CALL IT IN A GLIMPSE into the thinking of the Obama White House that can have a profound effect on the lives of thousands of West Indians.

Indeed, the ideas outlined the other day by the administration are important to people from at least 180 member-states of the United Nations.

The issue is comprehensive immigration reform.

The recent statement by Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, about the ’three-legged stool’ on which the administration’s proposed programme sits, is of immense importance.

The legs would consist of a ’tough and fair pathway to legal status’, strict enforcement of laws which bar employers from hiring illegal aliens, and a streamlined immigration system.

’Let me emphasise this,’ Napolitano told the Centre for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington. ’We will never have fully effective law enforcement or national security as long as so many millions remain in the shadows.’

The most frequently cited estimate of the undocumented is 12 million. However, no one knows how many foreign-born people are studying, working or otherwise residing in the country. It is believed that at least ten per cent of that figure came from the Spanish-, English- and French-speaking nations of the Caribbean, led by the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados in that order.

If the administration gets its plans approved by the Congress in Washington, a Bajan, Jamaican, Antiguan, Trinidadian or Haitian would, for instance, be required to register, pay a fine for being in the country illegally to begin with, show that he or she no longer owes the Internal Revenue Service any back taxes, pass a criminal background check designed to weed out people who have broken the country’s criminal laws, and be able to speak English.

Obviously, Napolitano’s ’reassuring’ words about a pathway to legalisation and ultimately citizenship were like music to the ears of the undocumented and to immigration advocates, many of whom were becoming doubtful that President Obama would live up to his campaign pledge to introduce immigration reform legislation on Capitol Hill that would overhaul the immigration system.

’We welcome Homeland Security Janet Napolitano’s statement affirming the Obama administration’s commitment to pursuing immigration reform,’ said Chung-Wha Hung, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition.

’We believe Secretary Napolitano understands that reform must treat immigrants fairly and take into account their important contribution to our communities and our economy. We are concerned, however, about the timing of reform and the administration’s embrace of Bush-era enforcement tactics.’

Dr Kendal Stewart, a West Indian and the outgoing chairman of the New York City Council’s Immigration Committee, also considers the administration’s intentions to be a move in the right direction.

’Her statements didn’t come as a surprise because we were advised it was the direction in which the administration is moving,’ said Stewart. ’When we met with President Obama several weeks ago, he indicated that a pathway to legal status and ultimately citizenship would be a cornerstone of reform. That is the correct stance to take.’

But if the pathway to citizenship, a form of amnesty, is the carrot, the rest of the programme would be the stick. For one thing, the latter emphasises enforcement over compassion in the approach to those in the country illegally. For another, they seem destined to disrupt, instead of unifying, family life while erecting tougher barriers to entry.

Of course, one can argue that the political climate and the anti-immigrant mood that has been sweeping the country for several years almost require the White House to be tough, if it’s going to gain Congressional approval by a bipartisan group in the House and Senate.

Little wonder then that in presenting a case for a significant change in approach to illegal immigration, Napolitano insisted that legalisation would boost national security; protect Americans from unfair and low-wage competition in the workplace in a time when Americans are concerned about their jobs; and would help boost the economy - factors that would appeal to the conservative right.

Understandably, the New York Immigration Coalition, which is in the forefront of the battle in New York for reform, isn’t happy with everything Napolitano said.

’We continue to struggle to reconcile the administration’s repeated statements supporting comprehensive reform on the one hand, with its devastating escalation of immigration enforcement tactics on the other, tactics which have resulted in more firings of immigrant workers, more deportations, and more fear and dislocation in immigrant communities than even under President Bush,’ stated the coalition in Manhattan.

-Courtesy Barbados Nation