Harry Reid pledged that Congress would take up an immigration reform bill by the end of this year, but Ed Morrissey points out that the White House is trying to squelch any expectations that an immigration bill will come up soon, with health care and cap and trade dominating Obama's domestic agenda.
As the recession has reduced the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States, the issue hasn't been in the news much. Immigration groups, however, are still clamoring for Obama to follow through on his pledge to change the law. One of the more interesting proposals, as Morrissey notes, is the Red Card Solution being promoted by Helen Kreible. The plan, which has earned praise from Newt Gingrich and Mike Pence, would set up private firms, funded by employers of guest workers, south of the border that would match workers with employers in the United States. While the plan would help create an equilibrium between the supply and demand for foreign labor, I doubt that the federal government would allow private firms to be responsible for security background checks on prospective workers, as the video pitch for the Red Card Solution suggests.
