Today, the New York Times reports that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, USCIS, within the Department of Homeland Security is taking steps to prepare to process the visa applications that would be generated if comprehensive immigration reform with a broad legalization component passes the Congress in the next year. Referring to the expected surge in processing, USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas told the Times, “We are under way to prepare for that.” The following is a statement by Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum, a non-partisan, non-profit pro-immigrant advocacy organization in Washington.

The federal government is gearing up to process immigrants into the legal system and onto the tax rolls, which means the Obama Administration is serious about aligning itself to fight for immigration reform before Congress faces voters again in 2010.

We know that lawmakers in the House and Senate are developing legislative proposals and we know the commitment of Democratic leaders and the President to moving reform forward. Just last week, 111 Democrats in the House wrote to President Obama requesting immigration reform action this year. So we feel confident that a comprehensive immigration package will be unveiled this fall and will move forward early next year.

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Tags: Alejandro Mayorkas, Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Illegal Aliens, Immigration News, Immigration Reform, Undocumented Workers, USCIS

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 at 9:43 am and is filed under Comprehensive Immigration Reform, ICG Podcasts, Immigrant Visas (I-140 Petitions), Immigration Legislation, USCIS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.