May 15, 2006, President Bush released his plan for comprehensive immigration reform in a rare televised speech from the Oval Office. In that address, he called on the nation and Congress to find a "rational middle ground" on immigration. The plan outlined five objectives: securing the borders, which includes dispatching 6,000 National Guard troops to the border; creating a temporary worker program; holding employers accountable for workers; dealing with millions of illegal immigrants already here; and honoring the American tradition of the melting pot.
Should illegal immigrants have a path to citizenship? How should a guest worker program be developed? Are immigrants an asset or threat to the American economy? How does the War on Terror fit into the picture? What is an appropriate border policy for a region of the nation so closely linked culturally and economically to its neighbor?
Carlos Iturregui is responsible for making policy recommendations, performing policy research and analysis on all national immigration services issues, and ensuring that policies developed for USCIS are pursuing the Department of Homeland Security main objective: keeping the homeland secure. He received his law degree from the Inter American School of Law in Puerto Rico and pursued graduate law studies in Immigration and International Law at the Georgetown University Law Center and Land Use Planning at Harvard Law School.
June 5, 2006