Yesterday the president-elect met with his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon. While Obama's Nafta two-step has drawn the headlines, the Mexican press is reporting today that Obama committed to enacting immigration reform. My translation:
The president-elect of the United States, Barack Obama, committed to president Felipe Calderón to achieve a comprehensive immigration reform that includes family unification.
Calderon said that despite the obstacles and difficulties that exist in Congress and in U.S. public opinion, Obama is committed to advancing the implementation of immigration law for all, without exception, which addresses the situation of Mexicans already in the United States.
In this respect, Obama said his government will review the raids on undocumented, because he wants to ensure that the policy work "in a humane manner."
It's not entirely clear exactly what Obama is promising; a commitment to "family unification" is somewhat vague. In Mexico however, it will clearly be taken to indicate some form of legal status for Mexican workers in the U.S. illegally.
This commitment doesn't seem to appear in the U.S. media. Is it possible that Obama could have made such a promise without his team mentioning it to the U.S. media? If so, it would have been nice if the president-elect told the American people what he was promising to our neighbor to the south.
