HBCUs. “There has to be a way where this new administration gives the executive director some leverage that could encourage the cooperation of federal agencies with HBCUs, whether it’s funding partnerships or contracts,” Minor says.
Immigration and the DREAM ACT Comprehensive immigration reform, heralded by Bush early in his first term, was sidelined after the Sept. 11 attacks.
A bill that would have legalized millions of undocumented immigrants finally made it onto the legislative calendar in the spring of 2007 — but failed.
Failing with it were efforts to legalize undocumented children of immigrants so they can qualify for federal aid and in-state tuition that would help make college more affordable for them.
Bush responded to the downfall of comprehensive immigration legislation by increasing crackdowns — late in his second term — of undocumented workers and the employers who hire them. The goal: increase the public trust that laws already on the books are being enforced so that legalization plans will be more palatable in the long run.
Many believe that under Obama and a predominantly Democratic Congress, more Hispanics may get a chance of attending college with the help of comprehensive immigration reform. In a questionnaire response to the League of United Latin American Citizens, Obama wrote that he’d put the issue “back on the nation’s agenda during my first year in office.”
But Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which promotes stricter immigration controls, says Obama will have even more trouble than his predecessor in passing immigration reform.
“While Obama has been committed to amnesty, so was George W. Bush and that was during a period of relative economic prosperity and low unemployment,” Mehlman says.
“There’s been something like 650,000 layoffs in the past three months … The priority for most Americans is that you get something done on the economy and try to get them back to work before you help people who violated our immigration laws.”
