We are going to Washington in a new White House push for immigration reform. The president will meet with two senators on Monday who've been attempting to craft a bipartisan bill. But can lawmakers come to a consensus on such a hot-button issue in an election year or are we in for a bruising battle that could play out just like health reform round two? NBC's Mike Viqueira is at the White House. Good morning, Mike.
Morning, Alex.
As we loo...
There's been a lot of pic....Go ahead.
no, no, just looking all at the health reform, this isn't a done deal yet, so if we look at the timeline, thinking here, what's that?
Yeah, I mean there is a lot of undercurrent here, a lot of play behind the scenes. I mean whatever happens to immigration reform, it was actually the Bush administration if you recall that tried to bring it up, the guest worker program derided by many as amnesty for people who are here working illegally.
The path to citizenship, so-called for a lot of those same people, granting visas to fill in the holes in the American labor force from people from other countries, particularly Central and South America, turned out to be such a volatile, such a polarizing issue. We saw demonstrations in the streets on both sides. Now many of the Obama administration's core supporters are asking what about the promises to pick up that baton, what about the promises to act on immigration reform. There is a big march, another march scheduled here on March 21st for supporters of immigration reform.
And to that end, now the president sets to meet with two key senators who are trying to forge a bipartisan compromise on the issue, Chuck Schumer of New York and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, not expected to be a big splashing meeting here at the White House on Monday. But going to be meeting with them, nonetheless, as people are agitating now for the Obama administration to move forward. But because it is such a risky political issue, it's hard to see where it goes from here, very few Republicans obviously are gonna be on board. Schumer is said to be having difficulty finding another Republican co-sponsor along with Lindsey Graham, and there are gonna be many Democrats who are gonna be very reluctant to take up this issue now after this bruising battle over healthcare reform which is going to see them suffering in the polls come November during those mid-term elections. Alex.
Yeah. I'm still kind of scratching my head as the timing of all this, not the content, the timing. That's for sure. All right, Mike Viqueira, thank you so much.
Certainly.
