The Final State of the Union
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Summary:
See the full video, with links directly to each question, for this first-of-its-kind event engaging citizens from every angle on the immigration debate.
Yesterday afternoon, just a couple hours after the President's speech, we held a first-of-its-kind event here at the White House -- maybe anywhere? -- in which we took questions from the public on every side of the immigration debate. We hosted Cecilia Muñoz, White House Director of Intertgovernmental Affairs and one of the President’s closest advisors on the issue, along with representatives from online media outlets examining several angles of the immigration issue will be there posing the questions on the minds of their readers. Forbes, which focuses on business and economic issues; the Examiner.com network which has citizen reporters in every state including more than 50 border state communities; CNET which focuses on the tech community; and Univision.com, which has covered the immigration debate as closely as anybody for years -- all of them came with questions directly from their readers.
Watch the full video below, or jump to any question you're interested in by clicking the links underneath:
Watch the full video above or jump directly to the following sections by clicking the links below (questions are paraphrased):
- Opening remarks
- Would you explain a little more about the Dream Act and what the status is? (Examiner.com)
- Will the President support holding all businesses accountable for hiring illegal immigrants with no safe harbor provision when often times, employers think they are hiring legal citizens? (Forbes.com)
- Why won’t President Obama simply enforce the current immigration laws that he swore to uphold and defend? (Facebook)
- Is there still a shortage of math and science graduates coming out of our educational system? (CNET)
- What is your response to the idea that illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America are not furthering the President’s goals of advancing the math and science labor market in America? (Facebook)
- What is the concrete action this time, with the Comprehensive Immigration Reform, that will avoid failure? (Univision)
- There are many people that have no status but they open businesses and give jobs to Americans, what did the President say about this today? (Facebook)
- Would any new legislation sponsored by President Obama include a provision for earned legalization for individuals that have worked, paid taxes and are of good moral character? (Examiner.com)
- Why not the Dream Act as a standalone bill? (Facebook)
- What are your thoughts on the statement: “our immigration policy should reorient itself towards professionals and highly skilled tradesman...” (Forbes.com)
- If we speed up the process of administering visas, is there a danger that we could be letting in potential terrorists? (CNET)
- What happens in terms of making sure you are doing those security checks if there is already a ten-year back log? (CNET)
- Is there any chance of any kind of executive action happening soon?(Univision)
- What can we do to keep families together? (Facebook)
- Why isn’t the government doing more to target the businesses instead of the workers? (Examiner.com)
- How can we ensure that illegal immigrants will actually be accountable and what are the consequences for those who don’t come forward and admit they have broken the law? (Facebook)
- How do you encourage more highly skilled people to be here at the same time how do you encourage employment in the United States, particularly when unemployment is so high? (Forbes.com) ***
- Could you speak to those who feel that the Arizona law just repeats the federal law and enforces it? What’s wrong with that? (Facebook)
- Is the President’s plan going to strike a path for entrepreneurs who do not have a company that is backing them? (CNET)
- Why was there no timeline set for this bill? Can we expect a deadline? (Univision)
- Where does the President move from here? What’s the first thing he is looking to do right away? (Examiner.com)
- Would the administration consider dropping the per-country limit on green cards? (Forbes.com)
- Does the President have plans for addressing the issue of husbands and wives who cannot be together if one is in this country on a visa or green card and marries someone living abroad? (CNET)
- What does Comprehensive Immigration Reform have to do with the debate about illegal immigrants paying taxes? (Facebook)
*** Clarification from Cecilia: Restricting the opportunity to apply for a position to H-1B workers is plainly unlawful and preventing US workers from competing for a job opening is an obvious perversion of the program. While I misspoke when I said that employers are required to recruit U.S. workers before hiring workers with H-1B visas, employers are required to inform U.S. workers of their intent to hire a foreign worker through the H-1B program. Moreover, employers who use the program must fulfill a range of other requirements in order to protect U.S. workers. For example, they must pay the greater of the prevailing or actual wage paid to similarly situated workers so that there is no opportunity to undercut U.S. workers. Some employers clearly violate those requirements and our enforcement resources must be dedicated to ensuring the integrity of the program and cracking down on those employers. For more information on the H-1B temporary worker program, visit the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website.
