by SophiaRay

Created on: July 05, 2010   Last Updated: July 07, 2010

How are Immigration Talks and the State of the Economy Connected?

President Obama recently started talking about the Immigration Reform. Some politicians and journalist say that it is because of the impending mid-term elections. They speculate that Obama is trying to buy favors with the Latino electorate so that he could ensure their support during the elections. This is one possible explanation and may very well have added motivation behind the push for immigration now. Others argue that the best time to tackle the Immigration Reform is not now but after the mid-term elections, when Obama will be running for his second term.

There is however, another possible explanation for the revived interest in the fate of the illegal immigrants. It has nothing to do with the compassionate concern that the Democrats are trying to sell to the public and everything to do with the state of America's economy.  In 2007-2008, when President Bush started pushing for immigration, it left the Republican Party and many sensible people a little baffled as to why he would do something so unpopular with his party supporters at the end of his mandate. The debate was fierce and somehow the journalists forgot to ask the important question, “Why now and why the Republicans?” Again the explanation was connected with the elections, but the debates only made Bush less popular. The real reason that political commentators failed to see was the gloomy forecast about the economy of the country.

Though the public was unaware, the American economy was heading down and the Bush Administration was looking for a quick fix that could result in a temporary spike in the economy just in time for the elections. The Immigration Reform was calling for 12 million immigrants to pay $5,000 dollars each in fines which would roughly amount to about 60 billion dollars coming in a very short amount of time into the budget. The legalization of these people would encourage them to buy houses, cars, furniture here and settle more permanently which additionally would stimulate the economy.

When the Immigration Reform Bill did not pass, thousands maybe even a couple of million illegal immigrants lost hope about living in the “promised land.” Instead of settling, they decided to save as much as they could and leave when things got very difficult. They stopped buying houses. The houses that were bought were refinanced to interest only loans. If they couldn't refinance, they simply stopped

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