Today’s 3 White House Meetings on Immigration and What Needs to Happen By March 21st

America's Voice Blog

Posted 03/11/10 at 12:05pm

Today’s 3 White House Meetings on Immigration and What Needs to Happen By March 21st

Update (1:05 EST): President Obama will now be showing up at the grassroots meeting at 1pm.

Update (12:45 EST): The grassroots meeting is at 1pm EST not 12:30 pm, as originally reported. The 3pm meeting with Schumer and Graham had originally been scheduled for Monday evening.

While pundits have been busy pronouncing immigration reform dead, today the White House is busy hosting-- not one-- but three meetings on immigration in response to the increasing volume of grassroots pressure to see progress on the President's promise to overhaul our dysfunctional immigration system.

At 1:00 pm EST, White House leaders will meet with grassroots leaders, including representatives from the faith community, local coalitions, and labor. They will meet with senior White House staff, while Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) will meet with President Obama at 3 p.m. to discuss the senators’ efforts to develop bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

The Hill is also reporting that the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is meeting with the President today to discuss health care and immigration:

One Hispanic House Democrat described Thursday’s meeting with Obama as “critical to him fully understanding our thinking, our understanding his, and all of us figuring out how we go forward on both this healthcare bill and immigration reform as a whole.”

What advocates are asking is whether these meetings will lead to concrete action-- in advance of the culmination of these grassroots efforts in the March 21st "March for America." On March 21st, tens of thousands of Americans will stand up to demand prompt action on comprehensive immigration reform and a fairer economy for all workers. It seems this increased activity and frustration is being heard.

NCLR's Clarissa Martinez has argued that the White House meeting must be followed by "a clear, bipartisan proposal and a firm timeline for Senate action." She argues:

Anything less will be regarded as more stalling by the tens of thousands coming to DC to march in two weeks.

Today, NCLR stated in, "For Latinos in 2010, the Word is Accountability:"

“For the president, the pressure is on and the need is great. Latino voters are demanding accountability. We want to see concrete action and a commitment to moving forward on legislation before the November elections—and not just another meeting to discuss the issue or check the box saying that the president is serious about immigration reform.

“We must do everything we can to get our economy back on track, and doing so includes passing immigration reform that levels the playing field for all workers and restores dignity and the rule of law to our system. The president has acknowledged that we must fix our broken immigration system, and he promised, to do so, but we have not seen much action to accompany his words. It is significant that he is putting a series of immigration-related meetings on his schedule this week, but these need to result in actually advancing bipartisan legislation.

On that front, Latino voters are in a position to impact over 40 close House and Senate races in 2010, and they are increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress on immigration reform in Congress.

One question that many Latino organizations are asking is, in a year when turnout clearly matters, can Congress and the Administration afford not to make good on promises to advance comprehensive immigration reform? Not to mention, the majority of Americans who are fed up with Washington inaction on immigration.